Category: Science
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SCOTUS decision on gene patents is bad biology, and bad for science
I’m pleased the Supreme Court has decided to reject the idea of patenting genes, as such case law would be restrictive to scientific discovery and also just feels fundamentally icky. From a legal perspective, as far as I understand patent law (not a lawyer here), it also seemed to fail on the more basic level…
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2nd US Hospital to do full face transplant – today at University of Maryland
The news was just publicly announced that the University of Maryland is now the 2nd hospital to perform full face transplant in the US. Just a handful of these procedures have been performed around the world, and they are enormously complex ethically, surgically and medically. To begin with, long before the surgery even became a…
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CSPI overblows the cancer risk of caramel coloring in soda
The safety of soda has been in the news a lot lately. The news even seems bad for diet coke, which hits close to home for me given my diet coke addiction. The worst seems to be this correlative study proposing a link between diet sodas and stroke risk: The study, which followed more than…
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Watch James Hansen's TED talk
I think it’s a nice, succinct description of the problem of climate change from one of the leaders of the field. On a related note the nation of Kiribati is relocating to Fiji as their island nation is disappearing.
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Accountability in Science Journalism: two recent examples of failures in the NYT and Forbes
Ed Yong demands higher accountability in science journalism and has made me think of how in the last two days I’ve run across two examples of shoddy reporting. These two articles I think encompass a large part of the problem, the first from the NYT, represents the common failure of science reporters to be critical…
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Drug Shortages Reveal the Free Market is Failing Our Sickest Patients
**Update, the NYT has an editorial in their Sunday edition recommending the passage of two bills in congress requiring advanced notice from drug manufacturers in event of likely shortage. Health affairs discusses the increasingly frequent shortages of critical, life-saving, generic drugs. This is a serious problem that seems mostly limited to the U.S. healthcare system,…
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NHS has broken the cycle!
A few days ago I asked how do we break this cycle of news reports based on terrible misreading of the scientific literature literature. All these reports do is spread misinformation and undermine trust in scientific research. Well, the British National Health System has the answer! Via Ben Goldacre, I’ve found my new, favorite website,…
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Are Patients in Universal Healthcare Countries Less Satisfied?
A dishonest campaign has started against healthcare reform in this country and the first shot has come from Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), a group purporting to show that patients in universal health systems suffer from government interference in health care. To bolster their argument, they have a pile of anecdotes from people around the…
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Obesity – A new study and what it means to be a “healthy weight”
In response to the conversation on “Obesity, Evolution and Delayed Gratification” on the main page and Razib’s coverage of a fascinating new study on the relationship to the lactase gene and obesity, I thought now would be a good time to write about an important new study that helps define the boundaries of what normal…
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What should a national health care system look like?
I was pleased to see president Obama deliver this address yesterday: Click To Play I was even more pleased because he has gathered the traditional opponents of healthcare reform around him and has convinced them to commit to reform in the US system. This is a positive sign. However, I’m concerned because, as with all…