Modern surgery is the result of innovation in techniques, procedures and equipment. However, in the same way that drugs have to be shown to be effective e.g. allowing a cancer patient live longer, new surgical techniques need to demonstrate a clinical benefit over what they are replacing.
Science writers have an important role to play in not sensationalizing new techniques or equipment such as “robotic surgery.”
How many neurons in the human brain, and where did the traditional number — 100 billion — come from? Ötzi-the-Iceman's genome revealed. Trying to write science for women's magazines and other mass media. New rules for statins. Heartsick about the Heartland climate change email scandal. Open sesame for Open Access. For now.
AAAS meeting blogging. Are the enemies of science growing or just getting louder? A microbe field guide? Primate moral outrage over inequality. Those purloined Heartland climate change documents: the surprising villain, the textual analysis, and the education scheme. The first watery exoplanet, misexplained. FTL neutrinos, not so fast. Download the Universe and the future of science ebooks.
The sad state of SETI and of space exploration. NASA budget dooms planetary expeditions. Bad infographics of bad science. Deceptive docs. A new stolen email scandal besets some climate change folks, and this time deniers are the targets. Darwin's papers online. Dark matter is everywhere. Wall Street loves dopamine. Videos: Flying robot jugglers and the aurora borealis.
Archaic genomes and archaic behavior: The Neandertal within. The Denisovan DNA sequence is made public. Why the Komen-Planned Parenthood mess should cheer you up. Plus contraception, biological anthropology, the connected brain, Steve Jobs' FBI files, clinical trials, social media viewed from 2062, the politics of climate change, Mount Etna eruption video, and — don't miss this one — The Scale of the Universe.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure looks to be on life-support after defunding Planned Parenthood. A new theory-of-everything calls into question the peer-review process and institutional public-information offices. Yet more on #SciO12: the music video, the enemies of science, and making book on e-books.
All about ScienceOnline2012 (#SciO12). The meeting, the people, the blogging, the videos, the commentary, the tweets, the Storifies.
Alleluia! Next week is the blogger's Holy Week: ScienceOnline 2012. Here's how you can be there even if you're not there. Also links to the program, the people, and everything else #SciO12. Including a session on how to create an eBook, organized by Carl Zimmer and me.
We begin 2012 with bloggers' lists of 2011 highlights. Sex, retractions, weather, videos. Also, a timeline for the tale of faster-than-light neutrinos.
