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Category Archives: science and society

Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Neuroscience of Healthy Relationships

The thing that ties each of the following links together is a discussion of the need to incorporate equity, affirmation, and continued learning into social, scientific, and political spheres.  And to recognize that the lines between these spaces is a social construct. This article offers an explanation of how sexism affects both the oppressed and […]

Autism, The Politics of “Normal”, and Thinking Fast and Slow (the book)

A Cognitive Defense of Stimming (or Why “Quiet Hands” Makes Math Harder) In the last decade or so, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have been in the forefront of the news and research.  Originally, the people thought autism was a psychological disorder and that it was similar to schitzophrenia.  There was a complete lack of understanding about […]

The Hum

Here is a random/interesting article about a sensory phenomenon that occurs across the world.   http://mic.com/articles/91091/a-mysterious-sound-is-driving-people-insane-and-nobody-knows-what-s-causing-it?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social

New Information about Health, Weight, and Food.

Using Anthropology, Biology, and Physics to Decrease Infant Mortality

Here is an excellent article about the progress that can be made when disciplines work together. http://ideas.ted.com/2013/12/18/mother-knows-best-re-making-the-embrace-baby-warmer-for-moms/

A collection of videos for discussion of ethical and social issues in human embryonic stem cells research

This is a collection of the videos that I used in lab discussion section of the ethical issues in human embryonic stem cells research in the 2014 BIOL36701 Principles Development at Purdue University. 1. An introduction to stem cell – A stem cell story 2. Are embryos persons? 3. A question of balance? 4. How […]

The public’s discussion on open access to scientific research

I have been paying attention to the ongoing discussion on open access to scientific research in the news media and have collected a number of interesting articles.  Here I will keep a record of a few interesting ones 2012-11-08 From the Guardian: “Open Access: ‘we no longer need expensive publishing networks‘” 2012-06-19 From the New […]

One of the many causes of the financial crisis in universities these days

A colleague at Purdue puts it in perspective in a Bloomberg News article:  College Costs Rise With $250,000-a-Year Bureaucrats

The associate editor of Genomics resigns because of the difficulties in accessing the articles by scientists from developing countries

Dr. Winston Hide decides to resigns from his associate editor position of Genomics because of the expensive subscription rate of the journal precludes many in accessing important articles that are important for public health. From The Guardian: Today I resigned from the editorial board of a well respected journal in my field – Genomics. No […]

A collection of videos for discussion of ethical and social issues in developmental biology – Stem cells: II. Desperate patients and people who want to take advantage of their situation

In my last post, I provided several links to general introductions of stem cells. In this post, I will share several documentaries that show how bad people are taking advantage of desperate patients who have heard stem cells therapy may give them a last hope. II. Desperate patients and people who take advantage of their […]