Search Content

Displaying results 58201 - 58250 of 87947

Silicon Valley Hackfest Hints at How Laboratory Scientists Could Communicate

This past Saturday, dozens of computer programmers descended upon a mansion in Cupertino, California to enjoy massive troughs of Indian food, camaraderie, and 12 hours of working on a diverse array of projects alongside one another. I visited the event, called SuperHappyDevHouse 20, as an observer. It made me wonder: What if all scientists worked this way? Granted, it would be immensely difficult, and possibly dangerous, for a hundred chemists or biologists to bring all of their instruments to a suburban home and set up shop for the weekend. All scientists have conferences that they can…

This Is Exactly What I'm Talking About

PZ Myers on religion in general, and not just fundamentalism. I think this will be my last post on the topic for a while (I can hear your cheers), because Dr. Myers has shown the ignorance and bias in the "Churchill" position so well that I don't need to add anything else. "Nuance"? Sweet jebus, where is the nuance in religion and superstition and piety that we're supposed to defend? I keep hearing these claims that religion is really far more nuanced and sophisticated and clever than we give it credit for, but seriously, every time I turn around and look at the actual practice of the silly…

Selection of Antidepressants, Pt. 3

It occurs to me that in order to go any farther explaining how to choose an antidepressant, I should take a moment to explain the concept of an adequate trial.  Earlier, I mentioned that the patient's history of response to previous antidepressant trials is one of the most important factors to consider.  Having said that, it is important to realize  that there are problems with that, both practical and theoretical. In order to derive valid conclusions from the outcome of any prior trial on an antidepressant, it is necessary to have the right information. Having the right information means…

Ask A ScienceBlogger: Harsh Criticism

We were asked to describe the most notable instance of harsh criticism experienced in our professional careers, and to say whether it was helpful or harmful. Naturally, most of us are our own harshest critics, so my harshest criticism came from myself. What is odd, is the way this came about and affected me. During one of the first rotations in my second year of residency, at the end, the attending gave me an assessment form.  It appeared to be a form for me to use to describe my experience in the rotation.   I dutifully filled it out, have gotten used to doing paperwork that seemed…

Wanna Know How I Really Feel?

The people who support this policy are not only heartless, they are idiots. href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/washington/03medicaid.html?ei=5090&en=12f703522d8d3a89&ex=1320210000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162703532-so0p8YsoJEPd7rc82J6fjg"> href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/washington/03medicaid.html?ei=5090&en=12f703522d8d3a89&ex=1320210000&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1162703532-so0p8YsoJEPd7rc82J6fjg">Medicaid Wants Citizenship Proof for Infant Care By ROBERT PEAR Published:…

Notes from a secluded grant writer

Hello world. It's been about a week now that I've given up bench work for the pen. Instead of commuting to the lab, I've been anchored to my chair writing this longish compilation of past results, inconsistencies in the literature, and my little addition to the confusion that exists in my field of study. On top of that I need to prepare a talk for the upcoming Keystone symposia on "Translational Regulatory Mechanisms". So much to do, so little time. Intersperse between my thoughts are visits from family and friends through instant messaging. "how are you? what have you been up to? it's your…

AMPA receptors & synaptic plasticity

In my second coursework essay, I discuss a number of recent studies which demonstrate that synaptic strengthening in different regions of the mammalian brain requires the incorporation of Ca2+-permeable GluR1-lacking AMPA receptors into the postsynaptic membrane of active or newly-potentiated synapses. Alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid receptors (AMPARs) are glutamate-gated cation channels which mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission in the brain. AMPARs are homo- or heteromeric protein complexes, consisting of different combinations of GluR1-4 subunits. Each…

The Three Types of Experiments

Still in Italy. Here's another old entry for you. I'm not sure about the history of "the three types of experiments" (3 T's), but they are referred to quite often in the labs I've been in. So what exactly are they? Here goes ... Type A Experiment: every possible result is informative. Type B Experiment: some possible results are informative, other results are uninformative. Type C Experiment: every possible result is uninformative. There is even a little saying that accompanies this ... The goal is to maximize type A and minimize type C. There are some that even name the 3tes 1 through 3…

