Scare headlines were seldom seen in coverage of this week's report on the cancer risks from processed and red meats. Tabitha M. Powledge elaborates: "Google has collected many thousands of articles and blog posts, a large number of them showing (with data! and statistics!) that, for most people, there is very little cause for alarm, and few big changes in eating habits required. I can’t help wondering if these defenders of sausage have, um, a dog in this fight."
Science blogs
Tabitha M. Powledge discusses new research on the domestication of man's best friend, the dog: "Humans co-opted the wolf’s allegiance to the pack and an alpha leader, its vigilance in defending territory, its superior sense of smell and its hunting ability, and its enthusiasm for eating any disgusting pile of stuff that came its way." Also, the newest recommendations on when women need mammograms: "The biggest risk from mammograms is overdiagnosis and overtreatment."
Tabitha M. Powledge reports on coverage of what may be a milestone in the use of CRISPR gene editing to delete dozens of genes at once from pig embryos. That work, from the Harvard Medical School lab of George Church, might point toward new sources of organs for transplant, Powledge writes: "In short, Church & Co. seem to be making progress also in creating pig organs that human immune systems won’t reject." It remains to be seen whether the promise becomes reality.
NASA's latest news about signs of water on Mars strikes Tabitha M. Powledge as fishy in its timing: "Ridley Scott could hardly have asked for a better concatenation of events for his Matt Damon movie The Martian, opening today (Friday, Oct 2.) In fact, I can’t help wondering just how accidental the timing was, given NASA’s aforementioned hype machine and the fact that the movie was made with NASA’s cooperation." Also, lying as a strategy in the Planned Parenthood mess.
The pharmaceutical industry has a new villain and his name is Martin Shkreli, Tabitha M. Powledge writes: "It helps that Shkreli is very nearly a caricature — or maybe I mean the Platonic idea — of the rapacious capitalist. For one thing, he’s a former hedge fund manager, a job description so vilified that even some tax-averse Republican presidential candidates have declared it a target." Also, the Pope's "pointed indirection" with Congress, and the moon's showstopper.
Tabitha M. Powledge examines a shift in the never-ending debate over vaccines and autism, as evidenced by Wednesday night's Republican candidate debate: "So the argument is moving on from the (relatively) simple and bogus claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism to a more complex and on its surface not implausible claim: that a great number of inoculations in a short time can overwhelm an infant immune system." The evidence does not support that view either, she writes.
Is it a new human species or just a variant of one already known? Tabitha M. Powledge discusses questions raised by the discovery of 1,550 hominin fossil bones from at least 15 individuals entombed, maybe intentionally, in South Africa: "Many are calling H. naledi a new human ancestor, including the project’s head guy, Lee Berger. But whether these people were actually our forebears or only our cousins is not at all clear. Knowing when they lived would be illuminating."
Tabitha M. Powledge writes about confusion over a new study on a type of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ: "Most commentators thought the moral of the paper is the obvious one: DCIS is not dangerous for most women, and it is being overdiagnosed and overtreated. But about 1 in 5 women diagnosed with DCIS seem to be in more potential danger than the other 4 and are reasonable candidates for today’s standard aggressive therapy." Also, where did pigs come from?
Scientists tried to replicate 100 psychology studies but succeeded barely one-third of the time, Tabitha M. Powledge writes in discussing a paper published last week. What does it mean for science? "On its face the finding sounds like a disaster, not just for psychology but for the already-battered image of science and the validity of the scientific method," she says. "But so far much of the commentary on the psychology paper is determinedly looking on the bright side."
Tabitha M. Powledge discusses this week's news about Jimmy Carter's cancer medicine: "The immunotherapy Jimmy Carter is getting in addition to radiation for the metastisized melanoma that has invaded his brain and liver is startlingly effective in some patients and not at all in others." As for the second drug — the supposed cure for women's sexual problems — Powledge writes: "The triumph of capitalism over science. And feminism. And good sense." Also, still more Trump.