Science & Society

Is Science Better Than Journalism At Self-Correction?

Rolling Stone’s retraction of an incendiary article about an alleged gang rape on the campus of the University of Virginia certainly deserves a place in the pantheon of legendary journalism screw-ups. It is highly unusual – although not unprecedented – fo ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 10 2015 - 8:00am

Why Protest Clean Multi-Cultural White-Collar Astronomy Jobs?

Having once lived in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, on occasion I would drive to those old gigantic relics of steel mills. They were behemoths and so were the buildings that housed them. They looked like they could block out the sun. In John Ford's ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Apr 14 2015 - 10:18pm

Uninsured People Pay Far More For Cancer Drugs Than Medicare Patients

Uninsured cancer patients are asked to pay anywhere from 2 to 43 times what Medicare would pay for chemotherapy drugs, according to a new paper. Uninsured patients who did not negotiate the billed amounts could expect to pay $6,711 for an infusion of the ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2015 - 2:18pm

Why Not Ask The Public What Works To Get People Into Clinical Trials?

While a debate was raging between scientists and government regulators on how best to explain to patients the risks of participating in clinical research studies that compare standardized treatments, a team of bioethicists boldly went where no experts had ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2015 - 2:30pm

Physician Support For Obamacare In California Is Along Party Lines

A survey of California doctors found that a majority of the 525 who responded believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, also called Obamacare) will steer the country's health care in the right direction, but California has only 28 ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 17 2015 - 9:00am

Active Aging Increases In EU Despite Economic Crisis

A healthy and active old age is a reality for many Europeans and is a genuine possibility for many more, despite the 2008 economic crash and years of austerity measures, according to a new United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and European ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2015 - 8:30am

Teens Try E-cigarettes, But Few Become Regular Users

There is concern about e-cigarettes that they may cause addiction rather than cure it- California advocates are spending millions claiming Big Tobacco is marketing them to children- but like nicotine patches and chewing gum, teens may try them but unless ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 19 2015 - 5:31pm

For Academic Grad School Advice, Women And Minorities Should Prepare To Be Ignored

The humanities are considered the least discriminatory academic discipline- known cases of discrimination do not reach statistical significance- but women and minorities are still collectively ignored at 1.4 times the rate of Caucasian males when seeking ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2015 - 12:33pm

Do All These Health Awareness Day Campaigns Actually Help Anyone?

In 2014, there were almost 200 health awareness days, weeks or months on the 2014 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Health Observances calendar.   Since there are only 250 days in a working year, that means one day each week was n ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 16 2015 - 4:44pm

Standards Needed For Post-Conviction Review Of Forensic Evidence

So what methods and professional standards are applied to the review of scientific evidence long after the original work was completed? Very few. This morning's Washington Post article titled FBI overstated forensic hair matches in nearly all trials b ...

Article - John M. Collins - Apr 22 2015 - 11:19am