Survivor - Lab Edition

(What follows was started at The Sunburnt Cow, an Australian Bar/Restaurant in Alphabet City - over a brunch that included unlimited Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Fosters and Vegemite.) Here is the hypothetical situation: It's the end of the world. You are barricaded in your lab. You have unlimited access to water. What lab supplies can you eat? What order should you consume them in? A LIST OF POTENTIAL FOOD SOURCES IN THE LAB (We realize that this depends on the model organism used in the lab ...) - Yeast extract. Very rich. Probably very flavorful. This is a component of many broths used to grow…

Ocean Observatory Systems

NEPTUNE is more than just a planet...a clever acronym for the North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments. The U.S. Canadian venture is series of cable-linked seafloor observatories, purported to be the world's largest. The project will lay 3,000 km of powered fibre optic cable over a 200,000 sq km region in the northeast Pacific. The network will contain several scientific nodes that can be controlled and monitored from land. There are four major research themes including: the structure and seismic behaviour of the ocean crust, seabed chemistry and geology, ocean climate…

Friday Sprog Blogging: dog days.

I'm still trying to get out from under the monstrous head cold given to me by the younger Free-Ride offsrping just in time for last week's trip to Pittsburgh. The sprogs have actually given me wide berth this week, as if they expect me to mutate the germs and give them back. How well they know me. In the meantime, there's been some idle chatter about dogs. For instance, in recounting the adventures of the young Border Collie that lives next door (whose human says, "For a member of a really smart breed, she's pretty dumb"), the sprogs have puzzled over whether canine intelligence (or lack…

Some light reading on animal research regulations.

As a quick follow-up to yesterday's post about the suit filed against UCSF, I thought I'd point out some resources relevant to the federal regulations (in the U.S.) governing the use of animals in scientific research. These are the regulations currently in place -- whether you think they do too little to protect the welfare of animals or too much to restrict scientific research, they're the rules of the game. If the feds are not satisfied that they are being met, the feds are within their rights to withdraw federal funding from the institution that is out of compliance. The text of the…

Friday Sprog Blogging: wild animal sightings.

While claims of the Free-Ride offspring's telepathy are in doubt, there is no question of the younger offspring's telephonic prowess (which is to say, the younger offspring can remember all the digits necessary and sufficient to place a call to either parents or grandparents with no adult assistance; the long distance carrier is thrilled). This telephonic prowess was lately deployed while the sprogs were staying with the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment. Dr. Free-Ride: (answering the phone) Hello? Younger offspring: Hello! Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, what are you guys up to? Younger…

I must have missed the line in my contract that said this is volunteer work.

The faculty where I teach is at a bargaining impasse with the administration of our university system over our contracts. We are hoping that the administration will come back to the table for a real negotiation*, but in the event that that doesn't happen, there are plans for a system-wide "rolling strike", with staggered two-day walkouts at each of the 23 universities in the system. This prompted some opinion pieces in the school newspaper, including this one. There's a lot I could say about the claims in this piece (the university is going to hire replacement teachers or drop courses from…

Loyalty to the hands that feed you.

There was an interesting story today on Morning Edition about new research on potential bias in nutrition studies funded by industry. Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital in Boston led a team that analyzed 206 nutritional studies published between 1999 and 2003. More than half of these studies were at least partially industry-funded (in particular, funded by purveyors of milk, fruit juices, and soft drinks). Ludwig's analysis of this body of literature had one set of researchers look at the 206 nutritional studies just from the point of view of their scientific conclusions (with no…

ScienceBloggers go to the movies.

Sometimes it's OK to hang back on the "Ask a ScienceBlogger" questions to let others snap up the obvious answers. (Yeah, I meant to do that!) I love Real Genius and Buckeroo Banzai as much as the next geek, but there oare other films out there worth your time. The question is: What movie do you think does something admirable (though not necessarily accurate) regarding science? Bonus points for answering whether the chosen movie is any good generally. Because I'm showing up near the end of the party, I'll give you three: Microcosmos. A documentary (with not too much narration) looking at…

That's not a shoehorn, it's a sledgehammer

The apologetic gang at BioLogos is complaining again — Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins and I didn't understand their recent piece by Daniel Harrell on Adam and Eve, and oh, it is so hard to be the ones in the middle of all those atheist and creationist extremists. Note to BioLogos: squatting in between those on the side of reason and evidence and those worshipping superstition and myth is not a better place. It just means you're halfway to crazy town. The core of Falk's article consists of complaining that we didn't understand what they were talking about, and took their article out of context…

Not dead yet.

