Terra infirma in California
I lived in Los Angeles for a year in the 70s, and I still have a bunch of friends and relatives there that I visit there periodically. So when I read in the NY Times about the recent spate of … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Science
PC medicine?
It’s a well-documented fact that Afro-Americans in this country suffer disproportionately from cardiovascular illness, and that when they do they are often less responsive to medication and other standard treatments. There have been many studies that attempt to determine why … Continue reading →
Ashkenazi Jews, genetic diseases, and intelligence
As this article appearing in today’s NY Times itself mentions, the theory isn’t very PC. I see some possible flaws in the reasoning–at least as it’s described in the article. Of course I’m no scientist (obligatory disclaimer), but I do … Continue reading →
Don’t know whether to laugh or cry?
There’s a new drug for a syndrome that isn’t actually new, but that’s gotten a new name. The drug is Neurodex, and the syndrome is now known as pseudobulbar effect, or PDA. The unsettling and positively creepy-sounding symptoms are as … Continue reading →
No, no, not the lobsters! (But I think PETA will be quite happy, nevertheless)
Today a gloomy story in the Globe caught my eye, indicating that a disfiguring lobster shell disease may be heading northward. This isn’t good news at all. New England lobstering is a lucrative and important industry, with its own rather … Continue reading →
Scientists for Summers
To my intense relief, some scientists–even some female scientists–are bravely defying the PC police and stating the obvious, which is that Larry Summers’ controversial remarks merely reflected the current state of scientific knowledge in the field. The Enlightment lives to … Continue reading →
Summers and science
Captain Ed points to a study that might tend to vindicate Larry Summers’ speculations about possible differences between men’s and women’s brains. It’s certainly not the first evidence of its type, and it won’t be the last–unless, of course, the … Continue reading →
Harvard in peril
Larry Summers is under fire for daring to suggest that research be done into whether there are biological differences that account, at least in part, for the paucity of women at the pinnacle of science. Summers seems to have been … Continue reading →
Eason Jordan and the risky shift
Way way back in college in the 60s, when I was a psych/soc major, I was required to take many courses–many more than I actually cared to–on group behavior. One of the more tedious among them featured research, and the … Continue reading →