Summer Assignment 7.25

• Another study looking at brain injury and sports; this time in professional fighters.
• Short audio link this week. Antibiotic resistance is cropping up much sooner than we first thought.
• Bad news for everyone who hates the Star Wars prequels: Midichlorians are now published fact. Sort of. These "predatory" journals are a real problem in scientific publishing. Hopefully this helps to shine some light on the problem.

Summer Assignment 7.18

Before we get to the links for the week, one quick administrative item. When you post a comment, it goes into my moderation queue. This makes it easier for me to make sure that I have read and given credit for all the comments. This also means that you will not see your comment appear on the site immediately. I try to get the comments posted once a day, but sometimes it takes a bit longer. If you have submitted a comment and don't see it for a few days, it may mean that I have not been able to get to them yet. If I know there are few days that I will be away from the computer, I will try to let everyone know via Twitter.

On to the links.

Instead of a few unrelated links this week, I found two that I think illustrate a very important aspect of science and science communication. First, there was this article in the New York Times about a survey done looking at a class of chemicals called phthalates in foods. The Times reports that the study found high concentrations of the phthalates in powdered macaroni and cheese mixes.

However, this article at Slate brings up some very important points about the study itself, and the Times reporting of the data.

So who should you believe? My advice: look at the data and decide for yourself. In this case, the data can be found here. I have thoughts on the data, but I am not going to share them now, since the point of this post is to get you to think for yourselves. I will post my thoughts later this week, or early next, after you all have had a chance to share yours.

Summer Assignment 7.11

First official post of the 2017 Summer Assignment. Rules are simple:

1. Look at the list of links I provide.
2. Pick a few (or all) to read.
3. Make an intelligent comment here that shows you read and thought about at least one.
4. Gain points. Comments that are made within the week receive maximum points. 

The links:

• Turns out most eggs are not shaped like eggs. 
• An extinct virus was re-created in a lab. Good idea that will pave the way to bringing back other extinct organisms, or bad idea that will lead to engineered bioweapons?
• As some one who is always being bitten, I am very interested to see the results of this study looking for a genetic component to mosquito attraction.

Please remember to fill out the summer vacation form to let us know when you will be away.