Science & Society

In December, when a Republican berated the CDC for not finding links between vaccines and autism, science media was outraged.  Yet for years prior to that, Democrats had made the same claim with no mention of their political affiliation at all.  In that same hearing Democrats did it and corporate science media never discussed it.   Only the Republican got attention, just like only Michele Bachmann got attention for using an anecdote as evidence about a vaccine during the last presidential campaign, though Senator Barack Obama said he was unconvinced that vaccines didn't cause…

What do science media and politics of 2013 share in common with 2006? Anti-science beliefs among the public? Check.Scientists willing to call them out? Check.Scientists and science media noting the common political affiliation of anti-science offenders?  Not check. The anti-GMO movement has far more representation on the left than the anti-hESC contingent ever had on the right. Ditto for evolution. Only global warming comes even close. Yet during the last decade virtually no discussion of anti-science beliefs failed to mention that Republicans were doing more of it on those issues. Only…

Alerted by a link on Real Clear Science, I turned to an article on Slate.com, namely Felony Science Sixteen-year-old Kiera Wilmot’s curiosity was apparently piqued when a friend told her that if you mixed hydrochloric acid and aluminum, an exciting reaction happened. . . . . . She was expelled from school and now faces felony charges. This is well worth reading.  However, I would like to relate a not too dissimilar incident from the authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher.  * * * * * * * There was something else that Margaret worked out scientifically, with alarming results.…

In the UK, health care is nationalized but a trial lawyer for maternity cases says that has made money a bigger concern in deciding who gets quality medical care.  A report by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) said there was enormous disparity in the quality of care patients received across the country. It looked at the performance of maternity units in England during 2011/12 and found that rates of inductions, emergency cesareans and assisted deliveries were twice as high in some hospitals as others. The report was based on research carried out with the London…

I was struck by the subject matter of three articles that had been posted recently.Egg White Protein May Help Lower High Blood Pressure Chlorogenic Acids In Green Coffee Beans Help Control Blood Sugar Levels Balkan Bean Remedy Traps Bedbugs What was interesting is that all three of these articles would have likely been disregarded and considered pseudoscience or "anti-science" even a few decades ago.  Now, I think most readers would agree that the benefit we derive from science is that through examination and testing, we are able to confirm the efficacy of various processes and thereby…

What Is Exogenous Semiotic Entropy ? The phrase exogenous semiotic entropy is from a recent "peer reviewed" "paper".  It looks like something that came out of a buzzphrase generator which was having a bad hair day.  The phrase is, of course, complete nonsense.  As it stands. HoweverIf someone had taken the trouble to error-check their paper, they would have found - along with all the other errors - that the phrase should have read "exogenous biosemiotic entropy". Within the intended context, these definitions apply: exogenous - adj. A term in biology meaning: derived or…

There is no question that increased use of natural gas has been good for the atmosphere - energy CO2 emissions are down to early 1990s levels in America and coal is at early 1980s levels of emissions, just like we all said we wanted. Enhanced extraction methods like hydraulic fracturing - fracking - have also been good for the local economies in places like Pennsylvania. But as with any industry, Not In My Backyard (NIMBYism) occurs in residents of Pennsylvania just like it does yacht owners in Massachusetts.  Academics who specialize in workplace health issues at the University of…

Reuters gets dinged for being off-kilter journalistically when it comes to politics; to the current generation of independent voters they became famous for their Mid-East coverage last decade by retouching photos to make Israelis look bad and Arabs look persecuted, adding in smoke from explosions that didn't exist, etc. Editors and journalists at other corporate media companies never noticed, but bloggers tripped them up. They're not much better when it comes to science, if anti-biology writer Carey Gillam is at the keyboard - at a time when some scientists think there should be more…

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is the beginning to one of the world's most popular hymns, yet while millions of people can oddly identify Nicki Minaj, almost no one knows the name of Charles Wesley or his Hymns and Sacred Poems. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” became regarded as one of the Great Four Anglican Hymns and was published as number 403 in "The Church Hymn Book". It has been recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra to the kids on "Charlie Brown"(1) and now the private letters of the composer have been edited by Dr. Gareth Lloyd of The University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library…

The segment of society that puts an anti-corporate mentality hand-in-hand with being anti-science is not just on the left; a whole lot of people are now cynical about the goals of the $29 billion organic food industry, especially after their well-publicized effort in California to label GMOs but exempt organic food, alcohol and restaurants. It was regarded as cynical opportunism, a way to get the government to grant their business an opportunity the free market did not. Surveys show people care more (or less) about the environment based on the economy; if that hierarchy of needs is not being…