Sam Harris Argues for the Existence of Objective Moral Realities

This video isn't exactly current, but it's informative.  It does seem to be the case, whether or not Harris has the science to back up each and every claim he makes, that scientists tend to shy away from "making normative claims about how we should think and behave, in light of their findings."

The "firewall" between scientific studies covering morality and human flourishing, and the way we live our lives is, in my view, a great hindrance to global progress and human rights.  The beheading of an apostate, the stoning of an adulterer, the murder of a homosexual, or the mutilation and subsequent rape of an underage child (institutionalized as marriage) -- these are the actions of a culture vastly less objectively moral than our own, and we shouldn't be beaten into submission and silence on these and similar points, by the overbearing and misinformed pressure of "multiculturalism."