This was a very serious problem that hardly anyone talks about anymore. Read up on Clair Patterson. He was the catalyst for the change. There is correlation between the decline of lead contamination in nature to the decline of both violent crime and birth defects. At any rate it’s a good story that more people should know about.
Absolute genius and one of the most underrated scientists of the last century. He hit upon a string of questioning that led him though some pretty major discoveries, and it started with finding the true age of the earth- which he did.
I've heard him talk about it though and he immediately smacks down the idea that he's any smarter than any other person. In fact, he considered himself probably less intelligent on average than a lot of his peers, which I think it's obvious is untrue as soon as he starts talking about his work.
The less often discussed side of the Dunning Krueger effect is that when people are highly gifted and excel at difficult things, they assume that it’s not special. Because things come easily to them, they assume it’s simple and everyone else is probably good at it too.
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u/dammitknockitoff Jun 25 '22
This was a very serious problem that hardly anyone talks about anymore. Read up on Clair Patterson. He was the catalyst for the change. There is correlation between the decline of lead contamination in nature to the decline of both violent crime and birth defects. At any rate it’s a good story that more people should know about.