David Dobbs writes on science, medicine, nature, and culture.
Author and journalist David Dobbs writes on science, medicine, and culture for the New York Times Magazine, Slate, Scientific American Mind, and other publications; "Buried Answers," one of his features for the Times Magazine, will appear in Houghton Mifflin's esteemed
October 25, 2006
Category: Public health
Amid the rash of school violence over the last few weeks, the town just next to my own placid, lovely Vermont town, Barre, was recently shaken when three teenagers got involved in a grisly murder of a down-and-out drifter and drug dealer.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:30 PM • 2 Comments •
October 24, 2006
Category: Brains and minds
Stroke damage in a human brain _____________________________________________ Horrors: I've forgotten to post several articles I wrote about findings presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference last week. I'll work my way backwards, I suppose, so here's the latest, about a University of Milan discovery that blocking a certain cell-wall gate in the hour after stroke (in a lab rat) could prevent almost all damage. Check it out at Scientific American....
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:37 PM • 2 Comments •
I've been remiss in not posting several articles I wrote reporting on findings presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference last week. So, last first: This story, posted today at sciam.com, is about a nice piece of research done by the University of Milan's Maria Abbracchio, who found that blocking the receptor that opened a particular cellular gate (a fairly simple task, actually) could prevent almost all damage from strokes in lab rats. Check it out at: Scientific American: Controlling Cellular Gates Curbs Damage after Strokes...
Posted by David Dobbs at 2:24 PM • •
October 23, 2006
Category: Culture of science
Amid my guilt at not writing more on avian flu myself, I note well this typically excellent post from Effect Measure, pondering: Why so little word lately of bird flu? Its issues intersect, in a very rough way, with those raised about science journalism...
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:08 AM • •
October 20, 2006
Category: Culture of science
Even among the other scandals the drug industry has produced lately, the behavior described in the latest New England Journal of Medicine stands out as particularly stunning.
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:15 PM • 2 Comments •
October 5, 2006
Category: Interesting if true...
Boing Boing points out that Fox News has at least thrice identified disgraced Congressman Mark Foley — Republican of Florida, former chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, cyberstalker of adolescent Congressional pages — as a Democrat. See it to believe it. Apparently they identified him in captions several times as Mark Foley (D-FL): and another time they asked, in a caption accompanying an interview with Democratic House Leader Harry Reid, "Did Dems Ignore Foley E-mails to Preserve Seat?": This seems incredible -- but then again, seems a logical extension of an approach that calls torture coercion,...
Posted by David Dobbs at 12:52 AM • 1 Comments •
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