Science & Society

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…

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…

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…

For most of its life, Olin College of Engineering in scenic Needham, Massachusettes was free.  All students received a 100% scholarship.  In a sad reflection of the times, though, this has…

Over at Bioephemera, Jessica Palmer agree with Language Log’s Mark Liberman in his admonition against the use of “generic plurals” in science reporting. Language Log: This would lead us to avoid…

One sometimes gets frustrated reading our Daily/Sunday Telegraph.  So many of their columnists, and those who comment on blogs, think that "Global Warming" is a man-made political scam, a…

On this day of celebration, let us remember and honor the invaluable contributions of squid to pirate lore and culture: - Davy Jones and the Kraken in Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest. As…

Ahoy maties, how the time flies. It is "Talk Like A Pirate Day" once again and the science communities be awash in pirattitude. Or not, perhaps 'tis just me. But if it's not just me, and the little…

The Economist reported that in early 2007, for the first time in history, more humans lived in cities than in the countryside. We are now a different species, in terms of the environmental…

Testing the inputand the Equal Opportunity Game