When you think about science leadership, you don't often think about United Arab Emirates. Dictatorships don't lend themselves to quality basic research but when they put their minds to applied research and development, and a lot of money, good things can happen.While environmental activists wish we were a little more dictatorship-oriented when it comes to banning cars, like the Chinese did...
read moreSpeculation is rampant that the discovery of the Higgs boson will get a Nobel prize. read...
read moreIn an article I did for USA Today's Friday/weekend edition, I noted the recurring meme that American education is 'abysmal.' read...
read moreIt is often the case that I get yelled at for being both too liberal and too conservative in the same week. It happens because the science under discussion violates the motivated reasoning of someone's political beliefs. No conservative ever complains that the policy implication of a science issue is a conservative one, obviously, but you can bet left-wing people will, and vice-versa. read...
read moreA year ago I noted an alarming increase in celiac disease patients - it seemed to be afflicting a lot of rich, white, American women.Outrage and scorn were delivered to my door; dozens of comments vilified me for saying it was not a real disease - which would have been fine, had I actually said that. Yet dwarfing those comments by hundreds were the anecdotal claims of people who had...
read moreAthletes are competitive, they are always looking for that extra edge. And the line of right versus wrong can get a little blurry - even in the case of sporting events held for impaired communities.The Deaflympics, held between 26 July and 4 August this summer, had that concern. Do deaf people have a disadvantage in events like running? And if deaf people have a disadvantage, couldn't someone...
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