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How the immune system gets where it needs to go

In honor of the great Scienceblogs migration, and inspired by Ethan's wonderful post about the migration of the universe, I thought I would talk about something on a smaller scale: cell migration. The scale is small, but the problem is huge. Most of your organs are locked in place - your heart never needs to be in your thigh - but the immune system has to be everywhere. When you cut your toe, breathe a virus into your lungs or eat a piece of contaminated spinach, the immune system needs to be johnny-on-the-spot with the inflammatory response. Thankfully, there's already an organ system that…

The Lancet done screwed up

Chelsea Polis and Kathryn Curtis wrote a paper that asked whether hormonal contraceptives affected your likelihood of being infected with HIV, Use of hormonal contraceptives and HIV acquisition in women: a systematic review of the epidemiological evidence. Here's the abstract: Whether or not the use of hormonal contraception affects risk of HIV acquisition is an important question for public health. We did a systematic review, searching PubMed and Embase, aiming to explore the possibility of an association between various forms of hormonal contraception and risk of HIV acquisition. We…

Shrinking snacks? How junk food makers play with portions to fool consumers

Last month, the UK Government came up with an ingenious new idea to stem the rising tide of obesity that is already spilling over low-slung jeans everywhere: eat less. Health Minister Alan Johnson met with a coalition of confectionery giants including Mars, Coca-Cola and Nestle, urging them to reduce the sizes of their delicious, calorie-laden snacks. Shrinking portions is not a new idea. Last year, Food Standards Agency formed a panel to explore the role of food portion in our diets after announcing that reducing portions would be one of four key proposals for encouraging healthier…

On the Causes of Variation in the Rate of Molecular Evolution

Last year, Katie Pollard and colleagues published a couple of papers in which they identified regions of the human genome that had recently undergone an acceleration in their rate of evolution and characterized the expression pattern of an RNA gene located in one of those regions. The RNA gene is expressed in the developing brain, which lead people to speculate that it played some important role in making humans smarter than chimps (my round-up and stab at speculation can be seen here). Their approach toward identifying those regions is quite simple, but the cause of accelerated evolution in…

Oh goody. Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day is fast approaching.

A mere couple of weeks ago, I was beginning to “celebrate” a week designated to celebrate the sheer quackiness of the quackery that is naturopathy. True, that’s not what the woo-friendly Senators and Representatives who imposed Naturopathic Medicine Week 2014 on a disinterested world that didn’t need, want, or understand it. They represented it as a great thing, the “integrating” of the “best of both worlds,” those worlds to them being conventional science-based medicine and alternative medicine. To those of us who support science-based medicine, it was integrating cow pie with apple pie,…

"Dr. Bob" Sears profiled: A cynical vaccine-averse pediatrician who accepts no blame for the results of his antivaccine message

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't much like "Dr. Bob" Sears. Actually, I rather detest the guy. The reasons are obvious. There isn't an antivaccine trope Dr. Bob won't repeat in the service of pandering to the vaccine-averse parents base who bring him patients. They're all there in his The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for your Child and have been thoroughly deconstructed by pediatricians (and others) ranging from Paul Offit to John Snyder, the latter of whom quite appropriated dubbed Sears' book to be cashing in on fear. Basically, at ever turn, Sears either…

The Kiss

I went out with a friend. We were both between relationships, and we both knew somehow that this was a date though it was never called a date. And we had a perfectly good time: Good food, good conversation, good drinks. She drove. When it came time to go home, she drove me to my house in my urban neighborhood and parked on the street near my house. As we were saying our good-byes, she enigmatically unhooked her seat belt. I wondered why. Then, I discovered that she wanted the freedom of movement to lean across the console and give me a kiss. It was a good kiss. It was actually a…

An Open Letter to Americans Who Are Annoyed at Obama's Nobel Prize

If you are a right wing Republican conservative Yahoo, this letter is NOT for you. If you are a moderate, progressive, liberal, centrist, or anyone associated with the legitimate (i.e., not FOX News) press, this IS for you. Dear Disgruntled Sisters and Brothers, Many people are beside themselves, or at least a little annoyed, or in some cases simply bemused, because Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize but he "seems to have not done anything yet." There are so many misconceptions behind that sentiment that I don't know where to start. If you are one of the people who does not…

