Best of the Moment
science-health
global
Ronald Dworkin | Policy Review | June 2010
America has 30 times as many clinical psychologists as it did 50 years ago, and as many more diverse therapists. Why? Are Americans suffering from an onrush of mental fragility?
Atul Gawande | New Yorker | 26 July 2010
Another moving piece from America's best medical writer. The closer you are to death, the more treatment the hospital wants to give you—if you can afford it. But sometimes it's best for a patient to die in peace
Tim Harris | Prospect | 21 July 2010
Advances in genetics make it possible to debate sensibly the part played by genetic endowment in sporting success—including racial differences, previously a taboo subject
Amnesty International | July 2010
Horrible throughout. Starts with the effects of general malnutrition, and gets worse from there. The dark night of this report (PDF) is in section four, which details operations without anaesthetic
Matt Ridley | Reason | July 2010
Extract from Ridley's "Rational Optimist". History of innovation shows that main stimulant is willingness and capacity among inventors to share ideas. Money helps, but networking helps more
Wil Haygood | Washington Post | 11 July 2010
Classic newspaper reporting. Complex national issue brought alive in local, human terms. Interviews with families in Kentucky town where 52% are obese—and fast food the only entertainment
Kerry Howley | NYT Magazine | 5 July 2010
Economics blogger Robin Hanson gets lead role in a fascinating feature on cryonics as a source of marital discord. Typically, when husband wants to be frozen, wife is sceptical-to-hostile
Witold Fraczek | ESRI | June 2010
If Earth stopped spinning, how would land, water reconfigure in absence of centrifugal force? Computer simulation supplies answer: one equatorial megacontinent, two great polar oceans
Mario Vittone | gCaptain | 10 June 2010
News you can use—and a powerful read too. "There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind". Adult can watch child drown, and not know there's a problem
Barbara Bradley Hagerty | NPR | 30 June 2010
Are brains of psychopaths physically abnormal, and what are the implications for criminal justice if they are? Will brain scans become as common in court cases as DNA testing? Second in three-part series, all worth reading
Kenneth Anderson | Volokh Conspiracy | 1 July 2010
Attack on American Academy of Pediatrics' call to decriminalise “ritual nick” of clitoris. Multi-culturalism gone mad. But commenters push back, asking why female “nick” so much worse than male circumcision
Christian Avard | Pulse | 29 June 2010
Thought-provoking interview with Gail Dines, author of Pornland. "Boys and men don’t understand the power pornography has to shape who they are. They go to it for an ejaculation, they come away with a lot more"
Brendan Koerner | Wired | 23 June 2010
It's a mystery to science why AA method works for so many. One theory: public confession helps repair alcohol-damaged part of brain
Ed Yong | Not Exactly Rocket Science | 25 June 2010
Psychological experiment suggests things we touch can affect our judgements, decisions. Top tip: harder chairs make harder hearts so don't let the car dealer make you negotiate a price from the soft seating
Tim Lusher | Guardian | 22 June 2010
Unsentimental, uplifting first-person account. "Having a catastrophic illness is an interesting experience if it doesn't see you off"
Atul Gawande | New Yorker | 16 June 2010
Medical journalist's commencement speech to Stanford School of Medicine. However advanced the drugs and technology, they're only as good as the system of care which delivers them
Mind Hacks | 16 June 2010
Could cheap and common painkiller be useful treatment for depression? New study suggests so, but paracetamol can't be patented so drug firms unlikely to pursue trials
Susan Karlin | IEEE Spectrum | June 2010
"For $7000-$9000 (based on customization) and $40 monthly for tech support, Roxxxy offers five preferences—gay, bisexual, lesbian, straight, and sadomasochistic"
Michael Sims | Chronicle Review | 13 June 2010
Fear of undead climbing out of coffins didn't emerge out of thin air. So what were people actually seeing that they misinterpreted and wove into a vampire mythology?
