Science & Society

Whole Foods lies to its customers. I have no problem stating that plainly, the evidence is right on their website and if their lawyers object to that, their fraudulent house of cards will come crashing down around them. It's well-known in the science and regulatory community but is often a shock to the public. Recently, I was giving a talk and an agriculture executive handed me a print-off from the Whole Foods website, their Organic landing page. A few things were highlighted. "Can that be right?" he asked. It wasn't right, in the sense that we understand ethics, but it was typical. And I…

The right to make one’s own legal decisions is typically denied for two reasons: Youth (minority) and incompetence. Incompetence is a state of mental incapacity to make one’s own decisions in a way which is informed with regard to the consequences and rational. Note that, for a decision to be made competently, there is no requirement for it to be “fully” informed, only for it to be informed “enough” (for example, your decision on whether to move into an apartment needs to know the location of the apartment and the length of the lease, but you are not considered to make an uninformed decision…

A new national poll says that parents are in a panic about things like swimming pools. Least likely to think their kids can swim; black parents. A slight majority of white parents are fine with kids swimming sans parental hovering. Almost all parents think a natural lake (84 percent) or ocean (87 percent) , lacking concrete and a diving board, is too dangerous to be allowed. Only 63 percent would even allow kids to swim in their backyard.  Granted, pools can be dangerous, with some 5,000 child and teen injuries a year and around 1,000 drowning deaths occurring, but it shows we…

The National Commission on Forensic Science was dissolved by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a decisive action that brought an end to a highly decorated body of professionals, but one that was frequently stymied by legal gamesmanship and discord.  The commission, a precipitant of the Obama administration's criminal justice reform efforts, was curiously loaded with trial attorneys, law professors, and other academicians but relatively few forensic scientists. Now that the commission has disbanded, a journalistic rebuke of AG Session's decision is underway in full force.  News…

Atrial fibrillation and flutter (also known as AFF) is associated with serious health problems and is a significant contributor to death rates. Knowing that, why would there be different death rates for male and female patients who presented with AFF to emergency departments and then discharged? Even 30 and 90 days after discharge.  AFF is an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that is associated with blood clots to the brain (e.g., stroke) and other organs, heart failure, and sometimes death. It affects approximately 2.66 million Americans.  The prevalence of AFF increases with age.…

A.D. 1200 has been called the golden age, as characterized by a booming economy combined with widespread prosperity. Europe's population had reached the height of its growth, reaching about 70 million people, beyond which, according to historians, it would have been incompatible to resupply of food products, with the technologies of the time. The hot weather was optimal for harvesting in the fields, flourishing agriculture. The banks Florentine and Sienese, founded in 1250, had started a business from unknown outcomes, with giving of loans to individuals, nobles and royal houses, thriving…

Yet another article in the Telegraph: this time Supermarket rocket salad healthier than homegrown. featuring the vegetable kingdom this time: Changes in rocket salad phytochemicals within the commercial supply chain: Glucosinolates, isothiocyanates, amino acids and bacterial load increase significantly after processing This is an open access paper which you can read for free.  At the top (like on the pedestal of Ozymandias) these words appear: •  Glucosinolates, isothiocyanates and amino acids increase significantly over time. •  Glucoraphanin is not significantly…

For the better part of this century, the federal government has promoted the notion that only government-funded science is real science, and the private sector is the icky kind that, let's face it, the kind of people who overwhelmingly prefer to stay in academia dislike. (1) Then we get into a problem I have written about a few times: 6X as many people wanting to stay in academia as there are actual jobs in academia. For Ph.D.s who can't get a job in academia, things can be trying. The last time I wrote about the glut I noted there are 5,000 Ph.D.s are working as janitors and another 8,000…

A so-called "March for Science" will occur April 22nd 2017.  I have half a mind to show up either wearing a sing extolling the climate change fighting virtues of nuclear power OR with a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide AND another petition banning all use of vaccines.  I'll bet I'd get at least 1 out of every 10 people at any such march to sign for those bans.  I'd bet 3 of 10 would have no idea that responsible use of nuclear power, replacing the old reactors with newer better models which are safer and cleaner is a big part of any realistic plan to mitigate human caused…

Often the term technology explosion is used to indicate the rapid growth of technology in areas such as information technology or biotechnology. Usually, the assumption is that innovation creates great new approaches and products that will improve our conditions. Often this advance is true and beneficial but do we really want technology advances to explode? The word explode is often associated with reactions that are out of control and usually cause significant damage. We often feel some technology out of our control when we are bombarded with new IT systems that promise efficiencies but…