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.