Science & Society

For most Americans, holiday season is food season. Much of it, like holiday cookies, chocolate santas, mashed potatoes, buttered rolls, is unarguably delicious. Some of it, like fruitcake, is merely something to endure. You can decide for yourself to which of the two categories these unusual foodie gifts suggested by Fox News belong. Either way, I think the Squid Ink Bread is by far the weirdest: SQUID BREAD - Not shaped like a squid or made with a squid, but jet black breadcolored with squid ink. Artisanal Los Angeles bakery BreadBar also offers Black-Gold bread topped with edible gold…

Obese women may be putting themselves at greater risk of breast cancer by not undergoing regular screening. According to new research by Dr. Nisa Maruthur and her team from The John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA, seriously obese women are significantly less likely to say they have undergone a recent mammography than normal weight women, especially if they are white. Maruthur's findings are published online this week in Springer's Journal of General Internal Medicine. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women in the US. Mammography…

"In short, both success and failure are both overrated." Take a look at Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker's December 2009 - January 2010 Terror Fringe policy review and you might just feel a little blown away. The article published by the Hoover Institution, starts out with a slow rev' as the noggin' starts kickin' back in gear and the it's smooth sailing from then on. The two authors expertly craft an accurate and freaky picture of the vitality of war in this modern world. "Globalization, driven by a revolution in communication technology, has changed terrorism more than it has changed insurgency…

James “the Amazing” Randi is an icon of skepticism. The man has done more — over a span of several decades — to further the cause of critical thinking and to expose flimflammery of all sorts than arguably anyone else in the world, ever. That is why I was struck with incredulity and sadness yesterday when I read Randi’s latest take on global warming. He begins by stating that, contrary to scientists’ own self-image as almost preternaturally objective human beings, “religious and other emotional convictions drive scientists, despite what they may think their motivations are.” Well, true,…

The stereotype of the nerdy computer scientist who stays up all night coding and has no social life may be driving women away from the field, and  this stereotype can be brought to mind based only on the the environment in a classroom or office, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  "When people think of computer science the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science fiction memorabilia and junk food," said Sapna Cheryan, a University of…

Several weeks ago, New Scientist ran a story about some mathematical modeling work that a couple of researchers in Mexico did. They modeled public transportation systems, and investigated the clumping effect that causes buses and trains that are supposed to be evenly spaced to wind up traveling in irregularly spaced clusters: Public transport vehicles — underground trains, for example — set off from the start of their routes equally spaced. The problem starts when one is briefly delayed, making more time for passengers to accumulate at stations further down the track. Since passenger…

    It’s all true! He was right! He was totally, hopelessly wrong about selfish genes, but he was right about memes. Well…he was a little bit right. He was wrong to equate the evolution of memes to the evolution of organisms, meme evolution being Lamarckian in character. But he was right to point out the potential capacity for memes (i.e cultural concepts) to prevent logical thought in the minds of their hosts. To ‘colonise’ those minds as Fred Phillips puts it. Dawkins likes to use religion to illustrate this point, but I prefer his own pet theory of   selfish genes…

My 19 y/o son, Joshua Robinson was found dead in Amsler Park/McGregor, Texas, on February 16, 2006. Without investigating or asking me, the mother, any questions, the police surmised his death was due to Suicide!www.americaiswatching.org (Joshua Robinson) Attached documents within the story, click on the underlined phrases. Per the Autopsy: "Tardieu  spots on the anterior surfaces of the thighs, as well as on the posterior surface of the body."  "Red-purple parenchyma with pulmonary edema."  "Suicide/Hanging."  No abnormal fluid in any body cavity.  The Medical…

In a recent Journal of the National Cancer Institute editorial, doctors expressed concern over the media's coverage of oncology research, citing examples of exaggerated fears, hopes, and a general lack of skepticism in the reporting.  The editorial points, for example, to the misleading coverage of a New England Journal of Medicine study that documented the trial results of the new anti-cancer drug olaparib. One national news outlet claimed the drug "was the most important cancer breakthrough of the decade," but failed to note that the study was uncontrolled (so there is no way to know…

Searches are personal. My first piece in Scientific Blogging was about the Copenhagen Congress. The 11-day conference will start tomorrow. So I did a search for you on climate and energy in my own writing here. At the end included also is the must-read list for Copenhagen from Nature.   Call for Abstracts for Climate Change Congress in Copenhagen (Deadline September 1, 2008) People, Planet & Profit - Location Matters How To Cut UK's Carbon Emissions - First Report Yesterday Observing Global Greenhouse Gases - IBUKI Works Ship…