Science Education & Policy

One Groups Pays More For Health Insurance Under ObamaCare- Tobacco Users

A new analysis finds tobacco users pay more for a health insurance plan from the Affordable Care Act exchanges than non-tobacco users in nearly every county of the 37 states that used healthcare.gov to sell their plans in 2015.  In some instances, up to 4 ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 10 2015 - 11:59am

Policy Fail: Using Experts Without Adjusting For Their Biases

The accuracy and reliability of expert advice is often compromised and needs to be interrogated with the same tenacity as research data to avoid weak and ill-informed policy, according to risk analysis scholars writing in Nature. ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 18 2015 - 11:21am

How To Get Voters To Accept Higher Gas Taxes

Why would anyone agree to a higher tax? The most common technique is to convince enough citizens that someone else will pay for it. Vermont is happy with higher taxes when voters know they will get far more money from the federal government than they ever ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2015 - 12:03pm

Beer Merger Would Threaten Global Health, Say Political Scientists

Last month, it was announced that Belgium based Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) and London based SABMiller have agreed to merge for around $106 billion, the third largest deal in corporate history. The new company will produce an estimated one third of al ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2015 - 6:30am

IQ: Why 1904 Testing Shouldn't Be Used Today

When I was an elementary school student, schools in my hometown administered IQ tests every couple of years. I felt very scared of the psychologist who came in to give those tests. I also performed terribly. As a result, at one point, I was moved to a low ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2015 - 7:30am

A Raisin Can Predict Toddler's Academic Ability

A simple test using a raisin can predict how well a toddler will perform academically at age eight, according to a new paper. Using just the piece of dried fruit and a plastic cup they have devised a test based on how long a 20-month old child can wait to ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 19 2015 - 7:00am

Will The Paris Climate Meeting Make A Difference?

Representatives from more than 190 countries will travel to Paris next week in emissions-belching vehicles to dine on five-course meals and talk about creating a process to reduce greenhouse gases over time.  Then 170 of them will ignore it while the ones ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 3 2015 - 8:00am

First 3-D Curriculum To Standardize Robotic Surgery Training

With over half a million robotic surgical procedures performed last year, this mode of surgery is quickly becoming a standard in the medical industry, particularly for urology and gynecology. Yet, no standard for training the surgeons behind the robot exi ...

Article - Roger Smith - Dec 2 2015 - 11:53am

Plan And Forget Fail: Why We Need To Retreat From Unrealistic Coastal Action Advice

Coastal communities around the world are being increasingly exposed to the hazards of rising sea levels, with global sea levels found to be rising faster over the past two decades than for the bulk of the 20th century. But managing the impacts of rising s ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 4 2015 - 7:00am

Government Waste: Benefit Cuts To Teachers Won't Lead To Taxpayer Savings Anyway

Though most government workers enjoy a good life- in the last decade salaries rose to 'compete with the private sector' and they were the only group that has not suffered unemployment under the lingering recession- they are not immune from criti ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 4 2015 - 8:52am