Sarah Palin on evolution and climate change

CBS is ever so slowly releasing bits and pieces of Katie Couric's interviews with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Last night they released the transcript and some of the video of the third part of the interview where Governor Palin addresses several key science and health issues including her opinion of the use of Plan B, on teaching creationism in schools and on the contribution of man to climate change. Unfortunately, her answers were often strange, but there were some moments of relief as well. Below are two excerpts from the interview with highlights added to the good bits. Of particular…

Covering Alternative Medicine---Another perspective

In a piece written for health reporters, journalist Jane Allen gives some useful advice about covering alternative medicine, but there are some gaps that are are hard for a non-medical professional to recognize (and frankly, for many medical professionals as well). She quite rightly urges skepticism, but when looking into ideologic and muddled topic of alternative medicine, skepticism needs to be turned up to "11". A major complaint that doctors have about health coverage is not the objectivity, earnestness, or research abilities of the reporter but the lack of some of the fundamental…

Playing catch up on flu rumors

I was going to try to sleep in this morning but my kid couldn't find her femur---long story. So I figured I might as well brew up a pot of Pal's Special, put up some Irish steel cut oatmeal, and review this weeks insanity. This has been a rough week for the public's health education. The flu pandemic is still on the rise, and if trends continue, we will hit a record number of cases quite soon. Currently the best primer on influenza is Joe Albietz's, which I encourage you to read. But rumors about the flu are spreading nearly as fast as the virus, and we need a nearly real-time response to…

The Oregon Petition

In comments to my previous post on Paul Georgia's nonsense about temperature, Sarah wrote: Yes, bad physics, but that was an easy target. I'd like to see you take on a hard target, like the petition signed by 17,000 scientists who declared that global warming is a sham. The research review is here. At the OISM site she linked it says: This is the website that completely knocks the wind out of the enviro's sails. See over 17,000 scientists declare that global warming is a lie with no scientific basis whatsoever. The global warming hypothesis has failed every relevant…

The legacy of Andrew Wakefield continues

Actions have consequences. No matter how much the person might want to try to hide from the consequences of one's actions, they frequently have a way of coming back, grabbing you by the neck, and letting you know they're there. We see it happening now in the U.K. Fifteen years ago, British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a case series in The Lancet in which he described gastrointestinal symptoms in 12 autistic children who were treated at the Royal Free Hospital. His conclusion was that he had identified associated gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression in a group of…

Neither means, motive nor opportunity: a guide to dysteleology

At Billy Dembski's place, GilDodgen quotes Denyse O'Leary: Bear with a simple lay hack here a moment: Why must we know a designer’s intentions in order to detect design? If the fire marshall’s office suspects arson, do the investigators worry much about WHY? Surely they investigate, confirm their finding, and turn the information over to other authorities and interested parties, without having the least idea why someone torched the joint. ALL they need to be sure of is that the joint did not torch itself, via natural causes. Let's say, first of all, that we are not talking about a bush that…

A priest, a scientist, and a Communist discuss morality

We had a fun evening on Friday—a crowd of a few hundred people sat down to consider the problem of a morality at the University of Chicago. At the front of the room we had Bob Bossie (a very liberal Catholic), Sunsara Taylor (a very articulate Communist) and me to make a few opening remarks and open the floodgates of questions from the audience. It was interesting and thoughtful, and nothing at all like this incredible session on Fox News. Let me emphasize that Bob was not that crazy priest in the video, declaring that godlessness meant the death of hope and the decline of your money making…

It's already happening

I haven't read Ken Miller's new book, Only a Theory, as yet, but the magic of the intertubes has allowed me to see his recent appearance on "The Colbert Report." Like PZ already noted I think Miller steamrolled over Colbert to make sure he got his talking points across (which is practically a necessity if you feel you need to get all your statements in before the 6 minutes is up) but what I found most interesting was Colbert's last question about what we would do if creationists co-opted the language of evolution. Although the question was posed as a hypothetical it is something that is…

Snow Board Jump Help

I really shouldn't do this. I might be helping someone to set up something dangerous. But, I am going to anyway. Here is a question posted on some forum. (actually, it is from math help forum) "I'm anticipating a good winter this year, one with lots of snow. My yard is sloped quite a bit and it would be the ideal place for a huge snowboard jump, only problem is I need to calculate how fast I will be traveling when I hit the jump, how high and what angle the jump should be, and the distance and angle of the landing ramp to optimize my range." So, what am I going to do? I am going to give…

