Is Being Virtuous Good for You – or Just People Around You? A Study Suggests Traits Like Compassion May Support Your Own Well-Being
Is being virtuous more than just its own reward?
Read more...Category Archives: Science and the scientific method
Coffee Break: Ancient Travelers and Artists, an Enigmatic Devonian Giant, and a Thinking Cow
After one full year the grim news on the science front – all fronts really – this Coffee Break is devoted to why science is interesting and fun. And useful, even if its use value cannot be predicted before the fact. Part the First: Ancient Travelers. Or, social networks (not this kind) have always been […]
Read more...USDA Researchers Instructed to Investigate Foreign Colleagues
The Trump administration asks USDA scientists to research foreign co-authors for suspected collaboration or crimes.
Read more...Coffee Break: Pluto’s Republic, Dietary Guidelines, Vaccine Nonsense, Ancient Poison Arrows, and Renaissance DNA
Part the First: We Live in Pluto’s Republic. With apologies to the shade of Walt Disney, this was bound to happen eventually. From Corey Robin, who notes that at Texas A&M a philosophy professor must dispense with Plato in his course because the content will be in violation of this edict: “No system academic course […]
Read more...A Few Notes on Progress in Gene Therapy
Gene therapy has been a goal of medicine since the first “inborn errors of metabolism” were identified by Sir Archibald Garrod in the early twentieth century. This was before anyone had a good idea of what a gene was, but the principles of Mendelian genetics were used by Garrod, with the assistance of William Bateson, […]
Read more...Improving Indoor Air Quality Might Save Your Life
Cost-effective ways exist to improve your indoor air quality that will reduce your COVID and flu risk, lower your cancer and lung disease risk, and eliminate headaches and sleepiness caused by poor ventilation.
Read more...Coffee Break: Climate, Eugenics, and a Note on mRNA Vaccines
Part the First: Climate, “What, Me Worry?” Once again Alfred E. Neuman comes to mind as “policy-based science” remains the order of the day in the Current Administration as Trump Administration Plans to Break Up Premier Weather and Climate Research Center. The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research […]
Read more...“Trump Supporters Distrust Science. We Need Ways to Reach Them”
The elites, including those in science, seem to think that their loss of legitimacy can be solved by messaging. Good luck with that.
Read more...Coffee Break: Science Update, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Good, Part the First: Basic Science Has the Answer, Once Again. T cells of the immune system are responsible for the establishment of self-tolerance and adaptive immune function. T cells come from the thymus, which is mammals basically disappears early in life in a process called involution. Understanding how the thymus might regenerate has […]
Read more...Book Review: Harnessing the Power of Dreams and Nightmares
In “Nightmare Obscura,” scientist Michelle Carr argues that our dreams are essential pillars of who we are.
Read more...Coffee Break: American Science Shattered
American Science, Shattered. So says is the title of Part 1 of a ten part series in STAT News. Since STAT articles are usually paywalled, I will summarize them here as they appear. Unlike most accounts of the current state of science in the United States, the authors of this article have found scientists who […]
Read more...The Point of No Return for the Warm Water Atlantic Current Is Coming Up Fast
Just the way objects in your rear view mirror are closer than you think, so too are tipping points like the slowdown of the Gulf Stream.
Read more...Blockbuster San Francisco Lawsuit Targets Food Industry Giants Over Ultraprocessed Foods, with Extensive Documentation of Health Damage and Success in Producing Addiction
A case by the San Francisco attorney documents Big Food’s use of ultraprocessed food to create addicts in a repeat of the tobacco playbook.
Read more...Trump Administration Supporting Bayer at Supreme Court Over Monsanto/Roundup Deal, Savaged by Investors for Wealth Destruction in the Name of Executive Preservation
Bayer saddled itself with the Monsanto/Roundup garbage barge over fierce investor protest, and is now seeking Supremes relief.
Read more...Coffee Break: Science and Belief, Working AI, ADHD Update, and Research Support
Part the First: When Science Becomes a Matter of Belief Things Go Sideways. The current Secretary of Health and Human Services is getting his way. This is not a surprise. The President hired him to “go wild on health” and he is doing just that. Some have complained that as Secretary of HHS that RFKJr […]
Read more...