Last 24 Hours
Experimental Biology 2016
Posted by Dr. Dolittle on March 25, 2016 I am getting my poster presentations ready for the Experimental Biology conference next week in San Diego. In my opinion, this is one of the most exciting conferences as we get to hear about the latest physiology research. I cannot wait to share what I learn with you! Here is a YouTube video with just…
Birds seeking safety of alligators
Posted by Dr. Dolittle on March 25, 2016 I came across this neat video summarizing a study that found some birds build nests near alligators to protect themselves from other predators. But the protection is not without a price.
Creationist Probability
Posted by jrosenhouse on March 25, 2016 When I got interested in evolution, one of the first books I read was The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins. I had never heard of Dawkins before reading that book. I read it simply because I happened to notice it a the public library and thought it had a cool cover. The book’s third chapter…
Report: Expanding Medicaid programs a win for both residents and state budgets
Posted by Kim Krisberg on March 25, 2016 Here’s what states get when they expand Medicaid: more savings, more revenue, more jobs, more access to care for their communities.
An Open Letter from Peter Gleick: My Transition at the Pacific Institute
Posted by Peter Gleick on March 25, 2016 As readers of this column may already know, earlier this week the Pacific Institute and I announced an important and exciting change: on July 1st after 28 years as co-founder and President of the Institute, I will be moving to a new position as President Emeritus and Chief Scientist. A wide search for a new president…
Friday Cephalopod: Sounds like high school
Posted by PZ Myers on March 25, 2016 Mystery solved: It was Robert De Niro who got Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda film selected for screening at the Tribeca Film Festival
Posted by Orac on March 25, 2016 
Over the last three days I’ve been complaining about how the Tribeca Film Festival selected for screening Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda- and conspiracy-laden quackfest of a documentary entitled Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe. I also took TFF to task for its extremely disingenuous response about its being about “discussion and dialogue.” You might also recall…
Why Do The Tiniest Galaxies Have The Most Dark Matter? (Synopsis)
Posted by Ethan on March 25, 2016 
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” -Winston Churchill When we look out at the Universe on the largest scales, from large-scale structure to the fluctuations in the CMB to lensed clusters of galaxies and to giant spirals and ellipticals, we…
Are Engineers More Likely To Be Terrorists, And If So, Why?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 25, 2016 
I met a student, I was on his examining committee, who had been a civil engineer for years (he was getting his undergraduate degree late in life). He was politically conservative and cynical about academia. He needed the degree in order to get a major promotion, hated the idea of going back to college, but…
Which Senate Seats Will Switch to Democratic In 2016?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 25, 2016 
I’m trying to figure out how many Senate seats, and which ones, will switch from Republican to Democratic in November 2016. At present, 54 Senator caucus with the Republicans, and 46 caucus with the Democrats (two of those are Independant). We should be shooting for a good majority of 61, just to be safe. That…
When alternative medicine cancer cures fail, it’s always the patient’s fault. Always.
Posted by Orac on March 25, 2016 After a trilogy of posts on the lamentably bad decision on the part of the Tribeca Film Festival to screen a pseudoscience- and misinformation-filled documentary by hero to the antivaccine movement, Andrew Wakefield, that is basically one long conspiracy theory, I thought it was time for a change. I had briefly toyed with the idea…
Could dark matter not exist at all? (Synopsis)
Posted by Ethan on March 24, 2016 
“For the moment we might very well can them DUNNOS (for Dark Unknown Nonreflective Nondetectable Objects Somewhere).” -Bill Bryson The Sun makes up 99.8% the mass of our Solar System, yet stars account for only about 10-20% of the matter that protons, neutrons and electrons make up. Protons, neutrons and electrons — along with all…
“Sorry it took so long”: OSHA issues rule to protect workers exposed to silica dust
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University on March 24, 2016 JT Knuckles was 58 years old when he died from silicosis in 1998. I’m remembering him today as OSHA announces a new regulation to protect silica-exposed workers.
New Research Sheds Light on Zika
Posted by Wesley Dodson on March 24, 2016 
Scientists working to understand the implications of Zika’s new prevalence in the Americas have found strong evidence that infection with the virus can cause fetal abnormalities and even miscarriage in pregnant women. On The Pump Handle, Liz Borkowski examines a series of studies conducted on Zika, including one which found the virus infected “most of…
Andrew Wakefield and the Tribeca Film Festival: Criticism of a bad decision ≠ “censorship”
Posted by Orac on March 24, 2016 
Ever since I mentioned on Tuesday that the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival had taken a massive dump on reality and science by selecting for screening Andrew Wakefield’s antivaccine propaganda “documentary,” Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe, dedicated to the so-called “CDC whistleblower,” the topic has taken over, as topics sometimes tend to do here. In response…
