Science & Society

Venomous dinosaurs? How scientists disagree.

One criticism of science that we often hear is... Wait. You know, criticism of science is still a phrase that seems odd to me. When I was growing up, we never thought to criticize science, in general. Of course, there’d be things that scientists got wrong ...

Blog Post - Barry Leiba - Dec 28 2009 - 8:58pm

Flu Pandemic School Closures

A few recently published studies offered some insight into the issue of closing schools to reduce the effects of a flu epidemic. The first problem, which hasn't been resolved, is determining the criteria for closing a school in the first place.  Howev ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Jan 6 2010 - 3:22am

"Stylish, Stinky" Sake

Apparently, a committee in Japan is lobbying for a return to the traditional sake bottle. The squid skins dry in the sun, stuffed with rice or grains to create the bottle shape. Once fully dried, warm sake is poured into the squid bottle to create a disti ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 30 2009 - 7:17pm

French Fries Are The New Cigarettes: Obesity Poses Greater Health Risk Than Smoking

As smoking continues to decline among the US population, the rate of obesity is growing and has now become an equal, if not greater, contributor to the burden of disease and shortening of healthy life compared to smoking, according to Researchers from Colu ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2010 - 6:25pm

Bible Science 101- Again

Richard Fortey reviews The Genesis Enigma in The Times Literary Supplement: ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Jan 11 2010 - 9:48am

PhDs and Diapers

Connecting my earlier post on PhD job realities and Melissa's blog post on Entitlement Culture is today's Ph.D comic (by Jorge Cham): Alex, the Daytime Astronomer ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Jan 12 2010 - 10:38am

Carbon Tax Or Carbon 'Offset'? Labels Influence Public Policy

Policy makers and lobbyists who want to enact a carbon tax would do well to choose their words carefully, say Columbia University Psychologists. In a new study in Psychological Science, the research team suggests that since voters typically don't like ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 12 2010 - 2:06pm

Are You Going To The AAAS Meeting In San Diego?

The annual AAAS conference is being held next month in San Diego and I went last year (here and here and here), despite it being a Chicago February, but most of you did not, thus the reason for the title. ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Jan 12 2010 - 3:45pm

Should Federally Funded Research Be Available To The Public?

An expert panel of library scientists, publishers, and university academics said today that the results of scientific research funded by the federal government should be made freely available to the public "as soon as possible after those results have ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 13 2010 - 11:56am

Wrapped like an Egyptian

The strangest idea for a reality TV show that I've heard to date comes courtesy of Slashdot this morning. "Terminal illness got you down? Does your future seems bleak? Channel 4 and production company Fulcrum TV would like to brighten your day by ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Jan 14 2010 - 9:47am