Science & Society

Like Vaccines? Thank The Military

Like that your child's modern baby seat can't erupt in flame? Thank the Roman military of almost 2,000 years ago. Like heating up your recyclable pouch of avocado toast points in the microwave? Thank the American military of World War II,(1) when ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Dec 7 2018 - 2:08pm

Sex Lives And Disabilities

Millie Dollar sashays onto the stage in a green, feathered dress to conclude the evening’s entertainment with a sultry burlesque routine. The capacity audience at the ornate Epstein Theatre in Liverpool is enraptured by her sensual beauty. Burlesque, she ...

Article - Mosaic Science - May 11 2015 - 8:30am

“I Am A Woman More Than A Wheelchair”

In 1989 Ellen Stohl, who had become a wheelchair user after a car accident, appeared in an eight-page spread in Playboy magazine. She had pushed to do so, she explained later, because it was important for her to express her right to sexuality. “Sexuality ...

Article - Mosaic Science - May 18 2015 - 8:30am

Prosocial Words Impact Congressional Approval Ratings

California Senator Dianne Feinstein recently declared war on homemade soap in order to placate her corporate donors, so it is no surprise the public holds her in rather poor regard. Yet it is not just her, U.S. Congress approval ratings are at record lows ...

Article - News Staff - May 14 2015 - 6:40pm

Journal Elitism: Stop Penalizing Scientists For Talking Directly To The Public

As scientists, my colleagues and I are often told we need to engage the general public and decision makers, to use our expertise to inform public discourse and debates and to reach a far wider audience than just our professional colleagues. I very much be ...

Article - The Conversation - May 12 2015 - 8:00am

Kids From Multilingual Environments Likely To Be Better Natural Communicators

Kids from multilingual environments become better communicators, according to a new paper in  Psychological Science which says that such children are better at interpreting a speaker's meaning than children who are exposed only to their native tongue ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2015 - 12:12pm

Meat Myth Debunked: It Is Not Worse For The Environment To Go By Bike Than Car

Like with car pool lanes, the rationale for more bicycling infrastructure is that if they are built, more people will use them, and it will save the environment, public health, etc. but like with car pool lanes, the reality turns out to be different. In a ...

Article - News Staff - May 16 2015 - 10:30am

Pests In Paradise

Our adventure started here after an 8-mile hike to Snowmass Lake near Aspen, Colorado I learned something very important about crop pests in a most unexpected setting – a paradise-like wilderness area in the Colorado Rockies.  It was the summer of 1978 an ...

Article - Steve Savage - May 13 2015 - 9:28am

Laffer Curve Of Fashion? Average-Sized Models Could Sell More Clothes

Does anyone actually buy the clothes that show up on runways a few times per year? People do, and the thinking goes that in order to sell them, models need to look thin. Some cultural advocates have insisted that overweight women who look more 'real& ...

Article - News Staff - May 13 2015 - 10:48am

Australia, Algae, And Abalone

Once again, your resident tellytraveller has turned his gaze to the Southern Hemisphere, this time with second series of Coast Australia.  Episode 8 took us to New South Wales, and most spectacularly to Jervis Bay, a little under 200 km south of Sydney. ...

Article - Robert H Olley - May 16 2015 - 2:45am