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Bioethics Biology Medicine Politics Science

Animal rights thugs: Researchers’ children are not off limits

Remember Dario Ringach? He’s the scientist who has endured a prolonged campaign of harassment because of his animal research. I first heard of him in 2006, when, after a campaign of threatening phone calls, people frightening his children, and demonstrations in front of his home, gave up doing primate research. Terrorism and intimidation worked, but […]

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Bioethics Biology Medicine Science

Update on the case of “Coma Man” Rom Houben: Facilitated communication is still woo

A couple of months ago, I wrote about a case that demonstrated conclusively just how easily even respected researchers can be taken in by psuedoscience. Of course, I was not alone. A number of others, including Steve Novella, James Randi, bioethicist Art Caplan, Hank Schlinger, and myself, recognized the reports that a Belgian man named […]

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Blogging Medicine Science

Egomaniacal Sunday morning basking in glory

My adopted alter ego may be nothing but a computer played by a box of colored blinking lights, but those few who are actually familiar with the 30 year old British SF TV show that featured Orac beginning in the last episode of its first season know that Orac is an arrogant and vain computer. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Entertainment/culture Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking Television

How not to report science and medical news, vaccine edition

I realize I complain periodically about when I get into what seems to me to be a rut in which I’m writing pretty much only about anti-vaccine lunacy. This is just such a week, when the news on the vaccine front has been coming fast and furious, first with Andrew Wakefield’s being found to have […]

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Medicine Science

The immune system in action

Sure, this is old, but I hadn’t seen a video quite this cool before. Behold, a human polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN, or neutrophil) on a blood film, “chasing” Staphylococcus aureus. There are more videos of cells in action here. It never ceases to amaze me how cells can detect biochemical gradients over such short distances and […]