Reproducibility Crisis Reaches All Randomised Controlled Trials
Social and medical sciences depend on randomised controlled trials, even though they harbor more assumptions and biases than commonly understood.
Read more...Category Archives: Science and the scientific method
Eyewitness Sketches Provide ‘Stormy’ Results, Can Lead to False Convictions
On the shortcomings of eyewitness memories, and in particular, forensic sketches based them.
Read more...Beware the So-Called Mental Health “De-Stigmatization” Campaigns such as Make It OK and NAMI, for They Are Front Groups for Big Pharma
On the unsavory role of mental health advocacy groups.
Read more...Why the Problem Is Economics, Not Economists
A critique of the monoculture in economics.
Read more...Plastic Watch: Great Pacific Garbage Patch Grows
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a major plastic accumulation zone located between California and Hawaii, is growing at a rate greater than previously believed, according to a new scientific paper published last week.
Read more...How Cuba Became a Biopharma Juggernaut
Cuba’s entirely state-owned biopharmaceutical industry has been remarkably successful, and can serve as a model for other nations.
Read more...5 Ways Capitalist Logic Has Sabotaged the Scientific Community
A useful short list on how commercial and competitive pressures have undermined good scientific practice.
Read more...Why Pretty Much Everything You Know About Depression Is Wrong
A new book takes issue with the widespread medicalization of depression.
Read more...How Nutrition “Science” Made the US and Other Countries Fatter
A deep dive into how an unproven nutrition theory, that saturated fats cause heart disease, became gospel, to the public’s detriment.
Read more...Class and Beyond: Case-Deaton’s “Deaths of Despair,” Embodiment, and Neoliberal Epidemics
Can a theory of epidemiology put a stake in the heart of neoliberalism — and identity politics?
Read more...Improving Patient Care Using Clinical Guidelines and Judgement
Questioning whether enforcement of clinical guidelines and evidence-based medicine produces better patient outcomes.
Read more...Data Scientist Cathy O’Neil: “Algorithms Are Opinions Embedded in Code”
On the real and present dangers of rule by algorithm, or as Lambert has called it, “code as law”.
Read more...Flagging Productivity Growth – How Much Is Due to Bad Management?
Have management fads contributed to the fall in productivity growth?
Read more...What the US “Health Care Reform” Debate Did Not Address
A sobering compendium of the factors responsible for the rot in the US health care system.
Read more...Study: Only Wealthiest and Best Educated Benefit from Mediterranean Diet
A large-scale, well designed study on the Mediterranean diet showed unexpectedly that social status matters, big time.
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