Somehow, without actually planning it, I ended up taking a ten-day (give or take) hiatus from the internets, during which I immersed myself in the three-dimensional world. During my time offline, I learned many things, among them: Two weeks in a row of overnight flights east, coupled with relatively little sleep, will knock me on my butt for a while -- even when I'm back in my own time zone and on my own schedule. Sleeping well in a dorm room is not terribly hard in the aftermath of an overnight flight east and relatively little sleep. However, desire to avoid a line for a shower tends to…

What would you ask an expert on climate change?

Sunday's radio show is going to be a very special treat for all of us. Mike Haubrich and I are going to be speaking with Kevin Zelnio and John Abraham about climate change, global warming, and science vs. denialism. John Abraham is an expert on Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics and stirred up a bit of trouble (in a good way) when he responded to a presentation made by AGW Denialist Chrisopher Monckton at one of our local TRC's1, Bethel University. Kevin Zelnio is a former Sbling, a science journalist, and member of the blogging teams at Scientific American Blogs and Deep Sea News. He has…

Where's Flea?

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I recently noticed that one of my favorite medical bloggers, Flea, had completely deleted his blog. There's nothing there. It's gone, except for a blank Blogger blog. Apparently, too, Flea's not alone, as Kevin, MD points out. I'm going to miss Flea, but I understand why he might have done it. As he had documented in the weeks leading up to the disappearance of his blog, he was being sued for malpractice. Indeed, I was amazed at how honest he had been about some of the pretrial preparations he was undergoing. It was great reading, but probably ill-…

Early detection of cancer, part 3: Computer-aided degradation of screening mammography

It figures. On the very day that I posted a rather long post about a series of three papers discussing the use of mammography and MRI for screening women for breast cancer, there would have to be another paper relevant to the topic of the early detection of cancer, again in this case breast cancer. This one didn't get as much play in the media, but it fits in very well with the primary messages of Part 1 and Part 2 of this series: that earlier detection is not necessarily better. This study, however, has a bit of a twist. Now, despite the general tone of my commentary implying that newer,…

June 4th: Kennedy Wins California Primary; June 5th Kennedy Shot; June 6th Kennedy Dies

I remember being shaken awake by my father. He did not want me to miss an historic event. During the election campaigns, the television is always on in my house, this has been true since I was a kid and we first got a TV. So the TV was on and he knew Robert Kennedy had been shot, and he woke me up to make sure I knew what was going on. The next day, the same thing happened, this time with the news that Kennedy was dead. Robert Kennedy had entered the Democratic Primary party late, after the sitting president, Kennedy's brother's Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, removed himself from the…

Is a progressive homeschooling mother a walking oxymoron?

... This is one of several interesting questions being asked by Bitch writer Maya Schenwar in: Learning Curve ... Radical "unschooling" moms are changing the stay-at-home landscape. From the article: Not long ago, homeschooling was thought of as the domain of hippie earth mothers letting their kids "do their own thing" or creationist Christians shielding their kids from monkey science and premarital sex. ... These days ... parents are homeschooling for secular reasons as well as faith-based ones: quality of education, freedom to travel, their kids' special needs, or simply a frustration…

Suzanne Somers = Mike Adams

The other day, I ripped a certain woo-meister whom regular readers all know and most, if not all, regular readers mostly despise, Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com. As you may recall, a few days ago he slimed Patrick Swayze the day he died from pancreatic cancer, posting an article saying that Swayze was killed by chemotherapy and that he'd still be alive and Dirty Dancing today if he had only eschewed that horrible, evil Devil's brew of chemotherapy and gone with all "natural" cures. It was simply a followup of an article he wrote back in January saying in essence the same thing, although Adams…

Worthless Survey conducted by Green Party

A press release from the UK Green Party says: A survey carried out by the Green Party shows overwhelming opposition to Government nuclear plans Energy Survey shows 87% of public opposed to new nuclear power stations 89% agree 'the Government had already decided what they wanted to do about nuclear power stations before this debate started' 66% will take part in mass protests against nuclear power, if new stations are approved So far so good, except... The data reported covers a survey of 524 people interviewed between 01 February and 18th April 2006. Fieldwork was split between 324 people…

