Science in the Media

XKCD usually is pretty good; this one, however, is a brillant commentary on science journalism. People forget that once an event has happened, the probability of that event is exactly 1, and the probability of all other outcomes is exactly zero. (Click image for full-size view.) (Source page.)
Yes, this is old news.  I've written about it before, as have numerous other progressive scientifically-oriented bloggers.  But now that there is an opinion piece featured prominently in the New York Times, perhaps the issue is gaining momentum. href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opinion/18kennedy.html?hp">Cows on Drugs By DONALD KENNEDY Published: April 17, 2010 NOW that Congress has pushed through its complicated legislation to reform the health insurance system, it could take one more simple step to protect the health of all Americans. This one wouldn't raise any taxes or make any…
I guess Fox News is starting a series of vignettes, hoping to show that stimulus money is being wasted.  In an early attempt, Hannity and Carlson track down an entomologist, at Michigan State University, who got a $200,000 grant from stimulus funds.  The scientist is href="http://www.ent.msu.edu/Directory/Facultypages/Cognato/tabid/135/Default.aspx">Dr. Anthony Cognato, Associate Professor in the Department of Entomology. I will let the viewers judge for themselves if the Fox crew managed to demonstrate anything at all.  One thing that is clear: they do not understand basic science, or…
At first, I was going to title this post WSJ: Incompetent Ranting. Then I decided that was too strong.  Then I read the article again, and went back to the original title.  Mind you, this is not intended to be an ad hominem attack.  The author, href="http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/history/faculty/facultyprofiles/shorter.html">Edward Shorter, has been the Hannah Professor in the History of Medicine since 1991, and in 1996 was cross-appointed as Professor of Psychiatry (at the University of Toronto).  He has written some good books, includingA History of Psychiatry: From the Era of the Asylum…
I've been mulling this over for a few days, finally deciding to write about it.  There was an article in the NYT on 13 January 2010 about an NEJM article: href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/health/research/14morphine.html"> href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/health/research/14morphine.html">Morphine May Help Traumatic Stress By BENEDICT CAREY Published: January 13, 2010 Doctors have long hoped to discover a "morning-after pill" to blunt the often disabling emotional fallout from traumatic experiences. Now it appears that they have had one on hand all along: morphine...In a…
I couldn't resist that title, but I must admit it isn't mine; the author's post is href="http://pasadenasubrosa.typepad.com/pasadena_sub_rosa/2009/12/let-them-eat-antipsychotics.html">here.  This is about the NYT article about the finding that children on Medicaid are more likely to be prescribed antipsychotic medication, compared to those with private insurance.  The obvious correlation is that children with Medicaid are from poor families, whereas those with private insurance are from families that have more resources.  It is one of those studies that documents an evocative finding,…
The Union of Concerned Scientists has issued a press release: href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/ucs-gives-obama-high-marks-on-0229.html">UCS Gives Obama High Marks on Scientific Integrity for First 100 Days.  Granted, after suffering through eight years of the Bush II Administation, they'd probably give high marks to Pee Wee Herman.  They believe that Obama has taken a personal interest in restoring integrity to the interface between science and politics.  While acknowledging that he hasn't and couldn't take a lot of action in his first 100 days in office, they express the…
When I was at work today, I saw a headline that irritated me.  I decided I would blog about it when I got home.  But now the headline has been changed.  I will still blog about it, though. The original headline was: Report: Alternative energy quest endangering birds.  Now, it is worded differently: href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ENERGY_BIRDS?SITE=TXWIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Report: Birds endangered by energy development By DINA CAPPIELLO - 4 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Obama administration pursues more homegrown energy sources, a new government…
I chose three articles from this month's edition of Archives of General Psychiatry, upon which to comment.   For those not familiar with it, Arch Gen Psychiatry is an AMA journal, like JAMA, but for psychiatrists.  It's an influential journal. 1. href="http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/65/8/870">Selecting Among Second-Step Antidepressant Medication Monotherapies.  This is their one open-access article, so I will mention it first.  A little background: We've known for a long time that all antidepressants work for some people, but nothing works for everyone.  A lot of effort…
Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Scientific Society Journal, where  all research studies are "authoritative", all scientists "experts", all findings "breakthroughs".  Not to mention "above average". That happens to be almost a direct quote from a recent article in the the Guardian.  (HT: href="http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/?p=1801">Black Triangle) href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/02/pressandpublishing.healthandwellbeing">Overhyped health stories? They're all pants Peter Wilby The Guardian, Monday June 2 2008 Last Tuesday, the Daily Mail informed readers that cocoa…
