Science Education & Policy

Like virtual water and virtual emissions, looking at organic food through a prism of implicit benefits translated into estimated dollars makes it look a lot more economically viable than it otherwise might appear. The new estimate says that organic farming systems do a better job of capitalizing on nature's services than they are credited with, and natural processes that aid farming and that can substitute for costly fossil fuel-based inputs are cost-effective. Earthworms turning the soil, bees pollinating crops, plants pulling nitrogen out of the air into the soil and insects…

Sometimes guidelines cause people to be on medication who otherwise would not need to be. We have seen this concern due to runaway claims about the nebulous "pre-diabetes" diagnoses being discussed, and in commercials on television for prescription products to prevent anaphylaxis even though 0.05% of kids is ever going to be at risk and they are exploiting the allergy fad culture to make money. If we want to have 400,000 more young people on statins who don't need them we just need to use pediatric guidelines for lipid levels of 17 to 21 year olds who have elevated low-density…

An analysis of 22 years of data on hawksbill turtles in the Arnavons, located in the Solomon Islands, shows signs of recovery after 150 years of excessive hunting by natives. The data included both beach counts and turtle tagging data and show a 200% increase from record lows in the 1990s, when the turtles had been hunted to the brink of extinction. Many of the hawksbill turtles that nest at the Arnavon Community Marine Conservation Area forage in distant Australian waters, and nesting on the Arnavons occurs throughout the year, with peak nesting activity coinciding with the austral…

With only nine months to go before the most important international meeting on climate change since Copenhagen in 2009, what are the chances of success at this year’s Paris talks? What might “success” mean? And can the mistakes and challenges that have befallen previous meetings be avoided and tackled? To help address these questions, let’s first dispense with three pervasive myths that continue to make the task of achieving an adequate global response to climate change harder. Myth 1: the international climate negotiations have failed There is a widespread belief that more than 20 years…

In a study of more than 6,500 pairs of twins, researchers found that more than half of the differences between pupils performance on the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) can be explained by differences in genetics. The research found that although IQ showed the strongest relationship with exam scores other genetically influenced traits such as personality and behavior also explained individual differences in achievement. Intelligence accounted for more of the heritability of GCSE results than any other single domain but the joint contribution of pupils' self-belief, health,…

It's not always easy getting people mobilized about the climate. I can't think of a single environmental or pollution issue in the last 40 years where someone did not say a new policy would kill their business. Now, like with people claiming Peak Oil for the last few decades, eventually they have to be right - and America has 93 million people out of work so while more restrictions on domestic industry did not cause all of that, it sure has not helped, so critics of environmental policy can claim a Pyrrhic victory, but so can environmentalists because all of those people not driving to work…

Just a month after getting a cease and desist letter from New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman, GNC has become the first vitamin and supplement retailer to implement new standards in authenticating herbal supplements, ensuring their purity, and educating consumers about their chemical content.  That isn't a perfect solution, the perfect solution would be to have labels such as 'this is unsubstantiated nonsense' but capitalism applies to all legal products, especially if they are legitimized by $120 million in federal spending by the NIH National Center for Complementary…

A recent paper shows that it is possible to replace the clinical follow-up examinations recommended today with abortions that include a home pregnancy test while another paper contends that midwives can safely and effectively treat failed abortions and miscarriages in rural districts of Uganda. The term 'incomplete abortion' is when there is residual tissue in the uterus following a failed abortion or a miscarriage. This can result in bleeding and infection and is a potentially life-threatening condition that can effectively be treated with the medicine misoprostol. Misoprostol is a…

There has been much press lately about President Obama’s plan to address the growing crisis of antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogens. And I agree with many that there is much to like in the plan.  But I also find a number of key deficiencies that will lead us nowhere. The goals of the plan are all laudable – 1.Slow the emergence of resistant bacteria and prevent the spread of resistant infections; 2.Strengthen national One-Health surveillance efforts to combat resistance; 3.Advance development and use of rapid and innovative diagnostic tests for identification and characterization…

Government subsidies for renewable energy rebounded strongly last year, registering a solid 17% increase after two years of declines. Major expansion of solar installations in China and Japan and government=backed investments in offshore wind projects in Europe helped propel green energy spending to $270 billion. It was the first annual increase in dollars for renewables (excluding large hydro-electric projects) in three years, a total just 3% below the all-time record of $279 billion set in 2011. The 103 Gw of generating capacity added around the world made 2014 the best year ever for newly…