The business of psychics

My high school buddy James Grimmelmann unleashes on Newsweek: Tony Dokoupil manages to write 1,200 words in Newsweek about professional psychics without once telling his readers the single most relevant fact: Psychic powers don’t exist. Would Newsweek run an interview with the Easter Bunny? Would it let Jane Bryant Quinn suggest investing in perpetual motion machine startups? Would it print travel tips for hitching a ride on a flying saucer to Neptune? But here it is, an article whose sum and substance is that hiring a psychic could do wonders for your business. This article is professional…

Teaching about ID versus teaching ID

The Disco Institute's Rob Crowther is confused. Because the NCSE announced and linked to an ID statement by the National Council for the Social Studies, Crowther seems to think the NCSE has changed its own position. This really rests on two confusions (two of Crowther's many confusions). First, the flawed notion that the one organization adopts another's position merely by pointing out that the policy exists. NCSE publishes a book full of statements opposing creationism by scientific, educational, religious and civil liberties organizations. No organization could simultaneously endorse…

Inequality and Injustice

Over at the Economist, Jason Furman worries about the long-term implications of growing societal inequality: Regardless of the cause of rising inequality, lefties, utilitarians, Rawlsians and anyone with a deep-seated reverence for markets and the capitalist system should all be concerned. As Alan Greenspan memorably stated, "income inequality is where the capitalist system is most vulnerable. You can't have the capitalist system if an increasing number of people think it is unjust." I'm as concerned about inequality as the next liberal. I can't help but listen to my inner Marx when some…

Old Writers

Sam Tanenhaus has an interesting essay on the relationship between age and literary genius, which was prompted by the new New Yorker fiction issue, featuring a list of 20 accomplished writers under the age of 40. Tanenhaus argues that the purpose of the list - "to offer a focused look at the talent sprouting and blooming around us" - neglected to mention one crucial fact, which is that many of these writers have probably already composed their best work: The emphasis on futurity misses an essential truth about fiction writers: They often compose their best and most lasting work when they are…

Mayan Morality

Here's a moral scenario: A man is sitting near the side of the road when he sees a truck speeding along. It is headed towards a group of five men, who do not hear or see it, and if nothing appears in the road, it will certainly hit and kill them. Across the road is another man sitting in front of his house. If the man who is sitting by the road calls out to the man by his house and says 'come here,' the man will walk into the road in the path of the truck, be killed, and stop it from continuing on toward the five, saving them. If the man sitting by the road says nothing, the truck will travel…

Common disease-common variant hypothesis taken down a notch (again)

David Goldstein, a geneticist at Duke, has critiqued the current focus on large-scale genomwide associations before. Now he is taking to the next step, as his group has a paper out which suggests that the reason that association studies have been relatively unfruitful in terms of bang-for-buck is due to the fact that they're picking up "synthetic associations." Rare Variants Create Synthetic Genome-Wide Associations: It has long been assumed that common genetic variants of modest effect make an important contribution to common human diseases, such as most forms of cardiovascular disease,…

One thing worse than a bigot is a sneaky, devious, lying bigot

Roger Ebert has roused the ire of the teabaggers, which is actually pretty easy to do. The occasion was a news story about a group of five privileged white kids who decided to flaunt American flags on their apparel on Cinco de Mayo, and who were sent home from school. Ebert made this comment: Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July. This prompted a series of comments from right-wingers, gloating over his disfigurement and prospects of his death. They are such a classy bunch. In contrast, Ebert did…

Fake Noah's Ark found on Mt. Ararat

So Fox News breathlessly reported that Chinese researchers had found Noah's ark. "Has Noah's Ark been found on Turkish mountaintop?," they asked, dumbly. "No," answered slacktivist. Gawker replied at greater length: A group of evangelicals found some 4,800-year-old wood on top of Mount Ararat. They are "99.9 pecent" sure that it's Noah's ark. This is totally real, which is why it's on the front page of Fox News' "SciTech" section. Slacktivist didn't actually just say "no," he expanded on the point by noting: The expedition seems to have found a wooden structure. They hear hoofbeats, so they…

