Science & Society

According to a research abstract presented  at SLEEP 2009, adolescent obesity is associated with having less sleep and eduction in sleep could be related to a higher caffeine intake, more hours of technology use and increased symptoms of sleep disorders such as snoring. Results indicate that children who slept less consumed more caffeine and had more hours of screen time (use of television, Internet, computer and video games). A higher body mass index (BMI) was also associated with shorter sleep duration. More hours of screen time were also associated with higher caffeine consumption.…

From the front page of an operational circular of the CERN laboratories: In the interest of readability, this circular has been drafted using the masculine gender only. However, use of the masculine gender should be understood to refer to both sexes. The provisions of the circular therefore apply to both men and women except where it is clear from the context that they concern one sex or the other exclusively. A very polite and careful way to address the burden of having to refer to both sexes at once, indeed. So we went from male-only documents, to gender-equal ones, to male-only ones which…

The 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow's famous Rede lecture on the "Two Cultures" has been marked this year, around the web and sometimes in real life too, with various symposia and blogfests.  I've personally got nothing to contribute to the debate, but one of my favorite authors has - except he did it 25 years ago, at the 25th anniversary of Snow's lecture.Here's Thomas Pynchon on Luddites and C.P. Snow - he goes from Snow, to Renaissance knitting machines, on through the first Luddites and Frakenstein, and ends with molecular biology, and Eiseinhower's famous remark about…

A few weeks ago, the 13th annual Susan G. Komen Sacramento Race for the Cure was held.    The organization raises money primarily for breast health awareness, screening and support services and a much smaller amount for research so I am always uncertain what 'race for the cure' in their name means but that's marketing.   Raising money to do breast cancer screening doesn't have the sizzle of curing cancer, though most here will note that curing cancer in itself is deceptive. This year, Science 2.0 did its part by buying t-shirts for a local team and we finally got some pictures…

At most biomedical research conferences, you hear talks filled with published or almost published materials, which is unfortunate, because it's a lost opportunity for colleagues to talk about the problems their confronting with work that's in its early stages. Some conferences, like the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory conferences, try to get around this problem by having strict confidentiality rules, in an attempt to get scientists to be more open with each other about research that's not quite ready for prime time. The confidentiality policy includes limitations on what reporters can report…

The media is a powerful teacher of children and adolescents, an editorial in JAMA says. But what are they learning, and how can it be modified? "When children and adolescents spend more time with media than they do in school or in any leisure-time activity except for sleeping, much closer attention should be paid to the influence media has on them." Editorial author Victor C. Strasburger writes: A kinder, gentler, more responsive public media would be nice but is unlikely. Hollywood has been resistant to any outside criticism, the Motion Picture Association of America ratings have…

I'm a bit of a movie buff.I especially like science fiction movies.I'm also a little paranoid and keen on conspiracy theories. It should therefore come to no surprise that I was sucked into the viral marketing of Roland Emerich's new 2012 Movie. http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/ The site let's you have some fun simulating various doomsday scenarios. There are links to a quite comical new age guru in the form of "Charlie" and his youtube channel. (I won't spoil the fun with name dropping or links.)  Be sure to sign up for the lottery, perhaps you will win and be saved either…

The encouragement (or requirement) of diversity sometimes gets labeled reverse racism, under the assumption that encourgaing diversity is only about somehow making up for past injustices by discriminating against today's white men who may never have themselves committed such injustices. I'm not trying to step into the touchy issue of Supreme Court politics (nor am I arguing that quotas are always a good thing), but I've run across this interesting observation in several contexts recently: "Participants push themselves to formulate better arguments when they know they will have to justify them…

Chicago O’Hare IncidentAt 4:30pm on November 7, 2006, United Airlines ramp employees were pushing back flight 446 bound for Charlotte, NC. In their accounts of what followed, said employees denied huffing jet fuel. An unlit, saucer-shaped craft hovered over gate C-17 for nearly two minutes, during which time the ramp employees called pilots, supervisors and other UA employees—nearly a dozen in all—who then watched the mysterious craft rocket up through the clouds. The FAA at first denied anything out of the ordinary but after a Chicago Tribune reporter filed a Freedom of Information Act…

Speculation continues about the crash of Air France jetliner flight 447 on its transatlantic journey.  A University of Indianapolis international relations expert says recent events point to the possibility of terrorism. Although there have been no claims of responsibility or specific indications of sabotage, the disappearance of a large airliner without warning is extremely rare and investigators say no potential causes have been ruled out. Today, aviation authorities revealed another Air France flight from Buenos Aires to Paris was grounded temporarily May 27 because of a telephoned…