” “‘Fatal’ gas pumped into Qantas jet “ Qantas has been pumping nitrogen from a nitrogen cart (typically used to refill aircraft tyres) into emergency oxygen tanks (used for crew in an emergency). Nitrogen and oxygen tanks have different fittings… Read More ›
Science
Bad Science Translation: I do not think that means what you think it means.
Online pulp medicorag “Medical News Today” brings us an illustration of the need for competent science translation. “First Transgenic Kids With The Human Lactoferrin Gene” [bold is mine]: Human beings consume lactoferrin with breast milk since the very birth. Lactoferrin… Read More ›
Io, Saturnalia!
For those of us who like the Winter Solstice holiday season to last as long as possible, starting the celebrations today for Saturnalia is a top-notch idea. It also gives me an opportunity to post my favourite astrophotography image, seeing… Read More ›
Duncan Fine talks sense on BMI
It’s not anything that our readers familiar with Shapely Prose don’t know, but using the BMI as the sole determinant of whether someone is overweight or obese is a really unreliable measurement. Given the hysteria this week about Australia’s “obesity… Read More ›
Wet summer
How odd it is for me to write those words after the last few dry years. The word(s) of the last weeks has been “La Niña”, the sister phenomenon to the prolonged El Nino event that has brought us severe… Read More ›
Women’s health: Are we taking a risk by dumping the Democrats?
The MJA this month also brings us Mary Lander’s story: “The fight for a life-saving drug: a personal perspective”. Mary Lander has a relentlessly-growing meningioma adjacent to her brainstem. This is a non-cancerous tumour of the lining of the brain…. Read More ›
Glasson: “Of course, some people, particularly those with vested interests (like those making money out of selling alcohol), will feel threatened.”
[image source] The Christmas Issue of the Medical Journal of Australia has a section on the Northern Territory Intervention. Reading the various contributions in concert with each other is illuminating. Check it out. A few snippets: The Northern Territory intervention:… Read More ›
Young Women’s Feminist Activism: Medical Students For Choice
I only just found out about Medical Students For Choice. MSFC is a Northern American network of medical students advocating for reproductive rights in general, and for medical student and resident training in particular. 97% of non-metropolitan councils in the… Read More ›
Sunday Skeptic Link
Book Review: The Afterlife of a Skeptic How the execution of a philosopher has been reinterpreted for every era The book being reviewed is The Death of Socrates by Emily Wilson, about which the reviewer has mixed feelings, but the… Read More ›
What was that?
If I were a less skeptical blogger I would be much more excited about what I saw high in the clouds this morning. I only saw a glimpse, but it was cigar shaped and glowing, and if I were the… Read More ›
Hoyden About Town 