People, not clusters
Surveillance of people with infectious diseases is a public health measure, yet such surveillance can lead to serious injustice. In an editorial in the Amer...
All posts tagged with politics
Why won’t Science publish replication studies?
An article in Slate by Kevin Arceneaux and coworkers recounts their experiences trying to publish a replication of a high-profile psychology study in Science...
Brexit fears affecting U.K. archaeologists
I have no political position on the impending departure of Britain from the European Union. Nevertheless, I wanted to point to this article in The Guardian t...
Link: Kate Clancy testimony from congressional hearing on sexual harassment
Yesterday, the U.S. Congress conducted a hearing on the topic of sexual harassment in science. Anthropologist Kate Clancy provided testimony at the hearing, ...
Link: An Ethiopian government transition
Ethiopia is undergoing an unexpected government transition, and Yohannes Gedamu in The Conversation gives some context: “Premier quitting and state of emerge...
Ideological purity tests are not the way to build public engagement with science
Undark is running an op/ed by Aspen Reese, a former visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, about the recent (and ongoing) flap concern...
Link: History of The Population Bomb
Charles C. Mann has written a historical account of Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb as a part of Smithsonian magazine’s retrospective on the year 1968: “T...
South African San adopt code of research ethics
By Linda Nordling in Science: “San people of Africa draft code of ethics for researchers”:
Link: Science reports on public knowledge of science
Science magazine: “Americans may know more than you think about science”. Looking at a more expansive view of knowledge that tries to get at how people actua...
Link: Personalized medicine going to Congress
The New York Times reports on the new initiative to fund massive research on personalized medicine: “Obama to Request Research Funding for Treatments Tailore...
Philanthropy and public funding of science
Lots of people have been talking about this New York Times article about the increasing philanthropic funding of big science projects: “Billionaires With Big...
Neandertal anti-defamation files, 21
Chris Mooney reviews the book, Our Political Nature: The Evolutionary Origins of What Divides Us by Avi Tuschman, in an article in Washington Monthly: “The O...
Oliver Wendell Holmes
In the New York Times, Alan Dershowitz reviews the book, The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind–and Changed the History of Free Speech...
California's online imposition
This is big education news, from the California legislature: “Measure Seeks Campus Credit For Web Study”.
Birth politics
Alice Roberts writes about the process of childbirth as she awaits her second delivery: “Childbirth: why I take the scientific approach to having a baby”. Th...
Quote: Morgan and Reynolds on ethics of plagiarism
Peter Morgan and Glenn Reynolds, from their book The Appearance of Impropriety: How the Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business, and Societ...
More on the reclamation proclamation
Michael E. Smith comments on the Chagnon/Sahlins flap from the perspective of archaeology: “Chagnon, Sahlins, and science”:
Asteroid defense: think small
Rand Simberg: “Should NASA Be Doing More Asteroids?”
Recantation of a former genetic know-nothing
The text of this lecture by Mark Lynas is remarkable (“Lecture to Oxford Farming Conference, 3 January 2013”). Lynas gained prominence as a critic of genetic...
The Stalin Age diet
Dan Lieberman, writing in the New York Times, supports the Bloomburg soda ban with a call for additional regulations banning: “Evolution’s Sweet Tooth”.
"We don't need a master"
The Boston Globe has a a story about a new institute, founded by Jon F. Wilkins, that aims to solve some of the administrative problems facing independent sc...
Shoelaces tied together
Zen Faulkes comments on last week’s National Academies meeting on Science Communication: “Self-defeating prophecy”.
Making science or making news?
Christopher Reddy, from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, comments on his experience doing science around the Deepwater Horizon oil accident in the Gulf ...
Neandertal anti-defamation files, 16
Barbara King joins the Neandertal Anti-Defamation League with her new post at NPR: “Giving Neanderthals Some Respect (Especially In An Election Year)”.
"American Genesis"
I saw a reference to this new book by Jeffrey Moran: American Genesis: The Evolution Controversies from Scopes to Creation Science. From the description:
Public interests in data from federally funded research
I submitted the following essay in response to the Request for Information on Public Access to Digital Data Resulting from Federally Funded Research from the...
Open access op/ed in NY Times
Molecular biologist Michael Eisen, writing in the New York Times: “Research bought, then paid for”.
Florida: Anthropologists not wanted
Last week I linked to my essay, “What’s wrong with anthropology?” My theme was that anthropology has been a failure over the past two decades at engaging wit...
