Conflicted interests in Boston healthcare, gene sequences powering a change in medicine, inheriting more than genes from our parents, and the cancel culture comes to medicine.
Other Science News
The pandemic is not a monolithic event; it is a dance of the virus and our behavior. What we have learned about pandemics from the mistakes in our models. What about “long” COVID? Why does “if it bleeds, it leads” make sense?
Much of the literature in the softer sciences, and here we need to include studies of public health issues, like nutrition, exercise, or even COVID-19, seem irreproducible. One group's work does not seem to be easily reproduced by another, giving rise to concerns about bias and veracity. As always, there is far more to the story.
So which is it? And what gives this versatile adhesive its name? Odds are you, and most of those you know, have no idea. But luckily we have Dr. Joe Schwarcz to explain its origins. So if you have a few minutes, the Director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, and ACSH friend, will reward you with some interesting insights.
What is trust? Did whales learn to avoid whalers? The dangerous self-fulfillment of ludic loops
Is it too early to try and summarize what we have learned about the pandemic? Pompeii's lessons on recovering from disaster. Rules to live by?
What is it about science that has allowed our knowledge to advance so rapidly? And why wasn’t science invented long before that pivotal figure, Issac Newton? These are some of the questions that Michael Strevens, a professor of the philosophy of science, attempts to answer in a book called The Knowledge Machine.
Farewell articles are tough to write, which is one reason why I try not to write them very often.
Is aging just a matter of miscommunication? Should we have National Oceans, like the National Parks? Is a virus like COVID-19 alive, or is this just the zombie apocalypse? Would the Sierra Club allow genetic modification of a tree to save them?
March 5, 2020, was my last trip on the hideous New York City subway. At that time COVID has just begun to hit the city. By any measure, the last year sucked (as does the subway) but now that I'm inoculated I'm able to ride the damn thing again. Here's the one-year anniversary update of the trip report from last year. Things are much different now.
Aging is a failure to communicate? Should we have national sea parks? COVID-19 is not an equal opportunity disease. If a virus is not truly "alive," is this the zombie apocalypse?
The mainstream media is repeating the unscientific claims of a dishonest book. A deeper dive into the author of the book would have revealed duplicity and enormous conflicts of interest.