Science & Society

And The 2012 Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine Goes To....

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for – you guessed it- stem cell research. Or more specifically, “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent". The an ...

Article - Eve Hardy - Oct 15 2012 - 10:02am

Left, Right? Science Shouldn't Be Worried Either Way

The biggest feel-good fallacy perpetuated by some in science media today is that "the right", whoever they are, is anti-science, while "the left", whoever they are, is pro-science.  It's exactly the opposite.  The right historicall ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 2 2013 - 8:59am

What Is Natural Anyway?

It is clear from many discussions that there is a split between things people consider to be "natural" versus those that are the products of technology, or man-made.  Obviously no one would consider a computer to be natural, nor would anyone sugg ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Oct 14 2012 - 10:07am

Genoeconomics: Is Our Financial Future In Our Chromosomes?

A new phase in the Gene Wars is about to begin — this time focused on the nexus of genetics and economics. Nature carried a provocative article last week laying the ground work for what should be a fiery debate over the nascent field of genoeconomics. The ...

Article - Jon Entine - Oct 16 2012 - 7:05pm

Anti-Darwinism Dominating Progressive Science Outreach

As pointed out recently, a new type of creationism has entered popular discourse through the backdoor. That was mostly about computer geeks and physicists trying to outperform "old atheists" in fashionable, gadgety ways, thus unwittingly bringin ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jul 21 2013 - 10:25pm

Why We Love Outing Internet Trolls

Michael Brutsch appeared to be an upstanding citizen. He is the father of a teenage son who joined the Marines, loves cats, and lives with his disabled wife in Arlington, TX. As a programmer for a financial services company, he punched the clock daily and ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Oct 24 2012 - 2:08am

Fear Is Not Enough: Climate Negotiations Relying On “Dangerous” Thresholds Won't Succeed

Giving a hard number as a critical threshold for dangerous climate change-  temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius- has not helped climate negotiations.  The USA, for example, has led the developed world in reducing emissions from energy, though to be fa ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 17 2012 - 10:21am

Why Government Appears Inefficient

Three reasons why government can look less efficient than it really is: 1. Cherry-picking in privatization. Let’s suppose we could rank government agencies or services in descending order of productivity: 1, 2, 3, and so on, with agency 1 being the most e ...

Article - Fred Phillips - Oct 21 2012 - 12:25am

L'Oréal-UNESCO Announces Women In Science Laureates

The L'Oréal Foundation and UNESCO has announced the five women scientists who will be honored as the 15th L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureates. On March 28th, 2013, the five Laureates will be honored at an Awards ceremony in Paris and w ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2012 - 10:57am

Jonah Lehrer, Proust, And The Tyranny Of Salami

In the scientific community, researchers call it salami slicing. Appropriately, the act consists of shaving down a collected dataset until a scientist reaches the smallest scrap of result that still constitutes an original idea. This decontextualized whis ...

Article - Clayton Aldern - Oct 21 2012 - 12:23am