Darren Naish | Tetrapodzoology | 2 June 2010
Widely believed that giraffes cannot even float. And they are, indeed, a very funny shape. Sceptical scientists test claim with digital model. Conclusion: giraffes can swim, but very badly
Anonymous | Economist | 3 June 2010
Toxoplasmosis, parasite found mainly in cats and rats, seems to have bizarre effects in humans. Studies suggest strong correlation with neurosis, poor reaction times, propensity for road accidents
George Musser | SciAm Observations | 4 June 2010
Notes from conference of physicists and philosophers. Includes derivation of theory of quantum mechanics, argument against polytheism, trick for giving directions to a place you don't know
A.C. Grayling | Barnes and Noble Review | 27 May 2010
Well-structured, well-written, non-technical essay on possible reasons why homo sapiens flourished, while rival species—Neanderthals, homo floriensis, "x-woman people"—disappeared
Esther Dyson | Project Syndicate | 19 May 2010
NASA has become too process-ridden, risk-averse. Inevitable for any mature government agency. Obama right to cut back NASA, encourage private sector to take lead in space race
Alex Bellos | New Scientist | 24 May 2010
If the Monty Hall puzzle drove you mad, here's another one sure to do the same: "I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?"
William Saletan I Slate I 25 May 2010
Temptations of memory engineering. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus discredited "recovered memories" in court cases. Showed memories could be implanted. So how about giving people happier memories?
Tom Chivers | Telegraph | 24 May 2010
British medical profession throws out doctor who claimed link between autism and MMR vaccine. Media loved his crackpot theory; superficial reporting created climate of fear
Douglas Martin | NYT | 23 May 2010
Set puzzles in Scientific American for 25 years, wrote more than 70 books, on topics including magic, philosophy and Alice in Wonderland, died on Saturday aged 95
Mark Bedau et al | Nature | 20 May 2010
Eight experts assess significance of Venter's synthesised genome. Majority line is to applaud it as a great technical advance, but not a scientific watershed (PDF)
Nick Southgate I School of Life I 21 May 2010
Brief note on research suggesting others can know us better than we know ourselves. They remember things we prefer to forget, base predictions on observed behaviour not rose-tinted view of self.
Anonymous | Economist | 20 May 2010
Artificial genome points to a future of computer-designed animals and plants. Open-source this science, in the hope that responsible users will outnumber, outwit rogue users
Greg Miller | Smithsonian | May 2010
Or, why 9/11 didn't happen quite the way you remember it. Each time we recall a memory, we have to store it afresh, and in doing so we may alter it—making most-recalled events most prone to falsification
Melvyn Konner | Chronicle Review | 9 May 2010
Neo-Darwinian theory, coupled with advances in psychology, neuroscience, genetics and anthropology, contribute to deeper understanding of child development
Jerry Coyne | Why Evolution Is True | 7 May 2010
Short, funny, scientifically-sound account of neanderthal genome, and why it makes news: "It conjures up pictures of hairy, beetle-browed neanderthals shagging individuals that looked much more like us"
David Roberts | American Prospect | 7 May 2010
Geoengineering offers at least two plausible remedies for climate change: shielding earth against sun's rays, pulling carbon dioxide out of air. But how can science on this scale be managed, regulated?
