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In-Depth Interview: Just Back From Iraq, Journalist Peter Byrne Talks About the War, and the “Science of ISIS”

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Science reporter Peter Byrne just returned from Mosul, Iraq, where he was researching for a new book with the working title The Science of Isis.
Byrne was our guest here last year, talking about his series about false reports of breast cancer clusters, Busted: Breast Cancer, Money and the Media.

Byrne updates us on the efforts by Iraqi Special Forces to roust the Islamic State from Mosul, and also shares his novel interest in ISIS.  He is working on a book that applies scientific modeling to the behaviors we label “terrorism”, and explains that layers of grievances are at the core of the “rational actors” who use terror tactics to take on dictators and occupiers.

This wasn’t the interview that your humble host had expected, it was better. Byrne breaks down the dynamics of terrorism is ways that hadn’t occurred to me.