The Greenhouse Mafia

Four Corners has aired a story "The Greenhouse Mafia". Guy Pearse relates how industry lobbyists boasted how they wrote ministerial briefings, costings and cabinet submissions for the government, even though this is an obvious conflict of interest. And several scientists told how they were forbidden from commenting on certain climate change issues. The Age has a summary here, the transcript of the show is here, and more transcripts and forums on the show are here. There is also discussion at Larvatus Prodeo. Guy Pearse's full interview has this on our old friends, the Lavoisier Group:…

On spelling flames

The Jargon Dictionary says: spelling flame: n. [Usenet] A posting ostentatiously correcting a previous article's spelling as a way of casting scorn on the point the article was trying to make, instead of actually responding to that point (compare dictionary flame). Of course, people who are more than usually slovenly spellers are prone to think any correction is a spelling flame. It's an amusing comment on human nature that spelling flames themselves often contain spelling errors. I wonder if people realize just how lame they look when they try to score points off a spelling mistake? Which…

Lancet/ILCS roundup

Jim Lindgren agrees with me that the ILCS supports the Lancet study. He also raises some concerns about some of the numbers in Lancet study: I find it somewhat odd that heart attack and stroke deaths are up 64% in the later period, and accidental deaths are up more than 3-fold. And live births are up 33% in the later (War & Post-War) period, even though post-War pregnancies would not lead to live births until 9 months had passed, so the rate of having children would likely have to have jumped substantially more than 33% in the last half of the later period. Further, household size…

Me and Orlando Bloom

Note: We're back in the U.S. However, it is a long holiday weekend here in the States, much like last weekend's Bank Holiday weekend in England. Consequently, blogging will be mellow until Tuesday. Don't worry, things will return to normal soon enough, but since traffic's down due to over a week of mostly reruns and it's even further down this weekend, probably due to the holidays, I thought a little photoblogging from our recent vacation might be in order. (Don't worry; I haven't forgotten about some pictures from my stop by the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, but those will probably have…

Rubbing it in: Woo not "sweating to the NIH payline"

Last week, I wrote a quick and (semi-) facetious piece about how my colleague and I are sweating to the NIH payline, as we wait to find out whether our R01 application will be funded or not. With its being rumored that National Cancer Institute (NCI) paylines will be in the range of the 12th percentile, it's going to be really, really tight whether we make it below that line or not, although my colleague's being a new PI will certainly help. Wouldn't you know it that Writedit, the blogger whose excellent and highly useful blog, Medical Writing, Editing & Grantsmanship I discovered and…

I'm sure glad that wasn't my complication

Via Kevin, MD, a picture of a complication I hope I never have: A description of the complication: A 40-year-old man with Crohn's disease underwent an uncomplicated operation involving lysis of adhesions that were causing intestinal obstruction. After surgery, a cardiologist inserted a central venous catheter through the left subclavian vein. No problems with catheterization were noted. Three weeks later, after discharge, mild pain and edema developed in the patient's right lower leg. He was treated with antibiotics for 1 week, and his symptoms diminished. Six months after the operation, the…

Rachel Carson Kills Babies .org

From the people who gave you "CO2: We call it life", we now have a website: "Rachel Carson: we call her a baby killer". They have pictures of children they allege Carson killed on every single page of the site. And while they have several pages and thousands of words on DDT and on malaria, nowhere do they mention that mosquitoes can evolve resistance to DDT. And they conceal what Carson wrote about DDT and malaria: No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to…

The Unending War on Rachel Carson

In 1962 Monsanto published a parody of Silent Spring called The Desolate Year where they imagined death and destruction from "the garrote of Nature" if the United States went without pesticides for a year. Quietly, then, the desolate year began. Not many people seemed aware of danger. After all, in the winter, hardly a housefly was about. What could a few bugs do, here and there? How could the good life depend upon something so seemingly trivial as bug spray? Where were the bugs anyway? The bugs were everywhere. Unseen. Unheard. Unbelievably universal. Beneath the ground, beneath the waters…

Heartland's Denialist Conference: the Australian connection.