Paul Bloom | NYT Magazine | 3 May 2010
"With well-designed experiments, you see glimmers of moral thought, moral judgment, moral feeling in the first year of life. Sense of good and evil seems to be bred in the bone"
William Neumann, Andrew Pollack | NYT | 3 May 2010
Agricultural revolution comes full circle. New strains of weeds appear, impervious to Monsanto's miracle pesticide. Farmers go back to ploughing, question utility of GM crops
Stephen Hawking | Daily Mail | 3 May 2010
First collect your raw materials: a wormhole in space, a large hadron collider, a black hole, and a rocket that goes really fast. Even then, you will travel only to the future, not the past
Carl Zimmer | Loom | 29 April 2010
Harvard geneticist George Church holds symposium for anyone who has been gene-sequenced. Fascinating account of Q&A sessions with Henry Louis Gates, Esther Dyson and others
D.T. Max | Smithsonian | May 2010
Think you've got insomnia? Best hope it's not fatal familial insomnia, which strikes at age 50 or so, blocks all sleep, lasts for about a year, always ends in death
Melanie Reid | London Times | 24 April 2010
Reflections from hospital bed by journalist who broke spine riding. "If I’m extraordinarily lucky I might get some feeling back in my legs ... I’m lucky to be here at all. And in my head I am fiercely alive"
Jerry Coyne | Nation | 21 April 2010
Well-tempered attack on Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini's "What Darwin Got Wrong", explaining, with some help from Richard Dawkins, how Darwin got pretty much everything right
Peter Kramer | NYT | 23 April 2010
Psychology of compulsive hoarders. When they are poor they get called paranoid, isolated, depressed, deprived. When they are rich—Andy Warhol, say—they get called "eccentric"
Rex Dalton | Nature News | 20 April 2010
Study of genetic data suggests at least two periods of human-neanderthal interbreeding, starting 60,000 years ago in eastern Mediterranean. There is a bit of neanderthal in all of us
Olivia Judson | NYT | 20 April 2010
Fatness in middle age correlates with dementia in old age. Why? Maybe genetic explanation. Also, obesity encourages sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, all bad for brain
Stephen Adshead | Anthony Painter's Blog | 19 April 2010
How two 14-year-olds outsmarted Glaxo. Really two stories in one—the first about brand management, the second about child management, both fascinating
Dave Johns | Slate | 7 April 2010
American scientists provoke excitement, puzzlement with studies arguing that all sorts of traits—drinking habits, cooperation, selfishness, insomnia, pot smoking, even obesity—spread though social contact
Alan Cullison | WSJ | 3 April 2010
Wars force medical innovation, especially in speed of treatment. Iraq and Afghan wars produce new ways to control bleeding, for soldiers losing limbs to booby traps. Fine piece mixing scientific, human elements
Nestar Russell | BPS Research Digest | 2 April 2010
New details from archives of psychologist Stanley Milgram show how he persuaded volunteers to seemingly torture and kill strangers with electric shocks, in 1960s laboratory experiment
Henry Marsh | Open Democracy | 30 March 2010
Diary of a British neurosurgeon who has been travelling to Ukraine for 20 years, operating on brain tumours and helping his local partner run a modern surgery in the shell of an old KGB clinic
MIT Technology Review | 26 March 2010
New theory of gravity "dramatically simplifies the theoretical scaffolding that supports modern physics". Sees information, not particles, as basic material of universe
John Hawks | Weblog | 24 March 2010
Expert discussion of non-human, non-neanderthal finger-bone found in Siberia. Does it belong to a human-type species, unknown to science until now? Possibly, but not necessarily
Carl Zimmer | Discover | 23 March 2010
Neurological oddity worthy of Oliver Sacks. "One day in 2005 a retired building surveyor in Edinburgh visited his doctor with a strange complaint. His mind’s eye had suddenly gone blind"
Jeremy Bernstein | NYRB | 23 March 2010
Scientist's memoir of watching H-bomb tests in Nevada in 1957. "I listen to debates on nuclear proliferation and wonder if these people really understand what they are debating"
Sally Satel | New Republic | 15 March 2010
Wrong to treat drug, alcohol addiction as brain diseases like, say, Alzheimer's. They are choices, patterns of behaviour, which can be changed by incentives
Tom Siegfried | Science News | 13 March 2010
Tests for statistical significance are widely misunderstood and misinterpreted, leading to countless wrong conclusions in scientific literature, contradictory and confusing conclusions in medical studies
Matt Ridley | Prospect | 10 March 2010
Informative review of Andrew Montford's "Hockey Stick Illusion", debunking climate-change graph supposedly showing sudden recent uptick in world temperature. "One of the best science books in years"
Jon Ronson | Guardian | 6 March 2010
Very funny, gently mocking interview with Paul Davies, head of US-funded scientists' group advising how to respond if aliens contact Earth. He thinks Einstein will travel well, but not Picasso
Carl Zimmer | Loom | 4 March 2010
"Can the bacteria in our bodies control our behavior in the same way a puppetmaster pulls the strings of a marionette? This wonderfully creepy possibility may be true"
David Kent | American Scientist | Mach 2010
There's usually a market for goods that are much cheaper than the best, yet still fit for purpose. That's why we go to Ikea, Walmart. Why doesn't healthcare work the same way?
