Science & Society

Simulating scientific sabotage, with a board game?

Radioactive isotope in your tea, blatant patent theft and manuscript theft by a peer reviewer? Yep, these are all real actions by scientists who have screwed over other scientists just to get ahead. Why? Because in science "There is no prize for seco ...

Blog Post - Caezar Al-Jassar - Mar 2 2016 - 7:47am

Gender Quotas In Mexico Didn't Reduce Quality Of Female Political Candidates

In the 21st century, it seems to be settled that quotas are a bad idea. By picking people based on a characteristic outside their ability to best do a job, it seems to be another term for discrimination.  Some countries have done it anyway. Mexico, for ex ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 22 2016 - 2:48pm

Advocacy Research: How Serious Is The Problem?

A decade ago, the media perception was that the only "advocacy" research (science-y sounding stuff out to achieve a cultural goal) was small groups getting a little bit of money to deny things like global warming. In reality, the public knew bet ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Feb 27 2016 - 12:43pm

Female Genius? Black And Brilliant? Not According To RateMyProfessors

An analysis of more than 14 million reviews on RateMyProfessors.com, a site where students write anonymous reviews of their professors, found that words like "brilliant" and "genius" are most often used to describe male professors, and ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2016 - 7:48am

What Most People Don't Realize About The Decline In The US Labor Market

The decline in the fluidity, or dynamism, of the U.S. labor market has been occurring along a number of dimensions, including the rate of job-to-job transition, hires and separations, and geographic movement across labor markets, since at least the 1980s, ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 6 2016 - 8:00am

Artificial Flavors, Preservatives And Dyes Are Gone And Kraft Macaroni And Cheese Fans Didnt Care

Last April, Kraft Heinz announced it would remove artificial flavors, preservatives and dyes from its iconic Blue Box, and did exactly that in December. Kraft Mac&Cheese replaced artificial dyes (yellow 5 and 6) with paprika, annatto and turmeric to m ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2016 - 1:00pm

3 State Laws Could Reduce Gun Deaths By 80 Percent, Say Scholars

Scholars are making a bold claim about gun deaths- they say they will be reduced by 80 percent if three laws are enacted. In a study published in The Lancet, state-level data from 2010 on gun-related deaths and 25 state-specific gun laws identified three ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2016 - 7:29am

Nothing Is Certain, Except Death, Taxes And Conspiracies About Science

Death, taxes, and conspiracy theories. No matter how many peer-reviewed studies scientists produce, there will always be conspiracy theorists with outlandish alternatives to the generally accepted scientific consensus. Sometimes these ideas are just silly ...

Article - Joseph Perrone - Mar 16 2016 - 2:44pm

Canadian Groups That Tout Diversity Discriminate More- Because Minorities "Whiten" Credentials Less

 Minority applicants may fare even worse in the resume pile at companies purporting to support diversity than they would at companies that don't make the claim, shows a new study from the University of Toronto. That's because job seekers are les ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 17 2016 - 7:13am

Worldwide, Cigarettes Are Usually Cheaper Than E-Cigarettes

In the United States, 70 percent of the price of a cigarette goes to government- not so in other countries. Though smoking has plummeted in America, in various other regions of the world the smoking rates remain over 40 percent. ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 28 2016 - 7:20am