Now on ScienceBlogs: The Australian's War on Science 41
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
December 31, 2008
Category: Ethics
PhRMA -- the association of pharmaceutical companies -- has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on drug paraphernalia given to doctors: Starting Jan. 1, the pharmaceutical industry has agreed to a voluntary moratorium on the kind of branded goodies -- Viagra...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:21 PM • 4 Comments •
December 29, 2008
Category: Psychology
My suspicion is that many of you went home for the holidays, and my suspicion is that many of you were not entirely honest with your relatives while you were there. While it is not my intention to encourage this...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:47 PM • 1 Comments •
Category: Sex
Ha! I knew it. The quiet animals get more play than the loud obnoxious ones: During bison mating season, the quietest bulls score the most mates and sire the most offspring while studs with the loudest bellows see the least...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:41 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Biology
People are doing biology in their kitchen now, or in rented labs with cheaper equipment: In Cambridge, Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a community lab where the public could use chemicals and lab equipment, including a used...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 2:40 PM • 17 Comments •
December 26, 2008
Category: Other People's Work
Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science has an excellent piece on using chess to explain the differences between men and women in the hard sciences. Turns out, participation not biology is key: Every serious player has an objective rating...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 1:03 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Economics
A economist at Yale, Robert Shiller, compiled an index of housing prices since 1890 in an attempt to determine what caused the housing bubble (click to enlarge): The figure is from here. (Hat-tip: Cafe Hayek)...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:55 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Economics
Barry Gewen from the NYTimes Paper Cuts blog on the reimergence of John Kenneth Galbraith: Friedman has no good explanation for "too big to fail," but it's at the heart of Galbraith's 1967 best seller, "The New Industrial State." Galbraith's...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 12:22 PM • 4 Comments •
December 18, 2008
Category: Economics
I doubt it...but more on that in a second. There is a fascinating argument going over at Edge.org about whether science can save the economy. The authors suggest that the scientific techniques being applied to the natural sciences should be...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 3:27 PM • 17 Comments •
December 17, 2008
Category: Haha, a funny
Not to indulge in too much schadenfreude, but some of these are pretty funny. Foreign Policy compiled the 10 most astonishing wrong predictions for 2008: "There is a real possibility of creating destructive theoretical anomalies such as miniature black holes,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 5:09 PM • 0 Comments •
Here is a cool idea. Researchers in Britain have come up with injectable bone: "Injectable bone is the first delivery system for stem cells and growth factors that forms a material with the strength of a bone," said Robin Quirk,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:39 PM • 1 Comments •
