Humanity and Nature Through Social Production: Marx’s Materialism Unfolded from Epicurus
John Bellamy Foster explains how Marx learned from chemists, physicists, biologists and the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus
Read more...Category Archives: Science and the scientific method
Coffee Break: Longevity, Quackitude, a Supplement that Works, and a Short Meditation on Orthodoxy
Part the First: What the Longevity Bros Miss: The Office of Science and Society (OSS) at McGill University is one of the best newsletters of its kind and has provided much to think about today’s Coffee Break. In this first part, it is not too difficult to understand the desire to live long and prosper. […]
Read more...Satyajit Das: Book Essay: “At the Risk of Being Pedantic…?”
The pedantic might relish that their vice can be a bit slippery to pin down.
Read more...More Testosterone Won’t Make a Better Soldier or a Tougher Man – Aggression and Strength Drive T Levels, Not the Other Way Around
Pete Hegseth is almost predictably wrong. His beliefs about testosterone supplementation are par for the course.
Read more...What Science Loses When T. Rex Becomes a Trophy
Shared natural heritage, on the auction block.
Read more...Knee Pain? Ragged Cartilage? Research Suggests Surgery’s Not the Best Answer
Some news you can use: on a dodgy knee procedure that while deservedly falling in popularity, is still being practiced.
Read more...Coffee Break: More on American Science, Thomas Jefferson and AI, and Natural History for the Ages
Part the First: Beware of Resting on the Shoulders of Atlas. Dr. Scott Atlas is a radiologist who is now ensconced in the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford (naturally, and in the tower, no less). One can only surmise from the general run of their work product that (true) Revolution and […]
Read more...Coffee Break: Apathetic Americans, Science Agonistes, and Cool Science
Part the First: Jessica Wildfire on Apathetic Americans. As a paid-up member of the Professional Managerial Class who came from a thoroughly working-class background, I tend to hear and see things differently from most of my colleagues. An enduring theme among them is “They just don’t seem to care…” Not exactly. From Heads Above Water: […]
Read more...Progress in Understanding Early-Onset Cancers?
Cancer has been recognized as an environmental disease since the first description of chimney sweep’s cancer by Percivall Pott in 1775. The primary social determinant of this disease is described well in this article Lancet Oncology (Abstract then unfortunately a paywall), even if the “social determinants of health” are anathema during our MAHA Moment. More […]
Read more...Coffee Break: Against AI, Stem Cells, Cancer Chemotherapy, A Note on Louis Pasteur
Part the First: More Cognitive Surrender Where It Just Won’t Do. Last week we considered an essay on AI that used the term “cognitive surrender.” That sums up the current state of that art and the term should gain a following. Last week Nature published Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in – […]
Read more...The Mathematical Secrets Hidden at the Heart of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família
Is Gaudi’s tremendous Barcelona cathedra, the Sagrada Família. fractal? Or simply mathematically stylized?
Read more...Coffee Break: More on American Science, An NIH Grant Long Overdue, An Experimental Model, and Further Thoughts on AI
Part the First: Back to the Past in Science and Medicine. The future of basic science in the United States looks grim for everyone from the aspiring graduate student to the full professor who has met her potential and has several graduate students, postdocs, and technicians working in her laboratory. The precipitous and arbitrary Big […]
Read more...A New Cancer Drug and the Nature of Scientific Discovery
Glen Campbell, who was a member of The Wrecking Crew, once remarked that he had worked hard for ten years to become an overnight success in 1967, with thanks to John Hartford. Without stretching too much, this same trajectory, extended by more than ten years, has been illustrated recently in biomedical research by the case […]
Read more...RFK Jr. Seeks Access to Americans’ Individually Identifiable Medical Records for Clues, Using a Bogus Autism and Vaccines Pretext
RFK Jr. wants to go fishing in medical records to substantiate debunked theories about autism and vaccines. What could go wrong?
Read more...A Peptide, a Secretive Scientist, and a Debate Over Evidence
RFK, Jr. is backing a peptide out of Zagreb, BPC-157, which has lots of fans and very little evidence. What could go wrong?
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