Science & Society

This morning I signed a contract with INFN, the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics, which grants me tenure in the role of research scientist. Start date: 05/04/2009. End of penalty: never. Am I happy about it ? Maybe I should, but I have to confess I feel absolutely nothing - a void. Signing the contract felt like signing the receipt of a mediocre meal. Lest I get flamed, let me explain why I am not rejoicing, nor  am ordering a box of Dom Perignon. It all started in 2000 when I, a post-doctoral fellow for Harvard University, decided to came back to Italy from the US. There I left a…

A new report on the freedom of press has been released today by freedomhouse.org. Freedom House is an independent, non-profit organization created in 1941 to monitor and defend the freedom of press in the World. The study is being presented today at the Washington News Museum, and the event can be followed via a live webcast through the organization's web site. According to the report, freedom of press is declining everywhere, and it has been doing so for seven years in a row. The phenomenon is not just due to a few non-liberal countries: The rollback was not confined to traditionally…

With swine flu topping the agenda of business around the world, global risks specialist, Maplecroft has released three new maps and indices revealing the countries most at risk from an influenza pandemic. The Influenza Pandemic Risk Index (IPRI) consists of three categories: Risk of Emergence, Risk of Spread and Capacity to Contain. Each index generates a list of countries most at risk and that require a tailored policy response on the part of government and business. Maplecroft's research focuses on global risks to business. The map of Risk of Spread shows the United Kingdom most at risk to…

Autogynephilia: The love of one's self as a woman.  As used by psychologist and sexologist Ray Blanchard autogynephilia is a male's sexual attraction to the idea or image of their feminized self.  Ray Blanchard had conjectured, as quoted by Moser, "Autogynephilia does not occur in women, that is, biological females are not sexually aroused by the simple thought of possessing breasts or vulvas” (Blanchard, 2005)"   Charles Moser in his paper "Autogynephilia in Women" which is in pre-press.  Slated to appear in Journal of Homosexuality in the coming months.  Reports…

A disease spread simulation has emphasized that flu interventions must be imposed quickly, if they are to be effective. Researchers writing in BMC Public Health have shown that staying at home, closing schools and isolating infected people within the home should reduce infection, but only if they are used in combination, activated without delay and maintained for a relatively long period. Professor George Milne and his colleagues from the University of Western Australia (UWA) simulated the effect of social distancing on the spread of a flu virus within a small town. Their research used a…

Our Society is a civilized society and we proudly say so. Living in a civilized society and calling ourselves as civilized people, we really need to behave that we are civilized in the true sense of the word. We love and care about our family members, friends, co-workers, talk highly about human right issues, injustices against minority nations by giant countries and the list goes on. But the test of our morals is that being humans are we only concerned about the human sufferings? What about the products that we daily use, have been created through the torment and suffering of defenseless,…

The record numbers of young people who took part in last year's presidential election, along with high schools' raised expectations that students participate in community service, have led to growing research on teens' civic beliefs and behavior. A new study finds that most young people consider civic activity to be obligatory, but their judgments and justifications about different types of civic involvement vary by gender and a variety of other factors. "There is growing interest in adolescent civic and community involvement, because involvement during adolescence is thought to lead to…

How many numbers should you include in an article? This is debatable, depending on the subject matter and audience. But using too many numbers will lose a reader. Read this story from the Christian Science Monitor. Interesting story and issue - the Pew Forum on Relgion&Public Life released its "Faith in Flux" survey today, and there's a whole lot of moving and shaking going on.1 Some big take-away messages: Catholics tend to leave their church because of doctrine, while Protestants tend to leave because of life changes such as marriage. About two-thirds of people born and raised Catholic…

Myomancy was a method of divination by mice. Their behaviour was observed and taken as a omen of what was to come. If their movements were calm, aggitated or aggressive, much was read into it.  Modern scientists study the movements of mice more than the ancient myomancers did, but for ends that are not dissimilar. The FDA puts a lot of stock into studies done on mice and many a warning label has been the outcome. Seems most of the really bad side effects hit pregnant rats the hardest. So, you can feel pretty safe as long as you are not pregant or a rat. If you look at the writings of…

c. 260ish...  Look at the history of money. What we've learned... Patterns... Rampant inflation brought a devaluation of currency and a return of bartering throughout the Roman Empire