Articles

On science blogs this week: H5N1 etc.

One of the disputed H5N1 flu virus papers is now out; the other is on the way. Two swell explainers explain that and much more. But wait, there's more in other H5N1 blog posts too. What does childhood bad behavior portend? How to read science news. Why sex robots won't eliminate sex trafficking. Twitter is terrible at prediction. NEJM 200th birthday, a medical timeline, and how the journal invented science journalism's schedule. Plus Atul Gawande's horrifically beautiful history of surgery,

What you missed at the denial meeting

Post-shibboleths and spambots, catch up on blog posts, Storify pages, and slidecasts of the conference, which was supported in part by an NASW Idea Grant. The Open Notebook has a post linking to early coverage, and the conference site has coverage by University of Wisconsin students. Check the #sciencedenial and #denialconf hashtags, and read about the spam attacks.

Follow the Science Writing/Denial conference

Science Writing in the Age of Denial is partly funded by an NASW Idea Grant. If you're not there, you can follow the proceedings online via tbe Twitter hashtags #sciencedenial and #denialconf, the @sciencedenial Twitter user, or the conference web site, where you can review the schedule and speaker biographies.

On science blogs this week: Fishy

Once more, retractions in the news. Was Einstein's wife his unacknowledged co-author? Trashing conventional wisdom about cardiovascular disease. Fish oil may not be a panacea after all. Gum disease may not cause heart disease.

On science blogs this week: Limits

More on the limits of DNA and science writing. Dealing with complex statistical studies. The limits of Twitter as a tool for science writers. The limits of explaining why genes are not destiny. Here come the alien dinosaurs with high IQs. Chemistry lesson on the origins of chirality. The origin of life as a feedback loop: did life come from space, or was it the other way around? Robot news: Robowarriors, Robocops, Robosquirrels, and RoboBeatles

On science blogs this week: Evolved

Brain mapping and debating a Connectome Project: the Brainbrawl displays science at its classiest. The Jennifer Anniston Neuron. Those mutant H5N1 flu virus papers will be published revised but not redacted. The FDA will not ban BPA, at least for now. Reading list for evolutionary economics. The Carnival of Evolution: computational trees, evolutionary trees, why humans are not apes, primate cooperation, humans and vultures as scavengers, what that new fossil foot tells us about mothering.

On science blogs this week: Verity

Huzzah, aspirin prevents cancer and heart disease! Maybe. These American Lies: Department of Climate Change. These American Lies: Department of Apple, Science Journals, and Science Writing.

On science blogs this week: SynBio

Synthetic biology: a critique from 111 organizations and a dose of realism from a synthetic biologist. A year later, Fukushima and the future of nuclear power. More synbio: Engineering Homo sap to cope with climate change.

On science blogs this week: iPad

The new iPad! Sorta. Brain Awareness Week! Critiquing brain imaging studies. Can an MRI predict future performance on new tasks? The last ape genome: Gorilla gorilla gorilla. Is an auditory system gene a gene for speech? Genetics of complex traits. The resurrection of the Solutrean Hypothesis; were the First Americans really Europeans? The complexities of ancient human migrations.

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