Welcome to the dark side

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/business/dealbook/betsy-devos-neurocore.html
This is a NYT article about one of the reasons that Betsy DeVos shouldn't be confirmed as Secretary of Education. The article details a major conflict of interest in the performance of her duties. The DeVos' own a major share in a Biofeedback company called Neurocore which used Biofeedback to supposedly enhance children and teenager's performance in school. Although the company claims great success none of their results has been published in peer-reviewed journals.




https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/well/live/for-better-vision-let-the-sunshine-in.html?_r=0  From the Well blog in the NYT magazine, an article reporting  that the rate of myopia (nearsightedness) has increased by 66% since the 1970s. This is a report in JAMA Opthalmology. A study was done at Kings College in London and other places, giving eye exams to older men and women and asking about their exposure to sunlight in childhood and adolescence (from memory). There is a correlation between exposure to sunlight in childhood and adolescence and incidence of myopia. There was also the implication that increased screen time may play a role.


https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/opinion/sunday/does-breast-milk-have-a-sex-bias.html Article from the Sunday Review section of the NYT about whether breast fed girl and boy children get the same nourishment and how this relates to evolution. Work published in the Journal of  Experimental Child Psychology and done at Cal State Fullerton and the London School of Economics shows that they do not. When parents have beaucoup resources they devote them more to their sons but when resources are scare they devote them more to their daughters. The evolutionary explanation (the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis) is that males with access to more resources  are likely to gain access to more females to increase the likelihood that their genes will be passed on. Studies of lipid content of macaque and human mothers' milk was examined and compared based on the sex of the offsping recipient. And the research was continued on twins.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/health/cervical-cancer-united-states-death-toll.html?_r=0 Article from the NYT aboutracial disparities that have been discovered in cervical cancer deaths . This study has been done at Texas' MD Anderson Hospital and published in the journal Gynecological Oncology. The alarming statistic of 10.1 deaths per 100,000 black women compared to 4.7 white women per 100,000 is a change from 5.7 to 3.2 in previous studies.


https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/study-finds-premature-death-rates-diverge-united-states-race-ethnicity  Here is a report of a study done by the NIH about the rates of premature deaths in the US separated by race and ethnicity.  Premature death rates have declined among Hispanics, Blacks and Asian Pacific Islanders and increased among whites and American Indian/Alaskan Natives from 1999 and 2014 as reported in the Lancet.

Under the snow

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/what-the-muck-of-walden-pond-tells-us-about-our-planet.html?_r=0  This is an article from the Sunday Review section of the NYT. It is written by a science professor about studies of the protists in the mud in Walden Pond, which is a wonderful place. A Boston University ecologist compared the dates for the Spring melt  reported in Thoreau's diaries with the current situation. The pond also freezes later than it did in Thoreau's time.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/09/science/dna-tads.html?_r=0
An article in the Science Times about syndactyly, a genetic defect involving the fusion of fingers, which runs in families. This mutation allows for the study of TADS, or Topologically-Associated-Domains (TADs) in which chromosomes are divided up into neighborhoods with partitions between them. This work was done at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.




http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/01/19/health/ap-us-med-cancer-virus-men.html?_r=0 Article in the NYT about the prevalence of HPV infection among men. (almost 50% have genital infections caused by a sexually-transmitted virus). This report was published in JAMA Oncology and underscores the importance of having boys as well as girls vaccinated against HPV.  Of that 50% about 25% have strains that are associated with cervical cancer.  Vaccines can prevent infections but only one-third of 13 year old girls and boys are fully vaccinated.

Status quo ante bellum

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20170102_Commentary__Good_math_skills_begin_at_home.html This is an opinion in the Inquirer about how using math terms to your preschooler may influence their math abilities later on in life. It references an international study (PISA) in which US students (sophomores in HS) rank 31 out of 35 nations in math abilities.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance A selection of the Best of 2016 from the BBC about "the man who studied the spread of ignorance". Robert Proctor, a science historian at Stanford researched tobacco industry practices to confuse smokers about the connection between smoking and lung cancer. He coined the term "agnotology" and defined it as the study of willful acts to spread ignorance in order to sell a product.




http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/business/scientists-loved-and-loathed-by-syngenta-an-agrochemical-giant.html  This is a New York Times article about scientists working for agrobusiness companies like Syngenta and Ciba-Geigy whose work was compromised by, in some cases, contractual stipulations of non-disclosure of adverse results.  One scientists researching BT corn's effects on the lacewing, a beneficial insect, warned against it and was harrassed even after she left the employ of the company.



http://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-a-brand-new-human-organ-has-been-classified From Science Alert, a new organ has been declared. It is the intestinal mesentery. Work has been cited in the Lancet Gastroenterology and Herpetology (I mean Hepatology- checking on your attention) done at University Hospital in Limerick, Ireland. According to ScienceAlert, Leonardo was one of the first to describe the mesentery and now it has been elevated to the status of organ,


http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/science/dinosaur-eggs.html?_r=0 This is a report of studies of fossilized dinosaur eggs looking at unhatched embryos which reveal that dinosaurs had longer incubation times than birds. This study was published in PNAS and was done at Florida State University. This identifies a difference between birds and dinosaurs when many similarities (warm-bloodedness, feathers) have been identified. Embryonic tooth age was studied. I am currently reading a book on the Evolution of the Human Head and it was interesting to read about tooth age in this article.


http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/well/eat/feed-your-kids-peanuts-early-and-often-new-guidelines-urge.html?_r=0 This is a report of a 2008 British study of British-Jewish and Israeli-Jewish children consuming peanuts. It was determined that the allergy rate for British-Jewish children was ten times greater than Israel-Jewish children, the latter having been fed Bamba, a peanut-based snack, since infancy. The new guidelines for early peanut consumption to prevent later severe and possibly fatal anaphylaxis, were published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.This is meant to promote a reeducation campaign among parents of allergy-prone infants.