Science in the Media:
When generic drugs started to become popular, many people were skeptical. Many people got switched from brand name to generic products, and complained that the generic did not work as well. These complaints often were treated with skepticism. After all,...
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Posted on March 17, 2008 8:47 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Judith Warner has some insightful essays in the NYT column, pertaining to the long-raging question about whether psychiatric patients are overmedicated or undermedicated. One of the essays addresses the question directly: Overselling Overmedication Judith Warner February 14, 2008 ...In the...
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Posted on February 28, 2008 9:09 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A fellow blogger, Logtar, tipped me off to a controversy, and asked if I had anything to say about it. The controversy has come about over an exhibit: Bodies Revealed. It's a traveling exhibit that displays plastinated human cadavers. The...
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Posted on February 25, 2008 8:27 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Usually I cringe when I see yet another newspaper article about suicide. But I always read them. This time, I did cringe, but needlessly. The article turned out to be OK. F.D.A. Requiring Suicide Studies in Drug Trials By GARDINER...
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Posted on January 25, 2008 7:33 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Any time something related to a medical use for cannabis is found, it makes headlines. Mostly, the interest is generated by the relationship to an illegal drug. Sometimes, though, the media do a decent job of reporting the real issue....
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Posted on November 20, 2007 9:01 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tilly is an eagle that has been trained to fly with a pair of video cameras. The cameras weigh less than 30 grams and can transmit video signals more than a mile. I gather this was shown on Aminal...
Posted on November 13, 2007 11:26 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Is it just me, or do others find this article to be offensive? When the Patient Is a Googler By SCOTT HAIG Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007 We had never met, but as we talked on the phone I knew she...
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Posted on November 10, 2007 9:47 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The researchers did fMRI of brains of persons with Borderline Personality Disorder, before and after psychotherapy. This was a small study, using a design that would be difficult to use routinely, but it is provisionally interesting. Difficult, because the patients...
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Posted on November 6, 2007 8:25 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PZ has already written about this, primarily to dismiss it as nonsense. He is correct, but there is one point (or two) that I want to add. Oliver Curry is described in WIkipedia as an evolutionary theorist as well as...
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Posted on October 27, 2007 8:46 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Howard Hughes Medical Institute has announced a policy to promote open-access publication of scientific papers. They are not only supporting it philosophically, but financially as well. In fact, they are not only supporting it, but requiring it for their researchers:...
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Posted on September 29, 2007 11:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Guardian Unlimited has a provocative article on the role of endocrine disruptors in increasing the ratio of girl babies to boy babies in the Arctic. I've written about the topic before (1 2) as have Abel and PZ....
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Posted on September 14, 2007 5:28 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
PNAS has an open-access article describing the current state of knowledge of the genetics of autism. The authors looked at information from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange and two other databases; one from the University of Michigan, the other...
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Posted on August 2, 2007 10:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This press release (HT: medGadget) from King's College tips us off to an article in the journal, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. This is something that news sites picked up on. Specifically, the authors reported a relationship between the number...
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Posted on July 14, 2007 12:53 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A couple of Parkinson's Disease related items came across the news wires, briefly. There are lessons in both of them, but both leave me with unresolved questions. The first one I noticed was a report based upon a journal...
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Posted on July 14, 2007 8:15 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One sure sign of acceptance in the mainstream media occurs when a publication gets picked up by Google News (as illustrated in the screen capture image, above). Yesterday, reading the Public Library of Science Medicine journal (PLoS Medicine), I...
Posted on July 12, 2007 6:02 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The FDA just can't win. When they restrict something or say something negative, they are being too restrictive or complicit with big pharma. When they approve something too slowly they are insensitive to the needs of patients. When they approve...
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Posted on July 11, 2007 7:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of hearing Amy Goodman interview Chris Mooney about the subject of his new book, Storm World. It was a segment from Democracy Now! I won't trouble you with a synopsis, you can...
Posted on July 11, 2007 4:44 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
(RWOS=Republican War on Science) In case you haven't noticed (and why would you?), the USA is without a Surgeon General. The old one, Dr. Richard Carmona, unhired himself for unclear reasons last July, as noted on Effect Measure. The candidate...
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Posted on July 10, 2007 9:45 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I wrote about a similar topic a bit ago, it which a relationship was found between chronic pain and depression in retired pro football players. Now, there is an NTY article that reviews some findings about a relationship between concussions...
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Posted on May 31, 2007 10:23 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am on call today, so I am about to go in to the hospital for a full day of work. But while drinking my coffee I encountered an article that I need to get back to. Maybe some of...
Posted on May 28, 2007 8:07 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A recent article in Health Affairs attempts to put drug safety and risk in perspective. But will it do any good?
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Posted on May 15, 2007 8:51 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
"Resilient Infections Worry Military Doctors" is a headline in the Washington Post. It reflects a serious concern often noted here at ScienceBlogs. I read it and worried, again. But perhaps there is hope: maggots. From News@Nature.com: Maggots eat up resistant...
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Posted on May 6, 2007 12:41 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is one of the first publications that I subscribed to, after Popular Electronics, and maybe Mad Magazine. I must confess that I have not renewed the subscription, but from time to time I check their website. There is...
