Science & Society

For MSNBC, climate change is an opportunity to stoke anger over conservative “denialists.” MSNBC 5/12/14 By Matthew Nisbet, Northeastern University Recent Pew Research Center studies offer valuable insight on the ideological makeup of those Americans most likely to voice their opinion in politics generally and the climate debate specifically, including the news sources they rely on to articulate their arguments. What’s clear from the Pew findings and related research is that the highly selective media habits of strongly conservative and liberal Americans are likely to be a major barrier to…

The camera and lens that Wally Schirra and Gordo Cooper carried into space during their Mercury Program flights is going up for auction in a few weeks.  Wally Schirra, a known camera enthusiast, said the Hasselblad camera they used was held in highest regard by photographers for its superior engineering, craftsmanship, and top-of-the-line quality. He reportedly purchased the Hasselblad 500c camera at a Houston photo supply shop in 1962, and brought it back to NASA for mission use preparation. The Mercury astronauts were all engineers so they got together with United States Air Force…

You may not have realized it, but women's voices are a big topic. For women, at least.  I suppose it may be true. If someone asks me to describe the characters in television comedy "The Big Bang Theory", my natural response would be 'the guy that matches the stereotype of how people think physicists are, the actual physicist, the engineer, the psychologist, the girl who looked a lot better with longer hair and the girl with the squeaky voice.' See? 16% of my responses were related to female voice. She did better than the Indian guy, I forgot him completely, but whatever her science…

How can the international community know it is election time in the United States? A whole raft of claims about science and why you should vote one way or the other will be produced. Some people have even claimed politics is hard-wired, which would mean that American Republicans and Democrats are distinct species, having branched off from the rest of the world in 1860. While biologists laugh at the idea that voting preferences are biological, sociologists, psychologists and political scientists continue to match surveys to science and claim it might be true. What if only tall people voted…

The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) is very popular with people who have no serious issues, because it is free - if they have to wait a few weeks, it is no big deal. For doctors, it isn't so great. The cost to attend medical school is not high, around $15,000 per year, but in their first year they will only earn about $30,000 annually. A specialist is almost 50% higher and that is part of the reason why the UK is losing General Practioners, at the bottom of the wage scale, faster than they can replace them. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are claiming they will increase…

The far left in America loves government. Advocacy groups are always calling for new laws, new regulations, new bans and more layers of bureaucracy to put a stop to whatever they dislike. The right is increasingly suspicious of it, regarding every policy as a road to George Orwell's "1984". That was not always the case. In the 1950s and '60s, it was the left who was on the right and the right was on the left. Government meant law and order and the right was opposed to anarchy and protests promoted by the left. One group has not changed its stance on the benefits of government since that time…

Confucius stands guard at Beijing's Renmin University. George (Sam) Crane, Author provided By Sam (George T.) Crane, Williams College In today’s China, the philosopher Confucius is back. To mark his 2,565th birthday this September, the nation’s President, Xi Jinping, paid homage to the sage at an international conference convened for the occasion. “Confucianism,” Xi said, is key to “understanding the national characteristics of the Chinese as well as the historical roots of the spiritual world of the present-day Chinese.” But for all the fervor of his contemporary defenders, it is unlikely…

Standing up for science. Credit: Sense About Science By Lydia Le Page, University of Edinburgh The 3rd annual John Maddox Prize has been awarded to Emily Willingham, a science writer in the US, and David Robert Grimes, a physicist at the University of Oxford, in recognition of their work in the face of public hostility. This year’s winners are both science writers, passionate about the discussion of complex scientific topics including those often ambushed by an anti-science contingent. Both have faced direct abuse following publication of their articles – which have addressed contentious…

Come play with us. For ever. And ever. And ever. Alex Eylar By Baden Eunson, Monash University Recently, the Danish Toymaker Lego announced its plans for a reality TV show to be launched in 2015, rumored to be based on the idea of Master Builders, the top “construction workers” in the insanely successful Lego Movie earlier this year. Surely the show will be more about the minifigs than the personalities of the people putting them together? Well, no, recent history would suggest otherwise. As Paris Hilton famously said of her reality program, which ran from 2003 to 2007: Simple Life is a…

If it isn't taxes, it is OPEC but oil prices are likely to go up - people are still going to drive. It's necessary. So is physical fitness but a new economics analysis finds that if prices to swim go up, people are inclined to drop it rather than pay more - but a gym membership stays. That's reason enough for economists behind a new paper to advocated a new government subsidy. The work by Brunel University London's Health Economics Research Group consisted of interviews with 1,683 people, 83% of whom took part in physical activity in some form. It found that people facing 10% higher…