Welcome to “Cross-Check,” my free online journal. I call it a journal because blogs are dead, or so I hear, and “journal” captures the personal, not to say self-indulgent, style in which I tend to write. This journal is free in two senses: you can read it for free, and I am free to write what I like.

I considered various names for this journal: “Horganism” (my Twitter handle). "Mind-Body Problems" (because everything is a mind-body problem, if you think about it). “Unscientific Unamerican” (how disgruntled Scientific American subscribers have addressed me). “Disgusting Flaccid Balls of Bile Disguised as Honest Argument” (how a fellow writer characterized my writing—see comments on this post if you‘re curious).

I’m going with “Cross-Check” for sentimental reasons. I wrote a blog called “Cross-Check” for Scientific American from 2010 to 2020, when the magazine retired its blogs and I became a guest columnist. I loved writing for Cross-Check, because Scientific American gave me almost complete freedom. But I was never entirely free, and several years ago Scientific American put my posts behind a paywall. This new Cross-Check is free in both senses.

“Cross-Check” is also my way of remembering my buddy Robert Hutchinson, who died in 2021. It was Robert who, knowing my fondness for pond hockey, suggested back in 2010 that I call my blog “Cross-Check.” In hockey, a cross-check is a dirty move, which involves whacking your opponent with your stick. “Cross-Check” also describes my style of science journalism, which can be bumptious—but not, I like to think, dirty.

I’ve made a living whacking experts, people with doctorates and tenure and so on. I’m especially hard on scientists touting flimsily supported big ideas, from the many-worlds interpretation to the deep-roots theory of war. And yet I lack expertise in anything, and my default state is befuddlement. Sometimes my know-it-all/know-nothing schtick seems contradictory even to me, but I just call things as I see them.

So what’s the point of this journal? It’s not to make money, and I long ago gave up the illusion that my writing can change the world; I can’t even get my students to agree with me that war can and must end, and I hold the power of grades over them!

I keep writing because it makes me feel good. Writing helps me untangle my thoughts, so I can see more clearly. I also like being read. Readers serve as a reality check: Am I full of shit or onto something? Feel free to tell me via email (horganism3@gmail.com), social media (I’m on Facebook as well as Twitter) or comments on journal entries.

I post new material here as well as stuff previously published on ScientificAmerican.com; I want to set that paywalled content free! If you want to know when I’ve posted something new, follow @horganism on Twitter/X or, better yet, use “Subscribe” below to get email notifications. Below are my columns so far.

About Cross-Check, John Horgan’s Free Journal

About Cross-Check,
John Horgan’s Free Journal