Science & Society

Schnapps And Sacks: Christmas Traditions Around The World

Christmas has become a cultural event, associated with the giving of gifts and lavish meals with friends and family. But the traditional understanding of Christmas is that it’s a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. The idea of giving gifts may be ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 22 2015 - 8:00am

The Choirmaster Who Created The Sound Of Christmas

At 3 pm on Christmas Eve, millions of radios around the world will be tuned to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge in time to hear the pure voice of a single boy chorister singing one of the hardest solos of the ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 24 2015 - 9:00am

Geoff Marcy, and the 21st Century Social Media Lynch Mob.

 G eoff Marcy soon to be retired Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkley.  Pioneer of the search for exoplanets accused serial sexual harasser and perverse sexual assaulter was tried by media this year*.  Now more documents have been released. The problem wi ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jan 7 2016 - 9:17pm

Survey: Majority Believe It Necessary For Government To Cut Freedom To Stop Terrorism

A majority of Americans, 54 percent, say it can be necessary for the government to sacrifice freedoms to fight terrorism. About 50 percent of Americans think it is acceptable to allow warrantless government analysis of Internet activities and communicatio ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 30 2015 - 2:53pm

Science 2.0 Top 5 Articles Of 2015

In choosing the top articles of any year, there are always a few knobs to turn. A top article traffic-wise, for example, could be one from a prior year, since we have articles with millions of readers, and since we carry some press release stuff it could b ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Dec 31 2015 - 1:05pm

Gender Gap Lower In Western Nations But Self-Esteem Issue Caused By It Is Greater

People tend to gain in self-esteem as they grow older but in Western industrialized  nations the self-esteem gender gap is more pronounced- though the actual gender gap in all ways is lower in those same nations. At least on surveys. Social psychologists ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 4 2016 - 11:30am

Poor Transparency, Journalism Jeopardize Reproducibility Of Science

The biomedical sciences rarely provide full protocol, data, and necessary level of transparency to verify or replicate studies, according to an analysis of papers published between 2000 and 2014 to determine the extent researchers report key information n ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 4 2016 - 3:33pm

Happy Patients: Half Of Doctors Provide Unnecessary Referrals Upon Request

In 2009, there was concern that American health care costs were too high. Since the advent of the Affordable Care Act, there is now concern that costs are really too high, only it is not rich doctors and insurance companies being vilified, it is defensive ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2016 - 8:00am

Sexual Harassment: The three sins of Christian Ott.

While dating in the workplace is not inherently bad and cannot be effectively forbidden there are certain rules that go with that.  Don’t date subordinates, if you do find them a new supervisor, if you end it don’t also end their employment/threaten their ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Jan 18 2016 - 2:36pm

Legal Immigrants Are Vital To US Science And Engineering Workforce

In the 1990s, and more recently during the Obama administration, there has been a wave of protectionism about United States technology and science jobs, with calls to cut visas for foreign-born workers. It's a modern demonization of Asiatics, minus t ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2016 - 3:30pm