When generic drugs started to become popular, many people were skeptical.  Many people got switched from brand name to generic products, and complained that the generic did not work as well. These complaints often were treated with skepticism.  After all, generic drugs contain the same active ingredient(s) as the brand-name product, but cost less.  Plus, the FDA assured us that they were bioequivalent. Over the past decade or so, public acceptance of generics has increased.  Many people want to get the generic equivalent.  But now there are questions about the validity of the testing done to…
Judith Warner has some insightful essays in the NYT column, pertaining to the long-raging question about whether psychiatric patients are style="font-style: italic;">overmedicated or style="font-style: italic;">undermedicated. One of the essays addresses the question directly: style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/overselling-overmedication/">Overselling Overmedication Judith Warner February 14, 2008 ...In the book, Barber argues that Americans are being vastly overmedicated for often relatively minor mental health concerns. This over-…
A fellow blogger, Logtar,  href="http://blog.logtar.com/2008/02/18/bodies-revealed-boycott/">tipped me off to a controversy, and asked if I had anything to say about it.  The controversy has come about over an exhibit: rel="tag" href="http://www.bodiesrevealed.com/index-home.html">Bodies Revealed.  It's a traveling exhibit that displays plastinated human cadavers.  The exhibit was organized by href="http://www.prxi.com/prxi.html">Premier Exhibitions, Inc. A bit of background can be gotten from an article in Scientific American, href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=…
Usually I cringe when I see yet another newspaper article about suicide.  But I always read them.  This time, I did cringe, but needlessly.  The article turned out to be OK. href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/washington/24fda.html?ei=5090&en=69952ee3ab69a7b3&ex=1358917200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print">F.D.A. Requiring Suicide Studies in Drug Trials By href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/gardiner_harris/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More Articles by Gardiner Harris">GARDINER HARRIS January 24, 2008 src="…
Any time something related to a medical use for cannabis is found, it makes headlines.  Mostly, the interest is generated by the relationship to an illegal drug.  Sometimes, though, the media do a decent job of reporting the real issue. href="http://www.researchblogging.org/">Researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute have announced that one of the compounds found in cannabis,cannabidiol, inhibits a gene that is important for the growth and metastasis ofbreast cancer.   Note that this has nothing to do with medical marijuana, really.  Cannabidiol is not…
Tilly is an eagle that has been trained to fly with a pair of video cameras.  The cameras weigh less than 30 grams and can transmit video signals more than a mile.   I gather this was shown on Aminal Planet, but you can see it on the Internet href="http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/spyonthewild/birdtech/birdtech.html">here.
Is it just me, or do others find this article to be offensive? href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1681838,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-healthsci">When the Patient Is a Googler By SCOTT HAIG Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007 We had never met, but as we talked on the phone I knew she was Googling me. The way she drew out her conjunctions, just a little, that was the tip off — stalling for time as new pages loaded. It was barely audible, but the soft click-click of the keyboard in the background confirmed it. Oh, well, it's the information age. Normally, she'd have to go through my staff…
href="http://www.researchblogging.org/"> alt="Blogging on Peer-Reviewed Research" src="http://www.researchblogging.org/public/citation_icons/rb2_large_gray.png" height="50" width="80">The researchers did fMRI of brains of persons with href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder" rel="tag">Borderline Personality Disorder, before and after psychotherapy.  This was a small study, using a design that would be difficult to use routinely, but it is provisionally interesting.  Difficult, because the patients received 12 weeks of inpatient therapy (perhaps…
PZ has already href="http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/10/dont_worry_kids_curry_is_just.php">written about this, primarily to dismiss it as nonsense.  He is correct, but there is one point (or two) that I want to add.Oliver Curry  is described in WIkipedia as an evolutionary theorist as well as a political theorist.  He was granted a Ph.D., on the topic of morality as natural history,  by the Government Department of the London School of Economics.  Apparently, he is fond of saying that humans will divide into two species, approximately 100,000 years from now. The article PZ cites…
Howard Hughes Medical Institute has announced a policy to promote open-access publication of scientific papers.  They are not only supporting it philosophically, but financially as well.  In fact, they are not only supporting it, but requiring it for their researchers: href="http://www.hhmi.org/news/springer20070927.html">HHMI Expresses Support for Springer Open Choice September 27, 2007 The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has expressed support for Springer's Open Choice program whereby articles are — if accepted for publication after a process of rigorous peer-review —…