Reality is always more complicated than you think.
Profile
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.
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.
Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.
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 or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.
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Energy Policy:
Two great articles on energy policy. 1) One of the major points of resistance to carbon taxes or caps is that developing countries won't have similar quotas giving them a comparative advantage in the production of goods. However, some economists...
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Posted on June 23, 2008 10:56 AM • 0 Comments •
Sales of Vespas are up -- largely because of high oil prices. Vespas and other motorcycles have significantly greater fuel economy than your average car. Part of me is happy about this because it illustrates that people are making more...
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Posted on June 18, 2008 10:02 AM • 18 Comments •
Haha! The Law of Demand works. Price goes up. Driving goes down. Figure: NYTimes I repeat: if you want to lower demand for and hence consumption of gasoline, this is the best thing that has ever happened for you. Prices...
Posted on June 3, 2008 11:36 AM • 4 Comments •
Bryan Caplan writing in the NYTimes suggests that in spite of making no economic sense whatsoever the gas tax holiday might be a good idea as a symbolic gesture: The first is that the tax holiday is a relatively cheap...
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Posted on May 8, 2008 10:59 AM • 4 Comments •
(Keeping with our trend towards a week of economics -- see here and here -- I have another post where I attempt to talk above my pay grade.) I am as unhappy as anybody about high oil prices making everything...
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Posted on April 30, 2008 5:14 PM • 26 Comments •
Now that's thinking outside the box: Two graduate students at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning want to harvest the energy of human movement in urban settings, like commuters in a train station or fans at a concert. The so-called...
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Posted on August 6, 2007 9:59 AM • 6 Comments •
C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer, writing in Foriegn Affairs, summarize the likely effects of corn-based biofuels on the world food supply. Take home message: the biofuel craze has led to skyrocketing food prices which -- along with government subsidies...
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Posted on June 26, 2007 12:23 PM • 13 Comments •
Lots of stuff has been written lately over the relative merits of carbon taxes vs. carbon trading markets. Just to summarize the policies, a carbon tax would apply an across the board premium on all users of carbon depending upon...
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Posted on June 6, 2007 11:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Hydrogen is great, but I feel like there are some structural and technical issues that have to be solved before...you know...the angels fly down to save us and hugs and bunnies abound. Popular Mechanics introduces a note of realism to...
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Posted on October 20, 2006 10:22 AM • 0 Comments •
The entry that I posted on research challenging the idea that Hummers are worse for the environment than hybrids has sparked a great deal of contreversy and criticism. I cannot say that I find this entirely surprising. There have been...
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Posted on July 25, 2006 11:32 AM • 7 Comments •
Hybrid vehicles clearly have better gas mileage than many SUVs on the market, but does the gas mileage as a figure accurately represent the total energy usage required to build, market, use and destroy the vehicle? Art Spinella, in a...
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Posted on July 21, 2006 9:30 AM • 28 Comments •
A study in the newest PNAS seeks to quantify the efficiency and resource utilization for various types of biofuels:...
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Posted on July 10, 2006 10:49 PM • 0 Comments •
Several bloggers and columnists have been expressing skepticism as to the concept of energy independence, and I think they make some good arguments....
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Posted on July 9, 2006 10:40 PM • 1 Comments •
