La Clairière

La Clairière

Seeing clearly: sourced texts to distinguish what is convincing from what is true.

I love debates. But I have often seen that a debate goes nowhere as long as no one has solid evidence, or lived experience of the subject. On social media, many people offer as proof a scientific article they once came across. Science remains valuable for answering a question, and I like to complement it with deeper philosophical reflection, informed by current events, that confirms or refutes an idea.

And sometimes I have felt at a loss when faced with an unfamiliar question, or I remembered a few facts without being able to cite their source. That is what struck me. I told myself I had to be able to tell true from false, so that I would stop being taken in and could hold a debate that gets to the bottom of things.

As I dig, I realize that often I do not know. We carry preconceptions that come from our parents, our background, or the people we meet, and we know very little about a subject before we have really plunged into it. When I look harder at a question, a whole universe unfolds beneath my feet: it is not all black or all white, it is gray, and some things I was always taught are false. That forces me to question the knowledge I thought I was born with.

I write for anyone who asks the questions I have asked myself, and who wants to go further than a sterile debate with someone who stays locked in their beliefs. I write for all the people who want to take the time to dig for themselves, to go and find the sources and read the scientific studies, and who have the honesty to question what they know, or what they think they know.

watched over by Le Veilleur

Follow the lantern (in French) →

All the texts

Walk down the path: the lantern lights the texts one by one.

Each text starts from a question people actually ask. It presents the argument in its strongest form, then checks it. Every passage that makes a claim cites its source, discreetly, in parentheses. It leads to the study, with its author, its year and what it measured.

Believing, doubting, checking

  1. Ancient bans: a matter of hygiene?Some religious or traditional rules acquire a health reason after the fact: pork is said to be forbidden because the pig keeps its toxins, and sleeping on the right side is said to spare the heart. Physiologists, doctors who treat reflux and sleep disorders, and anthropologists have each measured, in their own field, these claims about the body.
  2. What does "Dieu" tell us about early beliefs?The French word "Dieu" belongs to a very old family of words. Its history intersects with that of a stone sanctuary in Turkey, older than agriculture, and that of the beliefs of hunter-gatherers.
  3. Why does leaving religion hurt so much?Years after ceasing to believe, certain fears and certain reflexes remain. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and scholars of sacred texts have studied these intuitions that outlive faith.

Body, health, emotions

  1. Why does rejection scare us so much?A phone you dare not pick up, a room you dare not enter. Researchers have studied where this fear comes from, how it takes hold of the body, and how it recedes.
  2. What does falling testosterone prove?Testosterone is reputed to be the hormone of male strength and dominance. Researchers have measured its link with aggression, competition and submission, and have tracked men's levels for decades.
  3. Do peptides promote cancer?The word "peptide" brings together diabetes medications followed in thousands of patients, vials sold "for research," and skincare creams. Researchers have studied their link with cancer, one molecule at a time.

Our lives and our tools

  1. What does a filter do to your water?A water filter is a block of carbon, a membrane or a distillation tank placed between the tap and the glass. Researchers have measured the substances these devices remove from water, and sometimes the ones they add to it.
  2. Does sorting your waste do any good?Sorting your waste means separating glass, paper, aluminium or plastic at home so that each goes to its own recycling stream. Researchers and statistical offices have followed these materials after the bin: the share that becomes a raw material again, the energy it saves and the losses along the way.
  3. Why do we miss our twenties?Nostalgia is the mix of sweetness and longing that comes when we think back to a period of our lives. Psychologists have counted the memories adults keep from each age and measured the effect of nostalgia on mood. Demographers, for their part, have tried to separate what comes from age from what comes from the era.
  4. Does encrypted mean private?Apps promise that our messages and our files are encrypted, and others reply that everything ends up with the tech giants or the state anyway. Cryptographers, computer scientists who have tried to find people in so-called anonymous files, judges, and the companies themselves, in their own documentation, have written down how far these promises reach, and where they stop.
  5. Can you change your life in three days?Very expensive seminars, rooms in a trance, deeply moving testimonials. Researchers have studied each of these ingredients.

How these texts are produced →