Plastic Is Here to Stay. Can It Be Made More Sustainably?
Redesigning plastic requires making trade-offs between cost, scalability, emissions, toxicity, and more. But how about using less?
Read more...Category Archives: Science and the scientific method
‘A Sick Joke’: Six Ways of Looking at a COP
Making sense of this COP means looking at optics and interests, and sadly not outcomes.
Read more...Patents and Intellectual Property in Biomedical Science: A History in Two Tales
How the US licensing of NIH and other government funded drug and biomedical research became a grift for Big Pharma.
Read more...Do Masks Work During the Pandemic? Scientists Say “Yes.” Secondary Reviews of Clinical Trials Say “No.” So, Which Is It?
Four authors with top statistical chops, including Yaneer Bar-Yam and Nassim Nicholas Taleb, stomp all over the anti-mask Cochrane Report.
Read more...Book Review: Tackling the Riddle of Free Will
Two provocative books explore whether humans have “freee will,” as in control over their personalities, actions, and fates.
Read more...Risks of Fracking Are “Real and Growing,” Report Warns
More evidence that fracking is not good for humans and other living things.
Read more...Biomedical Science versus Biomedicine, a Continuing Series
A case study of biomedical science progress against cystic fibrosis, and the resulting “biomedicine” profiteering.
Read more...Did People Die from Covid Because of the Power of Populist Politics?
The role of ideology in bad Covid science and its amplification.
Read more...From a Fledgling Genetic Science, A Murky Market for Prediction
The commercial push is raising tension between scientists seeking new genetic links, and entrepreneurs seeking profit.
Read more...Two Cheers for Biomedical Science!
An in-depth look at two important advances in biomedical science, each treating a dangerous genetic disease.
Read more...Human Prehistory: How Can We Understand the Passage of Time?
A meditation on prehistory.
Read more...Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations
Simon Schama’s book on pandemics and vaccines is highly informative, although KLG takes issue with Schama’s defense of Anthony Fauci.
Read more...In Search of Safer Shelters: The Challenges of Replicating Nature
Human-made shelters don’t always keep creatures out of harm’s way. Can technology help design a better birdhouse?
Read more...Six Tips for a Good Night’s Sleep
Yes, there are six!
Read more...Is Intellectual Property Turning into a Knowledge Monopoly?
How private capital has hijacked research and intellectual property practices, to the detriment of invention and society generally.
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