Our research - Reckoning Science

Our research

When a Chatbot Says Water Is More Dangerous Than Glyphosate

Half the world now uses generative AI assistants (Stanford HAI, 2026). Many of the queries ordinary people ask land on questions about science, including the contested-science topics this newsletter covers. So we decided to check something simple: how do these everyday AI assistants answer? Do they give consistent answers? How

In the Field Creator by Ivan Žabota 1895/1915 - Slovak national gallery, Slovakia - Public Domain.

Our research

“Everybody's business is nobody's business, and nobody's business is my business”

The editor told us that we were the first ones to ask for retraction.

Our research

Unspoken Crisis: What Our Analysis of 700,000 U.S. Catholic Services Did Not Find

Climate change is no longer a distant “global issue.” It is local emergencies that carry the names of friends and neighbors. Heat waves, wildfires, flash floods, and other extreme weather events are becoming more frequent worldwide and more attributable to climate change. And yet, hardly anyone is talking about it,

Scientists’ political donations reflect polarization in academia – with implications for the public’s trust in science

People who lean left politically reported an increase in trust in scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic, while those who lean right politically reported much lower levels of trust in scientists. This polarization around scientific issues – from COVID-19 to climate change to evolution – is at its peak since surveys started tracking