Heartland's International Conference on Climate Change is on again. I can't help but be impressed by the number of Australian organizations co-sponsoring the conference. Sponsors don't pay any money -- instead they get free admission to all meals and sessions for up to 20 people. And with 58 sponsors and 800 people registered to attend, that means they are giving away more admissions than people registered to attend. It's likely that almost everyone attending got free admission. There are seven Australian organizations signed up as sponsors. As well as the obvious ones like Lavoisier and…

Journal of Peace Research publishes badly flawed paper

Unfortunately, the Journal of Peace Research has published the badly flawed "Main Street Bias" paper. My earlier criticisms still apply, so I'm reposting them. Consider this the first draft of a reply to their paper. The authors argue that main street bias could reasonably produce a factor of 3 difference. How did they get such a big number? Well, they made a simple model in which the bias depends on four numbers: q, how much more deadly the areas near main street that were sampled are than the other areas that allegedly were not sampled. They speculate that this number might be 5 (ie…

How many on Inhofe's list are IPCC authors?

Jim Prall has compiled a list of the authors of the IPCC Working Group 1 report for AR4. There are 618 WG1 authors, which is more than the 604 names on Inhofe's list. There are just three names on both lists, which is no surprise given the shortage of climate scientists on Inhofe's list. First Erich Roeckner. He's not a sceptic at all. Brad Plumer explains how Inhofe quote mined Roekner: I see Inhofe's "Gang of 650" also includes Erich Roeckner, a renowned climate modeler at Germany's Max Planck Institute, who's quoted as saying there are still kinks in current climate models. But that's…

Patch Adams has lost his mind

Light blogging today, I'm afraid. My high speed Internet access was on the fritz last night, leaving odds and ends. Truly annoying. (On the other hand, maybe it's the FSM's way of telling me to slow down a bit.) Patch Adams, the famous doctor who advocates humor in medicine and has been known to dress up in a clown outfit, as shown in the movie starring Robin Williams, displayed a distinctly non-amusing side of his personality in a speech at Vanderbilt University last month: Patch Adams, M.D., an unconventional doctor who became a household name through a 1998 movie starring Robin Williams,…

Pox-ridden houses

I haven't commented on those Muslim cartoons so far. I'm conflicted. Why, you might ask? It's a clear-cut case of religious insanity, exactly the sort of thing I ought to relish wagging an arrogantly atheistical finger at. And of course I will, in just a moment…but the difficult part is that there are actually at least two issues here, and religion is only one of them. There are some things a cartoonist would be rightly excoriated for publishing: imagine that one had drawn an African-American figure as thick-lipped, low-browed, smirking clown with a watermelon in one hand and a fried chicken…

Sunday Times shamed by bogus Jonathan Leake story, retracts it

Kudos to Simon Lewis for forcing a retraction from the Sunday Times of the bogus Jonathan Leake story: The Sunday Times and the IPCC: Correction The article "UN climate panel shamed by bogus rainforest claim" (News, Jan 31) stated that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had included an "unsubstantiated claim" that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could be sensitive to future changes in rainfall. The IPCC had referenced the claim to a report prepared for WWF by Andrew Rowell and Peter Moore, whom the article described as "green campaigners" with "little…

Tea: "I'm a poser"

Well, we've gone over why tea supplements aren't a good idea, but the question of chemoprevention by drinking tea is still up in the air. I thought it would be interesting to lay out what's been done. Let's start with the basics: How would tea inhibit carcinogensis? No idea. There are dozens of ways in which tea or tea components can inhibit cancer based on speculation from tests done in cell cultures but no one knows whether any of them are relevant in a human body. Interestingly, in many studies, caffeine does as well as tea alone. What have animal studies shown? Tea works on all cancers.…

Wokers obliterate their lungs

The WaPo reports today that Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D) has introduced a bill to ban diacetyl use by 2010. The chemical is an artificial butter flavoring most commonly used in microwave popcorn. Numerous studies have found links between the chemical used by flavor workers and a rare disease called bronchiolitis obliterans. For those of you who aren't 2000 yr old Romans, that means that the bronchioles and some of the smaller bronchi are obliterated by masses made up of fiberous tissue. It's like sticking marbles into the networks of tubes in your lung that connect fresh air to the alveoli…

"I Feel Your Pain. Now, Getting Back to Your Co-Pays..."

A study from Duke University reveals that oncologists who hear an expression of emotional concern from their patients respond with an empathic statement only 22% of the time. In other words, patients who share feelings of distress such as anger, discouragement or fear with their doctors are likely to receive no recognition of their suffering nor any emotional support in return. As a medical oncologist I find this embarrassing. By identifying how seldom oncologists provide empathic support to patients, the study illuminates the potential benefit of teaching such skills to doctors. Previous…

"Friends I Hope We'll Always Be..."

