Science & Society

Conspiracy Theory Or Marketing? Why Tobacco Companies Spent So Much On AIDS Research

A new paper claims the historical involvement of tobacco companies during the early days of the response to the AIDS epidemic was just a cynical marketing ploy to distract the public from the dangers of smoking.  The big problem with that assertion is not ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 11 2016 - 6:30am

International Law Doesn't Protect Pregnant Women From War Crimes

Deaths from violent conflict and lack of available care are major causes of mortality among pregnant women in war zones and so more needs to be done to protect women from violence in conflicts and to provide appropriate medical care required, argue doctor ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2016 - 6:14pm

The Life Expectancy Rich-Poor Gap Is Narrowing In Young People

The life expectancy gap between America's rich and poor is shrinking for the young, a new study reports. In fact, life expectancy at birth has been improving for virtually all income groups born in 1990 onward. The results reveal that many of the U.S ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 22 2016 - 7:00am

Donald Trump Could Change Journalism For The Better- By Removing Its Pretense Of Objectivity

It is unsurprising that wherever Donald Trump goes, headlines follow. But what is particularly interesting is just how many of those headlines involve the practice of journalism and journalists themselves. ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 22 2016 - 10:14am

Contemporary Polymath: How The Renaissance Man Is Making A Comeback

As anyone who has visited the London Science Museum’s current exhibition will know, Leonardo da Vinci is famed as an artist, mathematician, inventor, writer … the list goes on. He was a figure who did not see disciplines as a checkerboard of independent b ...

Article - The Conversation - Apr 27 2016 - 9:20am

Does lower literacy make you a sucker for online health ads?

Patients with lower literacy levels in search for health information may gravitate toward websites advertising services and products, a small study by researchers at Loyola University suggests. ...

Blog Post - Brandon T. Bisceglia - Apr 29 2016 - 10:26am

Obama, Ancestry, and DNA

On the 23 rd of April, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America (fanfare!) issued a warning to us British that at the coming referendum we should vote to remain in the EU.  Reactions have been many and varied: some of these can be found in ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - May 2 2016 - 4:43am

NHS Would Rather Be In The European Union Than In Britain

The NHS is far safer inside the European Union, argues Professor Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene&Tropical Medicine in The BMJ today. He says the EU's international trade agreements now protect public services and that any threat to t ...

Article - News Staff - May 5 2016 - 2:25pm

Professors Often Lose Free Speech Disputes With Universities

When does free speech become important? In the halls of academia, it often comes down along political and cultural lines. An endorsement of business mogul Donald Trump leaves academics and students running for a safe speech while a professor bullying a jo ...

Article - News Staff - May 10 2016 - 1:07pm

Dark Money Funded Site PRWatch Says Scientists Are Fronts For Corporations

The political attack site PRWatch, one arm of the dark-money funded group self-named as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), is run by a former attorney for the Clinton administration which slashed funding for real science in the 1990s (1) while promo ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 11 2016 - 4:37pm