Amy Tuteur | Salon | 23 February 2010
Surge in childhood mental illness commonly blamed on over-diagnosis, encouraged by drug companies. But 100 years ago we didn't diagnose much cancer in children, either
Paul Waldman | American Prospect | 26 February 2010
Darpa, US military research agency which first strung together the internet, quietly goes on bringing visionary projects to verge of viability
Amy Harmon | NYT | 22 February 2010
Clinical trials of miracle anti-melanoma drug showed tumours disappearing within a fortnight, even when cancer had penetrated bone. Two-part series. Outstanding story
Louis Menand | New Yorker | 21 February 2010
New doubts over effectiveness of anti-depressants over placebos revive doubt as to whether psychiatry really science at all, or mixture of profiteering, mumbo-jumbo
Michael Greenberg | NYRB | 19 February 2010
Review of Alison Gopnick's "Philosophical Baby", which argues that the mental processes of early childhood, including memory, are quite different from those of later life
Anonymous | Economist | 18 February 2010
Commercial 3D bio-printer for manufacturing human tissue now ready for delivery. Costs $200,000. Does simple stuff, such as skin, muscles. Organs to follow. Apparently
Peter Diamandis | WSJ | 13 February 2010
US government right to loosen grip on space exploration. Makes room for private capital, ready to invest in pursuit of near-infinite mineral resources
Vaughan Bell | Mind Hacks | 10 February
Brisk, helpful account of changes proposed for American Psychiatric Association's manual, DSM-5, which sets criteria for diagnosing mental illness
Timothy Noah | Slate | 10 February 2010
Leaked agents' manual from Texas Blue Shield cites 143 diseases as cause for refusal; headaches, anxiety as cause for surcharge; no cover for miners, drillers, athletes
Fred Pearce | Guardian | 9 February 2010
Conclusion of 12-part investigation into "climategate" emails. Climate change is real and well documented. But it's wrong for scientists to suppress doubt, debate
Zach Zorich | Archaeology | March 2010
Whatever the rights and wrongs, it's going to happen. They will be lactose intolerant, have difficulty with alcohol, get Alzheimer's—and bring huge ethical problems
Thomas Goetz | Atlantic | 9 February 2010
Blockbuster drugs dying off. Good. Even the best of them don't work half the time, but drug companies have to sell them aggressively to recoup costs
Elizabeth Pisani | Wisdom Of Whores | 9 February 2010
HIV is a preventable infection. Good governments prevent it. But South Africa's president exalts the tradition and customs that allow the virus to spread
Anonymous | Technology Review | 3 February 2010
"There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information"
Deborah Ball and Julia Mengewein | WSJ | 6 February 2010
Swiss company caters to foreigners who want to be killed, including some who aren't fatally ill, and charges heftily for the service. May provoke tightening of Swiss law
Sheila McLean | Guardian | 5 February 2010
If the patient cannot recover, but is sentient, should this affect how we treat them? If they can communicate, what if they ask to die—is this informed consent?
