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Search Results for: label/Deborah Blum

  • Blog of the Week: Speakeasy Science from Deborah Blum

    …ce” statements and the devastating “Poison in the Night,” about carbon monoxide poisoning. For a little lighter fare–and a great cookie recipe just in time for the holidays–check out , “So, 268 chocolate chip cookies later…”. Or, you could just start here, at the beginning. Imbibe each and every post as though it were a master class in narrative construction somehow confounded in ways most beautiful…

    Authored by on November 21, 2011

  • Halloween and poisoned treat rumors: What are the facts?

    1920s Halloween postcard.Via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain in USA. Many of us probably heard the stories as kids: the razor in the apple, the poison in the Pixy Stix, the mean elderly lady who inexplicably wouldn’t let children run through her flowerbeds and thus was clearly planning some dire Halloween revenge on those who did. As adults, some with children, we see these rumors in a new way, one that perhaps has us trailing ou…

    Authored by on October 31, 2012

  • Two Science Online 2012 sessions for your consideration

    Tomorrow, I head for North Carolina to attend Science Online 2012. I attended last year as an  an information sponge  and  observer who knew no one and experienced some  highlights and lowlights . This year, I’m attending as a participant and as a moderator of two sessions. The first session, on Thursday afternoon, is with  Deborah Blum , and we’ll be leading a discussion about how and when to include basic science in health and me…

    Authored by on January 17, 2012

  • Biology Explainer: The big 4 building blocks of life–carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic acids

    …molecules themselves break down into a surprisingly small number of building blocks. The proteins that make up all of the living things on this planet and ensure their appropriate structure and smooth function consist of only 20 different kinds of building blocks. Nucleic acids, specifically DNA, are even more basic: only four different kinds of molecules provide the materials to build the countless different genetic codes that translate into all…

    Authored by on June 8, 2012

  • Double Xpression: Debbie Berebichez, PhD Physicist

    …m.  My femininity allows me to be a voice in a field that has tended to isolate themselves from the public, which is bad. Some of my colleagues have become a little snobbish.  The fact that I have serious credentials (PhD and 2 postdocs) shows that I had to work like crazy – looks and personality can only go so far.  It s hard work that gets you there! Serious science communication has a lot of math and problem solving in order to explain things…

    Authored by on June 2, 2012

  • Friday Roundup: Arsenic in juice, self-medicating chimps, science tattoos, Guinness Record-setting science cheerleaders, and more!

    …;toxic metal!” and calling for its removal.  Can heading the ball in soccer/football cause brain damage? Is a “Mediterranean-ish” diet good for your heart? Researchers draw that conclusion from this study of 2500 Manhattanites.  Can dreams predict the future? No. Would you want to see yourself old? Our Living World Chimps self medicate with food. They really are our closest living relatives. Speaking of being like us, some…

    Authored by on December 2, 2011

  • Friday Roundup: Land-walking octopus, he’s having a baby, defining veggies, & lots for the ladies

    …’s efforts to perform a butt injection on a woman using “Fix a Flat.” It’s probably best to just love your butt for what it is, which isn’t Fix a Flat. In smarter news, NASA is rolling out Aspire 2 Inspire, targeting girls interested in science. Know a girl who’s interested in science? You can start with the Aspire 2 Inspire video below about women in science: Speaking of women in science, former dean of th…

    Authored by on November 25, 2011

  • After Newtown missteps, journalists get guidelines

    …almost twice as likely to say that they don’t want to live or work near a person with mental illness if they read an article about a person with mental illness involved in a mass shooting, according to a study published March 20 in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Interestingly, this tendency is the same even if the article avoids any mention of mental illness. This may be because this link between violence and mental illness is deeply engrain…

    Authored by on March 27, 2013

  • Is the bar high enough for screening breast ultrasounds for breast cancer?

    …n controversial. What’s new is the “Are You Dense?” patient movement and legislation to inform women that they have dense breasts. Merits and pitfalls of device approval The approval of breast ultrasound hinges on a study of 200 women with dense breast evaluated retrospectively at 13 sites across the United States with mammography and ultrasound. The study showed a statistically significant increase in breast cancer detection when ultrasound was…

    Authored by on September 21, 2012

  • Autism and the DSM-5

    …ial social aspect of this change, and the one thing that might, when it comes to autism, elevate the DSM-5 above the level of doorstop. [Image credit: Dave Bullock, UK, via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 generic license.]…

    Authored by on April 23, 2013

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