"If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not." -Marcus Aurelius A story in USA Today reports the results of a survey of 1,662 physicians, of whom 96% agreed that "doctors should report impaired or incompetent colleagues to relevant authorities," while over half the group confessed that after encountering such tarnished peers they declined to denounce them. The authors conclude that most physicians believe in following professional guidelines for behavior and in reporting those colleagues who don't, but are less likely to make the call themselves when they encounter a…

A Drama at Donut-A-Rama

"Yes, I'd like a dozen doughnuts, please." "Are you sure, sir? If I were you I'd run as fast as I could from this shop and head for the nearest bakery for some whole grain bread." "You work here and you're trying to discourage me from buying your product?" "I know it sounds crazy, but you see - I'm pre-med at State U, and I found out that doughnuts are not good for your health." "Pre-med? You already sound like one of those sanctimonious medical bloggers. Just give me the doughnuts - on second thought make it two dozen doughnuts, Mr. Know-It-All." 'Yes, sir, and thanks very much - you just…

Something's Brewing with Nude Mice!

On any given day millions of Americans inch forward in a brutally tedious queue, staring at the big board over a Starbucks counter with the same keen look seen in a church pew around thirty minutes into the sermon. Typically they make only one major decision during this visit, viz. whether to order a caffeinated or decaffeinated drink. If they only knew that two other crucial decisions lie before them, two that could affect their health for years to come. They are: 1. Should I leave my car in the parking lot and run home? 2. Should I renew my membership in the nudist beach club?…

The Rosh Huntress files

In the Washington Post article Lott says: "I probably shouldn't have done it---I know I shouldn't have done it ---but it's hard to think of any big advantage I got except to be able to comment fictitiously," Well, I can think of one. Last January, the New York Post drafted an opinion piece written by Lott. In that piece Lott claimed that a school shooting had been stopped by students armed with guns and that almost all the newspaper stories had failed to mention this fact, thus demonstrating that the media showed a bias against guns. Next, someone posted the…

In Other News, Shark Attacks Linked to Swimming in Ocean

Study: Long hospital shifts, sleep deprivation can kill We in the healing arts have waited a long time for a headline like this. It seems that someone has finally acknowledged what we knew all along: working long hours is dangerous to the health and life of young doctors-in-training. Hurrah for research! Let's celebrate by knocking off early, before we get hurt. A study from the U.S. of doctors in their first postgraduate year (interns) has showed that working extended shifts is associated with increased reporting by the doctors of medical errors, adverse patient events and attentional…

"Gimme a Double Soybean Curd Burger with Pickles, and a Towel to Cry In, Please"

As the delightful wag James Taranto over at OpinionJournal.com would say, "What would we find without studies?" "Breast Cancer Risk Linked To Red Meat, Study Finds" Younger women who regularly eat red meat appear to face an increased risk for a common form of breast cancer, according to a large, well-known Harvard study of women's health. Now I ask you, haven't the steakhouses of America been punished enough? First they restrict smoking in the joints, now we get this report from Mount Olympus (excuse me, from the Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and…

Sooner or Later, We're Gonna Have a Really, Really, Really Bad Day: Death From the Skies, by Phil Plait

Originally posted by Mike Dunford On February 18, 2009, at 2:01 PM "Children are our hope for the future." THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, said Death. "What does it contain, then?" ME. "Besides you, I mean!" Death gave him a puzzled look. I'M SORRY? ---Terry Pratchett, Sourcery Bad Astronomy Blogger Phil Plait has written one of the most fantastically, outrageously, manically, humorously depressing books I've ever read, and I'm almost certain I mean that as a compliment. Death From The Skies provides a veritable smorgasbord of potentially deadly astronomical delights, each more exotic than…

Framing Autism

Orac wrote about the need to devise frames that can "combat the likes of Jenny McCarthy" and to counter the highly misleading frames that are out there about vaccines, namely: 1) Autism as vaccine injury. 2) Vaccination as an assault on personal freedom. 3) "Green Our Vaccines" and its variant, "We are not 'antivaccine'; we're pro-safe vaccine." 4) Too many too soon. As the parent of an autistic son, and as someone who communicates regularly with lots of parents of autistic children and with lots of parents period, these are some reasons why people these days seem drawn to such misinformation…