Science & Society

Last month New York’s Attorney-General Andrew Cuomo criticized banks – including Citi, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase – for paying large (okay, huge) executive bonuses when the companies were losing money. He called this an illicit transfer of shareholder wealth to the pockets of individual managers.  Cuomo’s report spurs me to tell you about a certain illicit transfer of taxpayer money to private pockets, one that’s been bothering me a lot...  A hot day on the US-Mexico border.  Twin cities, one on either side of the international line.…

Many children born outside of marriage are born to parents in unstable relationships and often live apart from their fathers.    New research from the Journal of Marriage and Family says that children born outside of marriage are less likely to be visited by their father when the mother becomes involved in a new romantic relationship.  Fathers of illegitimate children are likely to not visit their child at all if the child’s mother forms a new relationship early in the child’s life, especially if the new couple lives together and the new partner becomes involved in childrearing…

If you're an ordinary, law-abiding citizen in the UK, you can't own a gun.  So who owns them?  Criminals, of course, making crimes easier to commit.   But it isn't just organized crime and the assumption that gangs are most often at the root of gun crime in the UK is overstated, according to a study published today in Criminology and Criminal Justice.  In their paper, professor Simon Hallsworth and Dr Daniel Silverstone suggest that while gangs certainly exist, they are not involved in most illegal shootings. In one of the largest studies examined, the Home Office…

The tough editorial decision was behind us; the die had been cast.  Pre-prints of the controversial article and its invited rejoinder appeared on the publisher’s web site.  The same day, the Nicolas Cage movie Next opened in theaters. Those who believe in eerie coincidences will see one here.  Let me explain. A young researcher had submitted a manuscript to the venerable international journal of which I am Senior Editor.  His paper advocated further research into precognition and remote viewing as tools for technology forecasters. …

A few weeks ago, I got an eerie package from the folks who work for Discovery Channel; an obituary and clues to a mystery.  Turns out this was part of a big viral marketing campaign for their upcoming Shark Week. Well, it worked.   A newspaper clipping of my demise and bloody swim trunks with the leg chewed off would get anyone's attention.   Did Ryan Seacrest of American Idol fame get one?  No, he did not, but he Tweetypaged or Faceyspaceyed or whatever that thing is people do if they're either concerned you won't know what they had for lunch or want to foment an Iranian…

Those of you who know or follow me surely realize that I'm not exactly a guy with a lot of spare time on his hands. Yet, I just launched a second blog devoted to short entries (mostly a paragraph with an accompanying link) to document the fact that gullibility is bad for your health.The idea came to me while writing my new book, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (to be published by Chicago Press in early 2010) and more recently a short column for Skeptical Inquirer (due out toward the end of the year). The question I was struggling with was: why skepticism…

In his July 23 column, Gary Herstein presented a thoughtful discussion and analysis of scientific controversies (What Does A Real Scientific Controversy Look Like?), with an example from physics. Perhaps readers of Scientific Blogging will be interested in another scientific controversy that emerged in biophysics over a 20 year period.  To understand the controversy, you need to know that subcellular organelles called mitochondria and chloroplasts synthesize ATP, the fundamental energy currency of all life. If you give isolated mitochondria some ADP and phosphate, along with oxygen and a…

If we are ever going to be sure that we won’t face Armageddon we need to get rid of all Weapons of Mass Destruction. That is a simple fact with one hugely difficult, time consuming and potentially impossible solution. However, in this article I wish to talk about the science which could help sort the problem. As the last time I checked this was Scientific Blogging not Diplomatic Blogging (if that even exists). In order to ensure that the nations do what they say they will, the international community has to know that they are. This is not really a matter of distrust (though in some ways it…

As a science nerd, and as a science nerd with friends who are science teachers, I am always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to expose others to the beauty and wonder that is science and broaden their horizons in a concise, meaningful way. I was bested today by aforementioned science teacher extraordinaire (and best friend) Maggie Nufer, who sent me a site that fulfills all criteria, and as a bonus is aesthetically pleasing (the site, I mean, but Maggie is too). Mr. Magorium's Wonder Exploratorium Exploratorium is a museum of science, art and human perception in San…

A colleague raised the issue of work-life balance.  He wrote: "I want to spend more time with my kids. My kids need to eat, so I work. Something needs to change so these things aren't mutually exclusive." Thinking on work/life balance is also something I've been doing.  As a scientist and a writer, I've chosen two pursuits that really have no down time.  I write even if I'm not paid, and I engage in science likewise.  Employment harnesses my skills in a direction beneficial to others.  And in return, I get not only a paycheck, but a focus I usually hadn't considered…