Science & Society

What Is The Cost Of Clean Air?

Does clean air have a cost where it makes sense versus where it doesn't? What about human life in general?   Economists still try to create a metric and a group from the University of Chicago and MIT tackled the financial results of extensive environm ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 2 2012 - 1:11pm

US Health Care: You Don't Need What You Have

The Affordable Care Act controversy rages on. In this week's BMJ,  journalist Jeanne Lenzer says the basic assumption that US people don't have enough health care is misleading and in reality, Americans have too much- and that u nnecessary care c ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 2 2012 - 7:59pm

What Electrical Appliance Will Still Be In Your Home 25 Years From Now?

For some appliances, newer is not always better.  If you have an old dryer, you are better off not replacing it with an EnergyStar, more efficient model.  Unless you want to wait forever to dry your clothes, whereas newer refrigerators work better but peo ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 7 2012 - 11:00am

Scientific Misconduct, Not Error, Accounts For The Majority Of Article Retractions

Scientists are commonly portrayed as paragons of rationality, subsisting solely on fact-based evidence and hard data; what goes on behind laboratory doors is in large part a mystery to the general public. In the past several years, however, there have been ...

Article - Eve Hardy - Oct 5 2012 - 7:20pm

And The 2012 Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine Goes To....

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for – you guessed it- stem cell research. Or more specifically, “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent". The an ...

Article - Eve Hardy - Oct 15 2012 - 10:02am

Left, Right? Science Shouldn't Be Worried Either Way

The biggest feel-good fallacy perpetuated by some in science media today is that "the right", whoever they are, is anti-science, while "the left", whoever they are, is pro-science.  It's exactly the opposite.  The right historicall ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 2 2013 - 8:59am

What Is Natural Anyway?

It is clear from many discussions that there is a split between things people consider to be "natural" versus those that are the products of technology, or man-made.  Obviously no one would consider a computer to be natural, nor would anyone sugg ...

Article - Gerhard Adam - Oct 14 2012 - 10:07am

Genoeconomics: Is Our Financial Future In Our Chromosomes?

A new phase in the Gene Wars is about to begin — this time focused on the nexus of genetics and economics. Nature carried a provocative article last week laying the ground work for what should be a fiery debate over the nascent field of genoeconomics. The ...

Article - Jon Entine - Oct 16 2012 - 7:05pm

Anti-Darwinism Dominating Progressive Science Outreach

As pointed out recently, a new type of creationism has entered popular discourse through the backdoor. That was mostly about computer geeks and physicists trying to outperform "old atheists" in fashionable, gadgety ways, thus unwittingly bringin ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Jul 21 2013 - 10:25pm

Why We Love Outing Internet Trolls

Michael Brutsch appeared to be an upstanding citizen. He is the father of a teenage son who joined the Marines, loves cats, and lives with his disabled wife in Arlington, TX. As a programmer for a financial services company, he punched the clock daily and ...

Article - Michael W. Taft - Oct 24 2012 - 2:08am