Dwight Garner | NYT | 2 February 2010
Dazzling review. "A thorny and provocative book about cancer, racism, scientific ethics and crippling poverty, 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' floods over you like a narrative dam break"
Abraham Vergese | Atlantic | 3 February 2010
A doctor who uses his eyes, takes a good history, weighs the patient and gets a few simple blood tests, can predict health risk better than any panel of genetic tests
Michael Allen | WSJ | 30 January 2010
Rate of HIV infection ticks up after long decline. Funding has been devoted mainly to treatment, not to prevention. Effective new drugs have lessened fear of disease
Terry Pratchett | Guardian | 1 February 2010
Author, facing Alzeimer's, argues for legalisation of mercy-killing, subject to approval by a tribunal verifying that candidates are sane, not under pressure, and suffering from incurable fatal disease
Dan Koeppel | Popular Mechanics | February 2010
Heart-stopping read. Great punch-line. Best tip: grab a piece of the wreckage. Statistically, it’s best to be a flight crew member, a child, or travelling in a military aircraft
Vladislav Rogozov | British Medical Journal | 15 December 2009
Doctor on Soviet polar research station successfully removed his own infected appendix. Incident took place in 1961. Account written for medical journal by his son
Nicholas Wade | New York Times | 11 January 2010
Trying to teach human language to animals has been mostly a dead end. But studying animal languages produces ever more surprises. Campbell's monkeys use suffixes
Ethan Watters | NYT Magazine | 8 January 2010
American standards for diagnosing and treating mental illness come to dominate global medicine, undermining local conceptions of illness and treatment that may work better
Alex Tabarrok | Wall Street Journal | 9 January 2010
Millions need kidneys, livers, hearts, but few donate. Programmes in Europe, Asia show that presumed donor consent, and financial compensation, would increase supply
Tony Judt | New York Review Of Books | 28 December 2009
On suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease: "There is no pain. One is left free to contemplate at leisure and in minimal discomfort the catastrophic progress of one's own deterioration"
Sharon Weinberger | IEEE Spectrum | December 2009
Engineers struggle to keep lights on in Gaza—where 1.5m rely on one power plant, with no spares. Last year, generator had to be restarted using 170 car batteries
Brian Hayes | American Scientist | January 2010
70 the only number whose square corresponds to the number of cannonballs one can pile up in a pyramidal shape. 1,368 the number of ways you can fold a 3-by-3 sheet of stamps
Anonymous | Knowledge At Wharton | 9 December 2009
Most babies born in US and western Europe since 2000 will live to see 100. Retirement age will have to rise to 75, workplace will have to get friendlier for older workers
Carl Zimmer | Science | 3 December 2009
Conclusion to Darwin festschrift. We are still evolving. Each baby born with about 130 new gene mutations. Genetic engineering may come to have marginal effect
Sandra Steingraber | Orion | November 2009
We know a lot now about what genes are, much less about how and why they behave the way they do. Epigenetics, the study of gene expression, may change our ideas of evolution
Clive Cookson, Gillian Tett, Chris Cook | Financial Times | 26...
<p>Mathematical models have failed to capture financial complexity. Perhaps biological models could do a better job</p>
Back To Base With Live H-Bomb
Bob Bergin | Air and Space | January 2010
<p>Hair-raising tale of 1971 Chinese H-bomb test. Bomb wouldn't disengage from plane. Pilot decided to bring it back</p>
Carl Zimmer | Loom | 24 November 2009
Evolutionary rationale for size of whales. Tyler Cowen calls this "one of the very best short pieces I've read this year"
Tyler Cowen | Marginal Revolution | 17 November 2009
<p>12-point plan for better, cheaper care. Federalize Medicaid, encourage low-cost clinics, enforce price transparency</p>
John Sterns | MIL | 17 November 2009
Haunting extract from a diary of mental illness, by a property analyst who takes five psychotropic medications daily
Philip Howard | Atlantic | 11 November 2009
<p>Health care reform may bankrupt America. Incentivises huge overspending. Commission needed to cut costs</p>
David Dobbs | Atlantic | December 2009
Briliant piece on genetics and achievement. "Dandelions" have hardy genes that thrive anywhere. "Orchids" are fickle, requiring greenhouse care to bloom
Andrew Brown | Guardian | 10 November 2009
<p>Creationism teaches us that all the science in the world won't change minds, if people don't trust the scientists</p>
Simon Hattenstone | Guardian | 7 November 2009
Endearingly amateurish British cryonics group based in Sussex bungalow hopes to freeze bodies, live for ever