Science & Society

It is unsurprising that wherever Donald Trump goes, headlines follow. But what is particularly interesting is just how many of those headlines involve the practice of journalism and journalists themselves. Trump has called to “open up” libel laws. He has mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski’s disability. He has feuded with Fox News' Megyn Kelly over questions she asked of him during a Republican presidential debate. And then there are the accusations of violence against journalists at Trump rallies. Trump so challenges the norms and conventions of politics, it has caused some to…

The life expectancy gap between America's rich and poor is shrinking for the young, a new study reports. In fact, life expectancy at birth has been improving for virtually all income groups born in 1990 onward. The results reveal that many of the U.S. policies directed at improving the health of the young and the poor may have been successful. Previous research suggests that disparities in mortality inequality have widened since the start of the 21st century - with Americans in the top income bracket gaining several years of life expectancy while those at the bottom have gained almost…

Deaths from violent conflict and lack of available care are major causes of mortality among pregnant women in war zones and so more needs to be done to protect women from violence in conflicts and to provide appropriate medical care required, argue doctors in an editorial published in The BMJ today. Though no one has any idea how many pregnant women die in conflict every year, they argue that humanitarian law should protect them anyway. But how? The United Nations never solves conflicts, it can only pass resolutions. Laws don't protect the 140,000 women who die in conflict each year. Over 300…

A new paper claims the historical involvement of tobacco companies during the early days of the response to the AIDS epidemic was just a cynical marketing ploy to distract the public from the dangers of smoking.  The big problem with that assertion is not simply that conspiracy theories require all employees to be in sync, but that the dangers of smoking were over 40 years known by the time that large tobacco companies helped mobilize the AIDS response in the 1990s and onwards. Julia Smith, Sheryl Tompson and Kelley Lee say tobacco industry funding for AIDS response was simply well…

While in America, Mexican-Americans tend to favor amnesty for illegal immigrants and unlimited entry, not so with Syrians in Germany. There, 80 percent of Syrian immigrants are fine with a humanitarian policy but want an admission cap.  The survey by the University of Münster and the polling institute TNS Emnid showed 46 percent ask themselves whether there might be numerous terrorists among the newly arriving refugees. 71 percent of respondents are convinced that most of their fellow countrymen who fled wish to return to Syria after the end of the war, says sociology Prof. Dr…

Eating meals from restaurants has become routine for many American children, often contributing excess calories, solid fats, sodium, and added sugar to diets already lacking in fruit, vegetables, and dairy.  Many restaurants have made voluntary changes to their kids' menus, including reducing the calories in new items, in hopes that doing something proactively to make parents aware of calories will stop the government from continuing to blame the food or the menu or the spoon or whatever activists focus on next. advance of menu-labeling legislation that will mandate printed calorie…

ThinkProgress has found a way to use the tragedy of the Zika outbreak to advance their political agenda. America is one of two developed countries that allow abortion on demand at any stage for any reason (Canada is the other one) and the lack of a national policy has led to varying restrictions on that within the states. Because positions on science (e.g. labeling genetically modified foods) and health vary among politically-motivated groups solely on how it matches their agendas, in the former case they don't want a national standard, but on abortion they do. Toward that end, …

After 38 years, the organization I run, 

When Tootsie Roll chairman and CEO Melvin Gordon died unexpectedly on Jan. 20, 2015, the firm's value saw an immediate 7 percent increase, which was equivalent to about $140 million. Craig Crossland, an assistant professor of management at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, and his research colleagues examined 240 sudden and unexpected CEO deaths like Gordon's to determine how shareholders' perceptions of CEO significance have changed over time. They found that market reactions to these events in U.S. public firms have increased markedly between 1950 and 2009. "Our…

This small state may soon alter the food supply for all Americans (This post originally appeared on Forbes on 3/26/16) Over the past week and a half, Mars, General Mills, ConAgra Foods and Kellogg announced that they had decided to start labeling whether their products contain GMOs nationwide, in compliance with a pending Vermont statute. They see this as a way to avoid the cost of maintaining multiple systems for different states. These companies clearly state that they agree with the scientific consensus that there are no safety issues with biotechnology as it has been applied to crops.…