Science & Society

On The Fringe: An Editor’s Dilemma Raises Questions About The Future Of Science

The tough editorial decision was behind us; the die had been cast.   Pre-prints of the controversial article and its invited rejoinder appeared on the publisher’s web site.   The same day, the Nicolas Cage movie Next opened in theaters. Those who believe ...

Article - Fred Phillips - Jul 28 2009 - 3:31pm

Who's To Blame For UK Gun Crime?

If you're an ordinary, law-abiding citizen in the UK, you can't own a gun.  So who owns them?  Criminals, of course, making crimes easier to commit.   But it isn't just organized crime and the assumption that gangs are most often at the root ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 29 2009 - 9:53pm

What Happens To Dad Visitations When The Baby Mama Starts Dating Someone New?

Many children born outside of marriage are born to parents in unstable relationships and often live apart from their fathers.    New research from the Journal of Marriage and Family says that children born outside of marriage are less likely to be visited ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 3 2009 - 10:57am

Just-in-Time And Its Hazards (Including “Illicit Wealth Transfers”)

Last month New York’s Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo criticized banks – including Citi, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase – for paying large (okay, huge) executive bonuses when the companies were losing money. He called this a ...

Article - Fred Phillips - Aug 4 2009 - 9:47am

Moms (Up)Rising: Grassroots Health Care Reform Movement Or Well-Funded PAC?

As you might imagine, I get a lot of press releases.  As I have said here before, I like getting them because it's difficult for me to know all the good things happening out there, especially if an organization lacks the budget to hire an expensive PR ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 5 2009 - 7:27pm

Advocacy Group Says 13 Million Young Adults Will Gain Coverage Under Government Health Plan

The Commonwealth Fund,  a private foundation devoted to health care reform, has issued a report saying that President Obama's proposed health care plan would help more than 13 million uninsured young adults ages 19-29 gain coverage. ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2009 - 1:52pm

A new meaning to "carbon compounds"?

Ploughing through the Codex just now, I come across this (with particular reference to MRSA), by Brigitte Nerlich of the University of Nottingham, England: Words matter in public health... media coverage of hygiene and cleanliness in hospitals tended to po ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Aug 10 2009 - 2:59am

Incremental Cost: More Than An Increment Of Trouble

Last week I posted a column on cost accounting. But I didn’t say it was about cost accounting, and nearly eight hundred people read it.   Let’s try a (ahem) “scientific” experiment, starting with this announcement: This column is about cost accounting too ...

Article - Fred Phillips - Aug 10 2009 - 10:06am

World Of Warcraft Is Antisocial? I Think Not

I recently read an article regarding a specific therapist's idea for a movement to treat World of Warcraft players with video game addiction.  These types of articles are not uncommon, World of Warcraft (WoW) currently has millions of subscribers wor ...

Article - Christopher Lysy - Aug 11 2009 - 5:12pm

Good Points, Carl Sagan!

I finally got around to reading Carl Sagan’s  The Variety of Scientific Experience, a volume edited by his wife, Ann Druyan, and based on a series of Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology that Carl delivered in 1985 at the University of Glasgow. ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - Aug 11 2009 - 5:08pm