Wingnuts spin madly over Sotomayor

Ned Ryun, son of former Olympic miler and stumbleprone former Congressman Jim Ryun, is worried about Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court. How worried? "I have a sneaking suspicion," he writes, "that she has a different view of the Constitution than our Founders did." I kinda hope so, truth be told. Our Founders thought that the Constitution should allow slavery, should not grant equal rights to women, should not apply equally without regard to race, thought that the Senate should not be directly elected by the states' voters, and generally…

Region & race; opinions & values

In the post below I combined some of the Census Regions for reasons of sample size. But I decided to do this again without combining, but removing some of the questions because of small sample sizes. Again, I also limited the sample to whites between 1998-2008. But, I added another category: blacks. Michael Lind said: Drum's creepy bigotry becomes clear when other groups are substituted: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual blacks who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, black culture is [redacted]. Barack Obama can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]." Or…

Which nations support open borders...Vietnam...and more

The World Values Survey has a question about immigration policy with four options: - Let anyone come - As long as jobs available - Strict limits - Prohibit people from coming I used WVS 2005-2008 from 57 countries first. Then I filled out the countries with the Four-wave Aggregate of the Values Studies, the combined file of the four waves carried out by both the EVS and WVS. I bring this up because there are discrepancies between the two where there are duplications. Again Vietnam is at the top of the list. Perhaps Will Wilkson should have picked another country to trade in his American…

Granville Sewell: Genius or Liar?

As of 2/24/2008, Sewell has just responded to this, pretending that he just noticed it. To make discussions easier to follow, I have responded with a new post here, and I would appreciate it if comments could be posted there, to keep it all in one place. My SciBling Mark Hofnagle over at the Denialist blog wanted me to take a look at the pseudo-mathematical ramblings of Granville Sewell. It actually connects with some of the comments in the thread about the paper by Dembski and Marks - Sewell uses part of the article to make the same kind of quantum nonsense claims that showed up here.…

Randomized trial versus observational study challenge, V: pre-randomization

[Previous installments: here, here, here, here] We'd like to continue this series on randomized versus observational studies by discussing randomization, but upon reviewing comments and our previous post we decided to come at it from a slightly different direction. So we want to circle back and discuss counterfactuals a little more, clarifying and adapting some of what we said for the coming randomization discussion. Let me change the example to a more recent controversy, screening mammography for breast cancer. Should women under 40 get routine screening given that there is said (on the…

Have I Completely Lost my Mind?

It might have been Serendipity - we happened to be driving by, just Eric and I on our brief solo trip. Or it might have been the survey ribbons that went up across the road a few weeks ago - the suggestion that our neighbors who have been building a 5000 square foot house with a special dog-washing bathroom (no, I'm not kidding) are going to help finance that by selling off the plot of open land right across the street. Or it might have been the fact that our property tax assessment went up by nearly 2000 dollars this year - to almost 6K! Or it could be the fact that despite the face we're…

Trolling Along: Civility, Cultcha and Comments

I have nothing to do with the recent kerfuffle about civility and comment policies that has been meandering through science blogs, but a large quantity of posts on the subject on a largeish number of blogs has, I admit, gotten me thinking about my own comment policies. Since I often get queries, often in personal email, about my comment policies, particularly why I let X or Y person say what they do, I thought it might be useful to make my comment policy more explicit. My basic philosophy towards commenters is that I don't censor and I don't ban except under extreme provocation. In over 5…

Father and Mother and Uncle John...: Tribalism and a Place at the Table

This morning, during school time, Isaiah asked me just how many Aunts and Uncles he had. Asked to clarify what the parameters of the question were, Isaiah asked me how many people he would call by the title "Aunt" or "Uncle." Which led me to do some quick addition - and to a number that came out above 70. Now Eric and I don't have that many siblings. In fact, I have two sisters, and until into adulthood, Eric was an only child. Nor do my parents make up for it at the great-level - each of them had one brother. So how on earth do I get 70 aunts and uncles for my kids? Me, Eric and the…

Laissez-faire lumping under fire? (babirusas, part VII)

In the previous article we looked at the proposal that the various babirusa taxa - long regarded as subspecies - deserve to be raised to species rank. The argument goes that the taxa concerned are (1) morphologically diagnosable, (2) 'as distinct' as are other taxa traditionally regarded as species (raising the taxa to species level therefore represents a sort of attempt at uniformitarianism), and (3) represent distinct phylogenetic lineages. Meijaard & Groves's proposal therefore reflects their adherance to the phylogenetic species concept, or PSC (where distinct lineages on a…

