Last 24 Hours
Workplace fatalities due to reckless business decisions
Posted by Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH of Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University on April 1, 2016 It’s time to get passed thinking that workplace fatalities are “just accidents.” A new toolkit by the Center for Progressive Reform will help worker- and community-coalitions encourage prosecutors to review on-the-job fatalities for possible criminal charges.
Friday Cephalopod: Squid in Spaaaaace!
Posted by PZ Myers on April 1, 2016 The Squid Scientists take a photo of their baby animals, and unwittingly reveal what they’re actually doing. Look behind the squid — I know it’s hard, why would you want to look past cephalopods? — and what do you see? That blurry poster in the background? It’s a space shuttle launch. And now you know.…
How fast does Earth move through the Universe? (Synopsis)
Posted by Ethan on April 1, 2016 
“The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less about the speed and more about investing the right amount of time and attention in the problem so you solve it.” –Carl Honore Einstein’s theories of special and general relativity tell us that there’s no Universal, preferred frame of reference. But that…
My new project launching today: The Quisling Qourner: A group blog on the library/publisher relationship
Posted by John Dupuis on April 1, 2016 It’s been really gratifying over the last year to see how my DSCaM scholarly communications empire has grown. From it’s small beginnings, Dupuis Science Computing & Medicine has craved out a small but important niche in the discount APC publishing community. And I really appreciate how the scholarly communications community has encouraged my career progression…
An antivaccine activist explains how she uses Facebook reporting algorithms to harass and silence pro-science bloggers
Posted by Orac on April 1, 2016 
I wish this post were an April Fools Day joke, but it is not. Three weeks ago, Skeptical Raptor and I wrote posts describing how a particularly vicious, nasty antivaccine troll named Heather Murray had successfully gamed Facebook reporting algorithms intended to report abuse in order to silence pro-science bloggers. It is, unfortunately, a tactic…
Ridley Scott Just Needs a Little Focus: A Review of the Martian
Posted by Vince LiCata on March 31, 2016 The Martian is a feel-good, science positive, uplifting film about the power of the human spirit, botany, and engineering. It looked, from the credits, like it had at least 8 scientific advisors from NASA (and possibly other places). Too bad that Ridley Scott only half listened to them. As one of the primary sci-fi filmmakers…
A nearby, infant star teaches us how planets begin to form (Synopsis)
Posted by Ethan on March 31, 2016 
“TW Hydrae is quite special. It is the nearest known protoplanetary disc to Earth and it may closely resemble the Solar System when it was only 10 million years old.” -David Wilner For hundreds of years since the realization that Earth and the other planets orbited the Sun, humanity had only hypotheses about how planets…
Don’t forget to vote!
Posted by Dr. Dolittle on March 31, 2016 Don’t forget to vote for your favorite Phantastic Physiology Voyage video from trainees sponsored by the American Physiological Society. This year’s theme is “Function Follows Form.” Here is just a sample of the phantastic videos (from YouTube) in the contest: To see the rest of the videos and vote for your favorite, click here!
Heat stress in livestock
Posted by Dr. Dolittle on March 31, 2016 With the approach of summer, a timely study was published in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology on whether inflammation plays a role in heat stress-related complications in muscles. Heat stress is a major problem in the livestock industry. In the United States alone it is reportedly associated with a loss of approximately…
March Pieces Of My Mind #3
Posted by Martin R on March 31, 2016 
Untouched WW2 resistance arms cache found in a cave near Bergen. Sadly no archaeological involvement. Everything dealt with by police explosives experts. Greek Western heroine: Kalamata Jane. So annoying when people write about patently incorrect beliefs held in the past or in far parts of the world as “knowledge”. They’re going to drill cores of…
Cancer patients do not need or want suggestions for alternative cancer cures
Posted by Orac on March 31, 2016 
Over the last week or so, I’ve noticed (or had brought to my attention) a series of articles discussing a phenomenon related to alternative medicine that I don’t believe that I’ve addressed before, at least not directly anyway. I had filed some of these in my folder of topics for blogging, but somehow never got…
The Milky Way’s most recent supernova was hidden… until now! (Synopsis)
Posted by Ethan on March 31, 2016 
“When a star goes supernova, the explosion emits enough light to overshadow an entire solar system, even a galaxy. Such explosions can set off the creation of new stars. In its own way, it was not unlike being born.” -Todd Nelson In 1604, Kepler’s supernova went off, the last Milky Way supernova visible to naked-eye…
Refusing Healthy Communities via Vaccine Exemptions
Posted by Wesley Dodson on March 30, 2016 
A new review of the scientific literature confirms the truth about vaccine exemptions; they endanger everyone. On The Pump Handle, Kim Krisberg outlines the horrible realities of vaccine-preventable disease, and writes that vaccine refusal has “accelerated the resurgence of whooping cough and measles here in the U.S.” On Respectful Insolence, Orac writes “the MMR [vaccine]…
Why some physicians embrace quackery
Posted by Orac on March 30, 2016 And now for something completely different. Yes, it’s about time for that, isn’t it? I’ve probably beat the Tribeca Film Festival story into the ground, even for me, having spent the last week blogging about it. Scratch that. There’s no “probably” about it. I frequently write at length about the quackery that is homeopathy. One…
To Atlanta!
Posted by jrosenhouse on March 30, 2016 I’m leaving for Atlanta tomorrow, to participate in the biennial Gathering For Gardner conference. Martin Gardner’s interests were math, magic, and fighting pseudoscience. My kind of guy! While I’m away, you can discuss Sergey Karjakin’s surprise win in the big chess candidate’s tournament. His victory gets earns him a title match against World Champion Magnus…
