Science Education & Policy

Randomized controlled trials must be simplified to sustain innovation in cardiovascular diseases, which are still the biggest killer in Europe, according to the Cardiovascular Round Table (CRT), an independent forum established by the European Society of Cardiology and comprised of cardiologists and representatives of the pharmaceutical, device and equipment industries.  The paper outlines barriers to investing in cardiovascular research and the authors recommend new ways to conduct clinical research to make investment more attractive and bring drugs to market sooner. The authors point…

Nutritionists take a lot of criticism - conferences that revolve around Yogic flying instructors and actresses who think their breast milk has "otherworldly power" will do that to your field, but there is at least one way to know if someone knows what they are talking about - multidisciplinary health care professionals who hold the Certified Nutrition Support Credential (CNSC) scored significantly higher on a survey about their approaches to nutrition support practice than those who do not hold the credential according to new study. Multidisciplinary may be more important than the CSNC,…

After this year's legalization of powdered alcohol, some states have already banned it -- a move that the majority of the public supports, according to a new University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. Adults across the country share the same top concern about the new alcohol-on-the-go product: potential misuse among underage youth. Packaged in travel-friendly pouches, powdered alcohol will be available in flavors of distilled spirits like vodka and rum and also mixed drinks. One packet of powdered alcohol mixed with six ounces of liquid creates an…

The park is almost open. Two decades on and Jurassic Park has morphed into Jurassic World, the one and only dinosaur theme park. Science has apparently evolved too: the genetically-engineered dinosaurs are to take a secondary role to a new star of the show, a genetically-engineered hybrid, worryingly named Indominus Rex. Undoubtedly, chaos will ensue. In the wake of the 1993 Jurassic Park film, scientists who have anything – or even nothing – to do with palaeontology or molecular biology are almost always asked the same question: “Can we resurrect a dinosaur?” The answer is always an…

How children think about their own ability can affect their progress and achievement at school, according to a number of education scholars.  The work of Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck and her concept of “mindset” has been particularly influential in the way teachers are trying to change their pupils' views of their own intelligence. According to Dweck, people can be placed on a continuum based on their understandings about where ability comes from. Those with a fixed mindset believe “my intelligence is fixed and there’s nothing I can do to change it”, while those with a…

U.S. government-issued dietary recommendations continue to evolve over time but a new paper by scholars claims that the main source of dietary information used by the U.S. Government’s 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) is scientifically flawed because the underlying data are primarily informed by memory-based dietary assessment methods (M-BMs) (e.g. interviews and surveys).(1) In an editorial response nutrition experts suggest that the purported flaws are well-appreciated by nutritional researchers and can be mitigated by using multiple data sources, resulting in valid data.(2…

One of the main health targets proposed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases such as cancer, stroke and dementia by a third. The goals for 2016-2030 define "premature" mortality as deaths occurring among people aged 69 years old or younger, so if you die after that you have lived a full life and shouldn't expect much more. But that is blatant "ageism", according to Professor Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, professor of social policy and international development at University of East Anglia, and colleagues.  The UN's proposed…

The U.K. government has indicated that it wishes to introduce testing for all children at Reception (when they first enter school at age four) this year. These tests seek to provide baseline assessments of a child’s ‘school readiness’ but teacher unions have criticized testing as being too narrowly focused and likely to add to the difficulties of an already challenging period for both children and their teachers.  A new study was a study commissioned by Frank Field MP who, following his 2010 report, The Foundation Years: how to prevent poor children becoming poor adults set up and now…

Some Americans may regard the half of U.S. science that works in academia as overtly partisan due to a lack of political diversity, but it doesn't affect science issues. Though the anti-vaccine, anti-GMO and anti-energy movements are overwhelmingly populated by the left, scientists readily attack those positions because evidence matters most to American scientists. Not so much in Europe. American academia may have a political litmus test for getting a faculty job but that doesn't bleed over into science research. In much of Europe you are more likely to need to check off all of the correct…

It's not a secret that organic farms trade modern science for inefficiency in production and higher profit margins - but that does not count the 'intangibles' that go into organic farming, argue Terry Anderson and Henry Miller, and those higher margins should be accounted for in a revenue-neutral way. While it is popular for vegetarians to create models showing an embedded cost of meat production, traditional farmers are too busy farming to create an embedded cost for organic food. But it is high. Organic farms use more water and less efficient pesticides and less efficient fertilizer and…