Engaging with the public
Alice Bell raises an essential question: “Whats this public engagement with science thing then?”
Science Pub, day of creationism
I had a wonderful afternoon Sunday at the Madison Science Pub. The featured guest was Ron Numbers, the historian of science at UW-Madison whose research has ...
I'm a genetic libertarian
Much news coming out of the FDA public meeting on direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetics. Dan Vorhaus was at the proceedings and reports on them (“Looking Ahead A...
FDA-DTC genetics meeting
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been holding a meeting about Direct-to-Consumer genetic testing. Daniel MacArthur has been following the proceeding...
Stuxnet story
Fascinating detective story in Vanity Fair about how computer security researchers ferreted out the workings of the Stuxnet worm. I especially enjoyed the ps...
Neandertal anti-defamation files, 9
Why do they have to bring poor Neandertals into it?
Genomes to the people
Misha Angrist has written a strong guest post at Daniel MacArthur’s “Genetic Future”, taking a clear stand in favor of disclosure of genetic information from...
Quote: Penn Gillette on freedom
Penn Gillette, writing in 2002 about an experience with a TSA “pat-down”:
California quashes student gene testing at UC-Berkeley
LA Times: “UC Berkeley adjusts freshman orientation’s gene-testing program.”
Berkeley DNA tests revisited
I wrote about the UC Berkeley genetic testing of incoming freshmen earlier this spring. The summer is halfway over and the saliva kits have been sent. Now Sc...
DNA arrest database
In yesterday’s DNA news, the U.S. House of Representatives wants to pay for an expansion of federal DNA databases to include all arrestees:
Congress, FDA cracking down on direct-to-consumer genomics
It’s been a busy week for DNA news. In the DNA arrest database example, Congress seems to have no problem with more testing. In the case of personal genomics...
Anthropocene redux
If you’re a regular reader, you may remember my comments on some geologists’ attempt to define an “Anthropocene” epoch to recognize the world-changing scope ...
UC-Berkeley genetic tests for freshmen
I’m not sure which tags to apply to this story. I’m torn between “colossally-bad-ideas” and “university-auditions-for-big-brother”.
NAGPRA rule revision
Rex Dalton reports on changes to the federal implementation rules of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: “Rule poses threat to museum...
Bake sales minus the baking
Remember when we were going to have to hold bake sales to save the schools? Well, New York has found one way to solve that problem: “New York schools’ ban on...
NIH genetic test registry
The National Institutes of Health directorate this week announced the creation of a new database for tracking and providing public information about commerci...
Texas newborn DNA experimentation
A couple of weeks ago, the Texas Tribune reported on an investigation of the archiving of blood samples taken from newborn infants: “DNA Deception”.
National Children's Study update
Pam Belluck explains the hold-ups with the 7-billion-dollar National Children’s Study: “Wanted: Volunteers, all pregnant.”
Clearing the stack
Here are some links that have been piling up in my browser tabs this week:
Smeersh spionum
John Tierney reports on an idea to link carbon tax increases to future global temperatures. The idea is that if warming doesn’t happen, there won’t be a tax,...
Public access to federally funded research
The Obama Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy is running a forum on public access to federally funded research. There seem to be ongoing...
Leaving it to the societies
Carl Zimmer, giving a quick synopsis of three recent books on science communication, begins his post:
Medical records, research, and personalized genomics
I’m reading through Chris Anderson’s Free, and ran across a sidebar on page 104, titled, “How can healthcare software be free?”. The answer is by selling dat...
Stimulating some grants
In case you’re wondering whether you have a chance at some of that stimulus money for your grant proposal:
The University of California system adopts a new approach to repatriation
I’d like to point readers to a story in Nature reported by Rex Dalton, on a story of repatriation from the University of California, San Diego. In some ways ...
Stimulating some grants
A story on how new Energy Secretary Steven Chu is planning to dole out the stimulus money:
Congress to repeal open access science provisions?
Putting science back in its proper place, Congress has taken up a bill to eliminate the requirement that publicly-funded research be freely accessible by the...
Privacy, politicians, and genetic testing
Ronald Bailey opines about coming pressures for politicians to release their genetic test results:
Eric Lander to co-direct Obama advisory council
Genome scientist Eric Lander has been appointed co-chair of Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology:
"Anthropocene"? WhaAAAH?!
Here in paleoanthropologyland, we are often subject to the whims of the nomenclatura. These folks come up with new “logical” ways to name things, and we eith...