Science & Society
Journalists can't seem to write an article about Humboldt squid without mentioning their "Mexican name" diablo rojo. But in all my squid trips to the Gulf of California, I've never yet heard a Mexican fisherman use that term. At the squid festival, la cuarta gran feria del calamar gigante, in Guaymas, Sonora, there was no mention, ever, of el diablo rojo. The Humboldt is calamar gigante, and that's that.
But diablo rojo has become so prevalent in news coverage of this species that I wonder if the media will end up creating their own reality? If enough Americans, Mexicans, and others keep…
In the issue dated 10 October, Science News reports on a study that suggests that peer reviewers prefer positive results:
Peer reviewers for biomedical journals preferentially rate manuscripts with positive health outcomes as better, a new study reports.
Now, at first blush this might seem like a “Duh!” moment, but it’s not. We obviously would like to see positive results when we’re studying a new medicine, but there’s a great deal of value in publishing negative results as well. It tells us what medicines don’t work. It tells researchers what direction to take, exposing some of the blind…
A recent article entitled "Educators could learn a thing or two from the automotive industry, study finds" piqued my interest.
"...explains how "Lean production" techniques have transformed the
automotive, construction, and service industries as well as healthcare
delivery."
I was hooked. Clearly here was a model for education from some of the most successful, admired industries in the world. I did notice that there wasn't much mention of the materials, curriculum, or the students themselves, but then why burden yourself with extraneous details.
Perhaps after these ideas…
In the Aug. 9, 2009 issue of Time magazine there was an article entitled "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin". In reading this article, I couldn't help but conclude that this was another series of bad correlations and misinformation that would further confuse a public that appears mystified by food.
The front page actually trumpets the article as "The Myth About Exercise", however upon inspection you find that it's simply not true.
There is absolutely no doubt that losing weight requires that more calories be expended than are consumed. However, amid all the nonsensical and ill-explained…
I was going to write about this article in the Kitsap Sun, which highlighted my advisor's recent research trip off the WA coast. I thought that was pretty cool, but the article had a few science points confused, so I was going to clarify them. But then I got to the end of the article and was blown away by the most egregious mistake yet:
Eggs have never been seen by researchers, but females probably hide their eggs in rocks, as other squid do.
I can forgive the first clause more readily than the second. Although researchers found the first Humboldt squid egg mass in 2006, the paper didn't come…
I like Penn&Teller, the magicians and debunkers of pseudoscience and general inanity. I regularly use clips from their show in my critical reasoning class, despite cringing every time Penn indulges in his “fuck this” and “motherfucker that” exercise in free speech (it distracts the students from the real point, not to mention the always lurking possibility of an administrator asking me about the appropriateness of foul language in a philosophy class). Heck, I even recently went to Vegas to see them in person, had a photo taken with Teller, and managed to tell him (to his surprise) about…
Okay, I know Michigan is practically an island, but that water is fresh, and there are no freshwater cephalopods (curious, yes? I will muse on that later!). So we can consider it landlocked from a squiddish perspective.
And the giant squid isn't a real live (or even real dead) giant squid, it's an art piece that I mentioned earlier. Now the installation is complete, and one of the artists has posted some pictures! And if you live near Grand Rapids (anyone?) please go check it out for me. If you like it, you can vote for it in the competition.
I am all about supporting accurate science in the…
Well, now we know that spanking results in lower IQs for children than those that aren't spanked. Of course, maybe once we figure out what IQ really means (if anything) this study might actually have some significance.
"But the 2- to 4-year-olds who were spanked scored 5 points lower on the
IQ test than those not spanked. For children ages 5 to 9, the spanked
ones scored on average 2.8 points lower than their unspanked
counterparts.
The results, he said, were statistically significant."
The question that needs to be asked is why these results should be considered statistically…
Hank |
I'm not one of the more fundamentalist types in the broad science community who had any issue with Francis Collins leading the NIH. His credentials are impeccable and the same people who were backflipping with glee over Stephen Chu as Energy Secretary despite his weird militancy about global warming seemed to mind that Collins liked to go to church. Not an issue for me, I was more worried about his overselling of personalized medicine.
If anything, I think Collins being an important science figure despite personal beliefs contrarian to 60% of scientists is a real endorsement of…
Recent events in the Chrematosphere* have brought the following to mind. It is from Fred Hoyle’s Frontiers of Astronomy, concerning the collapse of a giant star before it explodes as a supernova.
The collapse
The inner regions of the star are now faced by a crisis. After drawing steadily on the energy yielded by the conversion of helium into heavier elements in successive stages the star is suddenly called on to pay all the energy back ... Naturally the star calls on its assets, namely on its gravitational field to foot the bill – the inner part of the star shrinks. But the demand for…