The Bad Ballet of Regular Expressions: Pathological Programming in Thutu

For today's installation of programming insanity, I decided to go with a relative of Thue, which is one of my favorite languages insane languages that I wrote about before. Thue is a language based on a rewriting system specified by a semi-Thue grammar. Todays language is called Thutu (pronounced tutu); it's a string rewriting system like Thue, only it's based on regular expressions instead of grammars, and it's even got regular expression-based control flow mechanisms, making it a sort of hybrid language. The scary thing about Thutu is that it's not all that different from a language I've…

Another Revolution in Physics Crackpottery: Electromagnetic Gravity

It's that time again - yes, we have yet another wacko reinvention of physics that pretends to have math on its side. This time, it's "The Electro-Magnetic Radiation Pressure Gravity Theory", by "Engineer Xavier Borg". (Yes, he signs all of his papers that way - it's always with the title "Engineer".) This one is as wacky as Neal Adams and his PMPs, except that the author seems to be less clueless. At first I wondered if this were a hoax - I mean, "Engineer Borg"? It seems like a deliberately goofy name for someone with a crackpot theory of physics... But on reading through his web-pages,…

Messier Monday: Brilliant Stars for a Winter's Night, M50

"Give me a man who says this one thing I do, and not those fifty things I dabble in." -Dwight L. Moody While star clusters may dabble in a number of physically interesting things, there's one thing that they do above all others, and that is shine. For today's Messier Monday, where we spotlight one of the 110 deep-sky wonders of the Messier catalogue, let's take a look at one of the brilliant open clusters of stars that's recently formed in our neighborhood of the galaxy and that will appear all winter long: Messier 50. Image credit: Greg Scheckler, using the robotic telescopes of http://…

Bernie Sanders' Strategy to Win the Nomination

Bernie Sanders has either stated or implied two features that make up his strategy to win the Democratic nomination to be the party's candidate for President this November. Implied, sort of stated: Convince so-called "Superdelegates" (properly called "uncommitted delegates") in states where he has won to vote for him, even if he is in second. That is a good idea, and if the two candidates are close, it could happen. However, when I run the numbers, giving Bernie "his" uncommitted delegates and Hillary "her" uncommitted delegates, it is pretty much a wash. The uncommitted delegates are not…

Anti-Jewish Fervor Among Atheists?

As I've mentioned before, I am on the ReligionLaw mailing list run by Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy. It's a valuable resource for many reasons, but especially because I get to interact with and hear the views of some of the preeminent legal scholars on church/state issues, including Doug Laycock, Marci Hamilton. Sandy Levinson and many others, in almost immediate response to new cases and controversies. The list also includes a few folks I consider cranks and they are generally tolerated (as am I, an opinionated non-lawyer type). One of those cranks has been the source of some…

A Link and a Story

I've been a fan of Jason Kuznicki's blog for quite some time now, as should be obvious. But I had never read the essay Without Pain or Fear or Guilt, an essay he wrote about his coming out of the closet, until today, when Lynn pointed it out to me and suggested I read it. My reaction upon reading it was just, "Wow". I challenge even the most hardened homophobe to read that essay and not be moved by it. I have been asked a few times why I, as a straight man, argue so passionately for gay rights. Jason nails the answer perfectly: Properly speaking, there is no such thing as "gay rights." There…

Fisking Charles Colson

Charles Colson, the Nixon co-conspirator turned Christian apologist, can quite often be seen shoveling out nonsense on evolution on his website and in books, but I think this opinion piece may take the cake. His commentary is a follow up on this one by Roberto Rivera, and the subject of both articles is the survival of the giant pandas. Their survival, as anyone who has paid attention knows, is in serious jeopardy right now, with experts estimating that there are less than 1500 left in the world. Zoologists and biologists around the world are very concerned about this and there are projects…

