Science & Society

If you listen to pubic radio, you can find programs that say mass media is right wing.  Yes, right wing, because it takes a corporation to make mass media for the masses.    So…

Sometimes you open Nature magazine and are surprised by the latest discovery in quantum mechanics or molecular biology. Browsing through the March 5, 2009 issue I was stunned by an article penned by…

Barry Kibrick, producer and host of the PBS program "Between the Lines" has given me permission to share his weekly newsletter which alerts readers of current and archived programs and delivers a…

This older talk by computer science pioneer Richard Hamming is awesome: One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can…

John Hawks is not happy with it. I clicked on this John Timmer story about the new website, “Understanding Science”, directed toward the public and K-12 educators. What I found staring at me was a…

It seems that music has extraordinary magical powers. Famed for being able to tame wild beasts, set a romantic mood, keep you exercising for longer and make babies smarter, music has taken a…

There has been a perception that running has the same metabolic cost per unit of time no matter the speed — in other words, that the energy needed to run a given distance is the same whether…

New research on the reporting of medical treatments in the Australian media showed slight improvements in accuracy but the overall quality of health reporting remained poor, says a study of more than…

Extreme violence resulting in multiple deaths occurs with mounting frequency around the world. March 11, 2009, a teen in Germany slaughtered 15 people, UK News reports. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/…

Need a few Irish Gaelic words for the pub? Want a few trivial tidbits to impress your fellow revelers? Plan to discuss science (eolaíocht) over pints? Read on! Take a PDF cheat sheet with you to…