Science
Respectful Insolence
Category archives for Science
Just in time for April Fools’ Day…Dr. Oz and the Pigasus Awards!
Posted by Orac on April 1, 2011 Ah, April Fools’ Day! I had thought of trying to do a typical April Fools’ Day post, you know, something like trying to write something but the last time I tried to do that it fell really flat, so flat that I’m not even going to link to it. It’s better not to remind my…
The animal rights radicals may have overreached this time
Posted by Orac on March 30, 2011 Yesterday, I learned of how animal rights terrorists are targeting college students as the “soft underbelly of the vivisection movement.” As an example of their new strategy, these thugs gloated over the “recantation” by a Florida Atlantic University student named Alena Rodriguez, who, because of her e-mail to a Negotiation Is Over editor named Ghazal…
Animal rights terrorists target students as the “soft underbelly of the vivisection movement”
Posted by Orac on March 30, 2011 I’ve made no secret of my disdain for self-proclaimed “animal rights” activists, the ones who are more than willing to terrorize scientists doing research to understand disease better and thereby develop better treatments and even cures. None of this means that I am some sort of “animal abuser” (to steal the animal rights jargon) or…
Post-grant open thread
Posted by Orac on March 29, 2011 Well, it’s over. The grant is in, but it was painful, and I was exhausted, both in brain and body, last night. That’s why there’s no Insolence right now. Last night, I chilled, cracked open a cold one, watched some utterly mindless TV, and crashed early in order to be ready for a day in…
Dr. Michael Egnor must really want to operate on my brain or something…
Posted by Orac on March 28, 2011 Grant time again! Since today–yes, today!–is the deadline for a rather big grant I’m writing (not quite R01 level, but a respectable three year project if I can get it), I was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to put this sucker to bed. Being the ever-benevolent blogger, though, far be it…
The “downfall” of my grant writing today
Posted by Orac on March 27, 2011 These are two videos that appeared to have disappeared from YouTube for a while, thanks to takedown notices from the distributors of the film. Fortunately, they appear to be back, which is pure awesomeness. Unfortunately, because I’m busy putting the final touches on a grant today, the first one resonates in a rather eerie way.…
It’s a drag to be the only skeptic in the room…
Posted by Orac on March 18, 2011 You know, I really know the feeling described in this song: I really do. How about you?
Medical advice from Chuck Norris
Posted by Orac on March 10, 2011 Not too long ago, I posted a rather amusing little video called Immunize! One line in the song that amused me went something like this: Don’t give Chuck Norris shots! That’d be dim. Chuck need vaccines? Naw Vaccines need him? Actually, not too surprisingly, it turns out that the word “dim” should be applied to…
On teaching the controversy in medicine
Posted by Orac on March 3, 2011 The other day, I wrote to express my disappointment with Dr. Kevin Pho, of KevinMD, for posting credulous crap about alternative medicine. I noted in an addendum that he responded with a comment that in essence said that he posts things he “doesn’t necessarily agree with myself to promote discussion and debate”: Orac, I appreciate…
If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we cure cancer?
Posted by Orac on February 21, 2011 Why haven’t we cured cancer yet? If we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we cure cancer? If we can harness the atom, why can’t we cure cancer? How many times have you heard these questions, or variants thereof? How many times have you asked this question yourself? Sometimes, I even ask…
The NIH threatened
Posted by Orac on February 16, 2011 As most of you know, most of the basic and translational biomedical research in the U.S. is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unfortunately, the NIH budget has been stagnant for the last five or six years. That’s been bad enough, leading to a decline in funding success rates for applicants for research…
The “decline” of science? Not so much
Posted by Orac on January 25, 2011 I’ve on occasion been asked why I even bother responding to the brain–and I do use the term loosely–droppings of Mike Adams, the purveyor of one of the largest repositories of quackery on the entire Internet. Good question. Sometimes I wonder that myself. After all, Adams is so far out there, so beyond the realm…
Andrew Wakefield on Good Morning America? Who says “tell both sides” medical journalist about pseudoscience is dead?