Classic Edition: Space Trilogy, Volume 4

Here's the day's final repost of an old blog post about space policy. This is yet another post from 2004, with the usual caveats about linkrot and dated numbers and the like. This one is more or less a direct response to comments made in response to the previous post attempting to argue that using the Moon as a step toward Mars isn't a priori idiotic. Again, I'm not sure how successful this is, but you can judge for yourself: In the comments to the previous post about the Moon/ Mars proposal, Jake McGuire raises a number of interesting points, which deserve a full response. Having sat on that…

The Script

Among those who argue that science and religion are compatible, there is a standard script that goes like this: In the late nineteenth century, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White published, respectively, History of the Conflict Between Science and Religion and A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom. In doing so they established the warfare thesis about the relationship between science and religion, a complete myth that sadly retains a hold on the popular imagination. Unlike the ignorant polemicists Draper and White, more serious historians recognize that…

‘Godless liberal’ is not an oxymoron

Damon Linker doesn't like the New Atheism because it is "illiberal", and so he writes a screed in the New Republic — one that is poorly thought out and guilty of the crimes he accuses atheists of, while exercising his distaste for the godless, and nothing more. The problems begin with his opening gambit: he's outraged that Richard Dawkins dares to regard religious indoctrination as a form of child abuse. As has been typical for complaints of this sort, Linker doesn't bother to address the substance of the argument, since that is apparently too difficult for him — is, for instance, telling a…

On False Claims of Certainty

Monday Math is off this week. School starts in just two more weeks, and I have been making a last push to have as much of my books done as I can before it does. Cuts into my blogging time, alas. Which is a shame, since there is plenty of fodder. For example, Peter Enns has a new essay up over at Huff Po. It's title is “Atheists Are Believers, Too” I suspect that everyone reading this could reconstruct Enns' argument from that title alone.. Still, let's consider the specifics. Things start off well with this: Christians sometimes claim to be certain about spiritual matters. This can be…

Testosterone, Cortisol and Market Behavior

Nature News is reporting on a paper that just came out in PNAS. The paper, Coates and Herbert, correlates the daily profits and trading volatility of traders in London. They argue that changes in these hormone may be responsible for changes in trader profits and market volatility. Let's file this paper under "wildly over-interpreted" because there are some big caveats that you have to remember before you can make a claim anything like that. Coates and Herbert measured morning levels of testosterone and daily levels of cortisol (average of two measurements) in 17 male traders in the City of…

Should I be ABD before I have a baby? (and other questions about academic motherhood)

I recently received an email, prompted by my series about having a family and an academic career, asking for some input: I am a mere first year in a Ph.D. program and am a bit older than the other students. I am wholeheartedly committed to the program I am also considering the seemingly traitorous act of having a baby. Do you think it's essential to wait until ABD status? From the point of view of getting things done, it is certainly possible to take classes (and TA classes) while pregnant. A lot depends on your work-style. I'm the kind of person who's better off doing something…

Ask Dr. Free-Ride: Ethically, which field of science is the worst?

A reader writes: I was in a PhD program in materials science, in a group that did biomedical research (biomaterials end of the field) and was appalled at the level of misconduct I saw. Later, I entered an MD program. I witnessed some of the ugliest effects of ambition in the lab there. Do you think biomedical research is somehow "ethically worse" than other fields? I've always wanted to compare measurable instances of unethical behavior across different fields. As an undergraduate I remember never hearing or seeing anything strange with the folks that worked with metallurgy and it never…

Placebo effects are "proof" that God exists?

A couple of weeks ago, I made the observation that there seems to have been a--shall we say?--realignment in one of the central arguments that proponents of "complementary and alternative medicine" (CAM) and "integrative medicine" (IM) make. Back in the day (say, a few years ago), such CAM practitioners and apologists used to try very, very hard to argue that their modalities had actual efficacy, that they had actual, measurable effects that made them medicine rather than woo. Never mind that even back then they had been trying for at least a couple of decades to come up with preclinical and…

Stepping back: Lies, damned lies, and...science-based medicine?

Note: Grant writing ruled again this weekend; so I took this post, which first appeared elsewhere, and decided to revise and repost it. It seems appropriate, given what I've been discussing lately. Enjoy, and hopefully there'll be something new tomorrow.. I've been complaining a lot about a certain journalist lately, specifically one named David Freedman. Before the most recent paean to unscientific medicine written by him, he wrote another article. The article, which was trumpeted by Tara Parker-Pope, came under the heading of "Brave Thinkers" and is entitled Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical…