Science & Society

In modern times, academia in America is far out of the political mainstream, The humanities were for decades but science had held strong until a generation ago; the theories for why that happened are many but most are just rationalizations and outside the scope of this piece.  But it has to be mentioned that the people who insist there is not enough representation for women or minorities due to various ills claim it is a 'choice' when it comes to a shocking lack of political diversity (Republicans apparently "don't want" 6-figure jobs that have tenure for life) - apparently the constant…

Do stores that carry cigarettes create new smokers or do they carry cigarettes because their customers smoke? Would a nexus of comic book stores create more comic book readers? Will that work with broccoli? A new geography paper matches smoking to store locations that carry cigarettes and correlates the two, suggesting that teenagers are much more likely to take up smoking if they live in neighborhoods with a large number of shops that sell tobacco products. They found that adolescents with the most tobacco outlets in their neighborhood are almost 50 percent more likely to smoke…

Brand Beckham. Dave Thompson/PA Wire By Tamara Friedrich, University of Warwick Victoria Beckham has been named Entrepreneur of the Year by Management Today. She topped their list of 100 successful entrepreneurs thanks to her fashion company’s turnover, which has grown from £1m to £30m in the past five years, and its employment growth, which has grown from three members of staff to 100 in the same time. Some might scoff at her selection, believing that she is only successful as a result of her fame as a Spice Girl and as David Beckham’s wife, or that she was only selected to attract headlines…

In 1752 in the British city of Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin did something that horrified the superstitious people of the day - he captured a lightning storm in a jar with nothing but a piece of string controlled by some dry silk. It was a bold move, the kind of thing only someone who understood both the power and promise of science would undertake. The idea that lightning was electricity was immediately embraced by science - and it was reviled by the superstitious. The natural world was not to be trifled with, challenging nature was opening up a Pandora's Box, they said. The ripple effects…

Over 51 percent participants in the Liverpool Stop Smoking Service have tried electronic cigarettes and almost 46 percent are currently using them. The results came from 320 smokers in the Roy Castle FagEnds study, which is designed to understand the number of people who used e-cigarettes and what smokers thought about the products. The data presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool found that smokers are more likely to try e-cigarettes if they are confident that the products are safer than tobacco smoking. Smokers appear undecided towards…

Academic science has been in a bit of a cultural schism; groups like the National Science Foundation and universities have spent billions of dollars promoting the idea that academic science is the only real science - discovery - which has led to a glut of PhDs who want to stay at universities.But when it comes to diversity and fairness, the corporate world is way ahead. So academic science is better than the corporate kind, except when it's worse. Some discrimination is too obvious to be ignored - handicapped people and Republicans have normal representation at undergraduate levels but they…

A professor with a company and the idea of commercial success with something they developed is very common, in everything from biotechnology to software. But the 'Valley of Death' between the lab and a company is daunting.   In Physics World, James Dacey notes that the challenges facing all start-up companies as they move from prototype to product are somewhat harder for physicists because of two factors: physics-based inventions are usually far less market-ready than academics think and the corporate world is more complicated. This can be compounded by overly optimistic academics, who…

Villa Bajo Flores in Buenos Aires. Roy Maconachie, CC BY-SA By Séverine Deneulin, University of Bath and Roy Maconachie, University of Bath In recent years, many films have portrayed the landscape of urban marginality and inequality in Latin America. Brazil Central Station and City of God were both popular, but few can rival the Mexican thriller, La Zona (the Zone) in depicting the disturbing panorama of inequality in Latin America’s megacities and the consequences of socially and economically divided cities. The film is set within the confines of a gated community in Mexico. High security…

Though young people are pleased that the federal government has declared they are not actually adults until age 26 when it comes to having to pay bills, adults who remember being teenagers know that teens don't actually buy into that - they feel mature, especially when it comes to things they want to do. It is no surprise that young people favor more liberal marijuana laws. In 2014, marijuana is just as cool as smoking cigarettes was in 1954. And like in 1954, proponents gloss over the obvious health risks while governments insist they should get the tax revenue because people will do it…

J. Marion Sims by Jim.Henderson, CC BY-SA By David T. Z. Mindich, St. Michael's College On an October day in 1894, a group of New York City’s leading doctors gathered to unveil a statue in honor of one of the greatest surgeons of his day and the founder of New York’s Women’s Hospital, J. Marion Sims, an Alabama doctor and a man they called “the father of modern gynecology.” The main speaker that day, George F. Shrady — a towering medical figure himself—spoke of Sims’ many accomplishments as well as his persistence. To perfect one of his innovative surgical techniques, Shrady said, presumably…