Science & Society

In Sweden the welfare system allows for generous maternity leave, long spells of sickness absence with almost full compensation and opportunities to work part time. The result: women on long term…

Expensive trainers are not worth the money, finds a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Cheap and moderately priced running shoes are just as good, if not better, in terms of cushioning…

Many consumers take precautions against identity theft, but what about medical identity theft? In addition to financial peril, victims can suffer physical danger if false entries in medical records…

Correlation is not causation but a new study in the journal Fertility & Sterility found that mothers who experienced an increase in weight from the beginning of the first pregnancy to the…

'Word of mouth' advertising is valuable because marketing groups know that opinions of friends and associates count more than the paid endorsements of strangers. But what kind of opinions matter…

Tom Goetz wrote a thoughtful article "It's Time to Free the Dark Data of Failed Scientific Experiments" in Wired this week. So what happens to all the research that doesn't yield a dramatic outcome —…

File sharing is taking its worst toll on smaller albums, “devastating” lower ranked titles on the Billboard Top 100, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management…

Researchers in California are reporting development of a fast, inexpensive test suitable for home use that could help millions of people avoid those ‘out of the blue’ headaches that may follow…

We had about a dozen participants at the Open Notebook Science Case Studies SciFoo Lives On session yesterday. I talked about using a free and hosted blog (Blogger), wiki (Wikispaces), referral…

Music training, with its pervasive effects on the nervous system’s ability to process sight and sound, may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than learning phonics, according…