Science & Society

Franz Hörmann, professor at the Vienna University for Economics (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), distinguishes between Expert-Knowledge (Fachwissen) and Experience-Knowledge (Erlebniswissen). The latter rests on memories formed by personal involvement. He has not personally experienced the Nazi-Jew holocaust; he has no Experience-Knowledge of it. He is not an expert on history, so he claims no Expert-Knowledge on the holocaust either. Nice – somebody who is humble. Hörmann states that: I agree with the statement “I believe that under the criminal reign of the third Reich mass killing camps…

In China, drinking alcohol is often still a vital part of doing business. Science is important in China, which has become the scientific leader in several ways, but science is business of course. At times, alcohol belongs to science here. In Asia, people mostly boiled their water to disinfect it. In Europe, we instead brewed beer and wine a lot more. Evolution did the trick real fast apparently, took only a few centuries biologists claim, and now I, a Caucasian, can drink more than most here in China, although some Chinese have build up tolerance for alcohol of course. Good for me is: They…

No, not a million of those... I am talking about page hits. And no, there is no reason for retiring: the next million is awaiting! I didn't give much thought to page hits when I started blogging. And I probably still don't give it enough attention, but I do realize it is page hits that make the internet tick. And yes, it is stimulating for me to witness a piece that I have written attracting many thousands or even tens of thousands of hits. Yet somehow it feels unreal. Who are all these folks clicking on a link to this blog? A million hits for a nerdy and rather inaccessible physics blog is…

We're used to outrage in the disability community, of hearing or reading a story and running with it. Sometimes, it's to attack and condemn other parents or individuals, but sometimes, when the disability community works well, it's to gather together to bring about change, to fight for a family. This time, it's to protest a doctor at CHOP who told a family he would not recommend a transplant for their young daughter because of her cognitive disability. The mother, Chrissy, writes of this horrifying conversation at wolfhirshhorn.org in a post titled "Brick Walls." We can all imagine…

On January 10, 2012, President Obama announced appointments to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. One of the individuals he would like to appoint is Peter Bell, the current "Executive Vice President for Programs&Services at Autism Speaks." In addition to his role at Autism Speaks, Peter Bell is the "Co-Founder and President of Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism and chair of the Community Advisory Committee for the International Society for Autism Research."   Peter Bell is the father of a young man with autism, and as his son has…

[Their] monopolistic practices make Walmart look like a corner shop and Rupert Murdoch a socialist - George Monbiot Want to know where a huge amount of taxpayers' money invested into science goes? Straight into the pockets of publishing companies' shareholders. This is probably old news to most people, but the reason why I'm writing about it here is because Heather Morrison has released some figures in part of her open thesis (Morrison 2011), and it's best to take this sitting down. Around 1/3 of the money that you pay to access a journal goes is profit. For Elsevier, who is the titan…

A new study has used an interesting metric to highlight their concern about a disconnect between government funding of biomedical research and young investigators; Nobel Prizes.  As has been noted here numerous times, and by me at various talks, the average age of biomedical researchers getting their first grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008 was 42, a substantial change from even the decade previous. Over the past 30 years, the article notes, the average age of Nobel winners when they performed their research was 41. That's a concern, says Kirstin Matthews, a…

In the autism community, there are plenty of heated opinions, which lead to even more heated attacks against those who believe differently. Some of the fiercest attacks come from those who believe in debunked treatments like facilitated communication. No other treatment offers such fantastic results. Autistic individuals who've been unable to talk, write, communicate are suddenly able to speak eloquently with the help of a facilitator. For a desperate parent, it must be a dream come true--one's child communicating finally, the words flowing. All those hopes and dreams suddenly realized,…

As some of you are aware, I am a fan of the writings of G.K.Chesterton. In 1903, in an essay The Return of the Angels, he came out with this surprising statement: Of the thousands of brilliant and elegant persons like ourselves who believe roughly in the Darwinian doctrine, how many are there who know which fossil or skeleton, which parrot’s tail or which cuttle-fish’s stomach, is really believed to be the conclusive example and absolute datum of natural selection? . . . What we know, to use a higher language, are the fruits of the spirit.  We know that with this idea once inside our…

One nice features of Science 2.0 is the way it links to Science Codex and Real Clear Science.  The latter of these sometimes directs me to a journal called The Atlantic, in which I read What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence. I’m a bit puzzled.  It sounds just a bit too much like one of those Reader’s Digest articles one useed to read while in a doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room.  Any thoughts?