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Posted on April 3, 2007 8:49 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A few days ago, a couple of ScienceBloggers, (Tim Lambert and I) wrote about the startling revelation the the British government's science advisors informed Tony Blair that what he was about to do was going to be a mistake....
Posted on April 2, 2007 10:09 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There is a whole field of evolutionary psychology. Let me get this out of the way: I remain skeptical of the entire endeavor, even though there is now a Center for Evolutionary Psychology. But when it makes it into the...
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Posted on February 26, 2007 9:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yesterday, both Abel and I posted about the unexpected effects of lavender and tea-tree oils: they've been implicated as causing gynecomastia in boys. Blogpulse indicates that the Blogosphere has reacted quite a bit to this: the blog at Wired News...
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Posted on February 4, 2007 1:02 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This morning, or noon, or whatever, I read Jonah's post at The Frontal Cortex, The NFL and Mental Illness. It is a tragic story, but there is one thing about it that I want to comment upon, regarding the reported...
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Posted on February 2, 2007 8:35 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
And what an unflattering light it is. It occurs to me that often, when I write about the pharmaceutical industry, I have something negative to say. Really, my thoughts are not all negative. It's just that it is easier to...
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Posted on January 30, 2007 8:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
(This is a public health announcement for women and men.) News agencies are, appropriately, reporting on the finding that the average levels of folate in American women are falling. (e.g. Folate levels in young American women fall, could lead to...
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Posted on January 6, 2007 4:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
(I know Shelly has already posted about this on Retrospectacle. Hopefully, you'll see there is a different slant to this.) Significant controversy arose over the idea of using pharmaceutical and surgical methods to permanently stunt the growth of children...
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Posted on January 5, 2007 8:16 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is kind of an old story, I know. Still, every once in a while it is good to revisit these things. When the topic first came up in 2004, it was the subject of much newspaper space and blog...
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Posted on December 4, 2006 8:22 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
More headline comparisons: College kids add on pounds past 1st year San Jose Mercury News, USA - 15 hours ago AP. BOSTON - The "Freshman 15" is more like 5 to 7, but it is followed by the "Sophomore 2 or...
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Posted on October 23, 2006 7:52 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Union of Concerned Scientists announced the winner of their Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest: Dr. James Lachlan MacLeod, Associate Professor of History at the University of Evansville. According to his webpage, MacLeod studied history at the University of Edinburgh,...
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Posted on October 4, 2006 12:24 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The voting closes tomorrow, so be sure to go vote for your favorite. This is from a selection of political cartoons, in the "Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest."...
Posted on September 29, 2006 10:43 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I find it interesting that one of the recipients of a Lasker Clinical Research Award this year was Aaron Beck. Dr. Beck is a psychiatrist. He is widely regarded as the originator of cognitive therapy. The rationale is outlined in...
Posted on September 20, 2006 9:08 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There is a lot of information about vagus nerve stimulation as a treatment for depression, that you can get from the latest New York Times article (Battle Lines in Treating Depression, permanent link) on the subject. Unfortunately, most of the...
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Posted on September 11, 2006 7:59 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
James Robbins, contributing editor at the National Review Online, thinks global warming is a good idea. This is proclaimed in his article, Hooray for Global Warming. This is another version of the "CO2 is life" meme. And like "CO2 is...
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Posted on August 9, 2006 8:05 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We were asked to identify a film that did something positive for science. I was not able to come up with anything, not being much of a film aficionado. So I asked one of my contacts for ideas. My contact...
Posted on August 6, 2006 4:53 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I just finished reading a news release pertaining to a finding in psychiatric genetics. I was prepared to be irritated, but was pleased instead. New genetic findings add to understanding of obsessive-compulsive disorder Kara Gavin July 26, 2006 ANN ARBOR,...
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Posted on August 2, 2006 9:00 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is an archived article from 2004, scheduled to be posted today to fill a vacation-induced gap. A recent article in the LA Times reports on hazards associated with herbal sex aids. This brings to mind a couple of reasons...
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Posted on July 27, 2006 10:16 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a follow-up to the post from a couple of days ago. It might not make a lot of sense unless you have read that post, or are otherwise familiar with the issues regarding genetically-modified crops. In general, there...
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Posted on July 19, 2006 8:12 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A friend and colleague of mine drives around in a cute little VW bug powered by biodiesel. There's a peace sign on the front of it, which helps it get better mileage. But peace sign or not, there has been...
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Posted on July 14, 2006 12:00 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Usability Tips: How to read blogs more efficiently I can tell that people are clicking on my "add to Bloglines" button, but few are actually completing the process. I can only surmise that people are clicking on it in order...
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Posted on July 8, 2006 1:14 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I'm sitting here, wondering why in the world I wrote so much about a topic that is of no more than passing interest to me. Perhaps if I keep writing, I will figure it out. Note: this will not make...
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Posted on June 20, 2006 11:21 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A news item that was displayed prominently on Google News for a couple of days, which was picked up by hundreds of news outlets, was an item about Intermittent Explosive Disorder. One example is here, in the Chicago Sun-Times. This...
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Posted on June 8, 2006 3:54 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