Posted by Orac on January 16, 2011 Oh, geez. Will the media never learn? Yep, it looks as though Andrew Wakefield will be on Good Morning America tomorrow. True, it is a holiday in the U.S., but that just might mean that viewership will be higher because more people will be at home. I, of course, will be at work; so I…
Work interferes with skepticism yet again…but maybe not for you
Posted by Orac on January 14, 2011 Bummer, people. The Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism has been announced for 2011 and will take place on April 9 and 10 in New York. It’s going to be bigger and better than ever, going from one day to a whole weekend, and it has a killer lineup of speakers. And I can’t go.…
Misdirected criticism by someone from whom I would never have expected it
Posted by Orac on January 13, 2011 It is with some trepidation and more than a little regret that I begin writing this piece. The reason for my hesitation is that, by doing so, no matter what I say I’ll be inserting myself into what appears to be a disagreement among people all of whom I admire very much. I don’t really…
Is the “decline effect” really so mysterious? (revisited)
Posted by Orac on January 5, 2011 Back in December, I took issue with a highly irritating article by someone who normally should know better, Jonah Lehrer, entitled The Truth Wears Off: Is There Something Wrong With the Scientific Method?, so much so that I wrote one of my typical long-winded deconstructions of the article. One thing that irritated me was contained…
The Orac Christmas tree
Posted by Orac on December 23, 2010 My readers might not think that a Plexiglass box full of blinking colored lights cum most advanced computer in the galaxy would go to the trouble of celebrating Christmas, much less putting up an actual Christmas tree. Well, actually, he didn’t. His wife did. But, then, Orac is a Plexiglass box of blinking colored lights.…
The Chicago Tribune, “chronic Lyme disease,” and demands for false balance
Posted by Orac on December 20, 2010 During the six years of its existence, one frequent complaint I’ve had on this blog, it’s been about how the press covers various health issues. In particular, it’s depressing to see how often dubious and even outright false health claims, such as the claim that vaccines cause autism, that cell phones or powerlines cause cancer,…
Is the “decline effect” really so mysterious?
Posted by Orac on December 17, 2010 NOTE: Orac was actually out rather late last night. It turns out that the more administrative responsibility he somehow seems to find the more he has to go out to dinner as a part of various cancer center-related functions. As a result, he is recycling a bit of recent material from elsewhere that he in…
Six years in the blogosphere…
Posted by Orac on December 11, 2010 Has it really been six years? Six years ago today, on a dim and dreary Saturday in December, almost on a whim I sat down, went to Blogspot, and started up the first version of Respectful Insolence with an introductory post with the cliched title, Please allow me to introduce myself. Here it is, six…
Who are the Terminator cranks?
Posted by Orac on December 3, 2010 As a part of a longer post where I was, for the most part, serious albeit sarcastic, I asked one question that I considered a bit of a throwaway joke. Oddly enough, the more I think about it, the more I think that it wasn’t such a joke. Here was my question: Perhaps we could…
Anti-fluoridation crankery? How quaintly 1960s! I only wish it weren’t on ScienceBlogs
Posted by Orac on December 2, 2010 No, no, no, no, no! I hate it when a fellow ScienceBlogger goes astray! Fortunately, it’s been a long time indeed since I felt obligated to administer a dose of Insolence, Respectful or otherwise, to a fellow ScienceBlogger. It’s been even longer (as in, I think, never) that I’ve ever seen one whose resource I…
Removing science from anthropology: Parallels with medicine
Posted by Orac on December 1, 2010 I don’t recall if I ever mentioned this before, but back when I was in college I had quite the interest in a couple of sciences that you might not have expected or guessed at, namely anthropology and archaelogy. Indeed, an archeology class that I took as a senior was one of the most memorable…
So Al Gore didn’t invent global warming? Who knew?
Posted by Orac on November 24, 2010 If there’s one characteristic of denialists of all stripes, it’s that they have a strong tendency to personalize their dislike of their particular bete noir science. For instance, anti-vaccine activists tend to attack Paul Offit as though he were the Dark Lord of Vaccination. Creationists tend to attack Charles Darwin (who, being conveniently dead, can’t…
Skeptoid disappoints about DDT and the environment
Posted by Orac on November 22, 2010 You may have noticed that there wasn’t the usual 3,000 word heapin’ helpin’ of Insolence this morning. That’s because I happened to be away visiting family in Chicago over the weekend and I just didn’t have time to come up with anything–and I enjoyed myself too thoroughly to worry overmuch about it. In case you’re…