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Category Archives: Science and Policy

Mammography’s Shadows, IV: Hunting Cancer with X-Rays

All of us come into the world designed by evolution to survive. Failing some rare mishap, we arrive equipped with immune systems ready to do battle with unfriendly biologic mischief makers. The wizards within us that enable this microscopic life-preserving enterprise reside in the nuclei of our 75-100 trillion cells. Just as millions of ‘0s’ […]

June 9, 2015 – 4:06 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged annual mammogram, Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, breast cancer, carcinogenesis, Daniel S. Greenberg, DNA, Herrman Joseph Muller, mammography screening, National Academy of Sciences, National Cancer Institute, screening mammography, Theodor Bovieri, x-rays | Comments (0)

Mammography’s Shadows, III: The Campaign

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute recognized the limitations of the mammography screening trial conducted during 1963-1969 by the Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York (HIP-GNY). Those limits prevented the trial from supporting a widespread screening protocol for breast cancer among asymptomatic women of average risk. (See previous post, “Mammography’s Shadows, II: Numbers and […]

May 26, 2015 – 4:57 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Healthcare, Science and Policy | Tagged American Cancer Society, annual mammogram, breast cancer, Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project, John C. Bailar, John C. Bailar III, National Cancer Institute, routine mammogram, screening mammography | Comments (0)

The New Enclosure (Part II)

The notion that the things we create belong to us is not new; it dates back at least to 560, when Ireland’s King Diarrmait ruled against the monk Colmcille, who had secretly copied his mentor Finnian’s psalter. (Legend records Diarmait’s judgment as “To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy.”) […]

July 14, 2014 – 4:42 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Environmental Policy, Intellectual Property, Open Systems, Science and Engineering in the Law, Science and Policy, Technology in US Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged Atomic Energy Commission, Bayh-Dole, Daniel S. Greenberg, Department of Defense, EPA standards, federal procurements, federal R&D, FOIA, Forsham v. Harris, Freedom of Information Act, Human Genome Project, intellectual capital, Justice John McLean, King Diarrmait, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, Office of Management and Budget, patent licenses, patent royalties, patents, President Bill Clinton, President Kennedy, President Truman, Prime Minister Tony Blair, privatization, proprietary claims, public commons, public sphere, Publicly Funded Research, Ronald Reagan, Shelby Amendment, Wheaton v. Peters | Comments (0)

The New Enclosure (Part III)

Discussions of patent policy in the United States and elsewhere often overlook the fact that the original intent of issuing patents (not to be confused with sovereign-granted commercial privileges) was to encourage the disclosure and spread of novel devices to stimulate manufacturing and trade. The earliest patents (such as those awarded by the Republic […]

July 14, 2014 – 4:41 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Current History, Intellectual Property, Open Systems, Science and Engineering in the Law, Science and Policy, Technology in US Politics | Tagged Atomic Energy Commission, Bayh-Dole, Daniel S. Greenberg, Department of Defense, EPA standards, federal procurements, federal R&D, FOIA, Forsham v. Harris, Freedom of Information Act, Human Genome Project, intellectual capital, Justice John McLean, King Diarrmait, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institutes of Health, Office of Management and Budget, patent licenses, patents, President Bill Clinton, President Kennedy, President Truman, Prime Minister Tony Blair, privatization, proprietary claims, public commons, public sphere, Publicly Funded Research, Ronald Reagan, Shelby Amendment, Wheaton v. Peters | Comments (0)

Senator Rubio’s Mistake

An astronomer writing in Slate recently takes Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to task for being unable (or unwilling?) to give the astronomers’ answer to a reporter’s question, posed during a press interview, about the age of the Earth. After noting that the question has nothing to do with the proper subject of the interview, Rubio […]

December 4, 2012 – 5:31 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Art and Culture, Current History, History of Ideas, Politics, Science and Policy, Uncategorized | Tagged Biblical literalism, history of science, Karl Popper, Marco Rubio, metaphors, scientific research, technological innovation | Comments (0)

Ten Tips for the 53%

In a recent letter to the editor of the local newspaper a reader supports Mr. Romney’s assertion that 47% of the American public depends on federal benefits, and therefore undeserving of the presidential candidate’s concern. The letter writer then shares with us his pride at being part of the other 53%, Without mentioning national defense […]

October 27, 2012 – 5:23 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Current History, Politics, Science and Policy, Technology in US Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged CAFE standards, Co, corporate welfare, deregulated Wall Street, federal deposit insurance, federal highways, Mitt Romney, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Institutes of Health, oil depletion allowance, pharmaceutical research, the 47 percent, the 47%, US coast and geodetic surveys | Comments (0)

Creativity Rocks!

Widely adopted personality tests and tests for creativity have become one of the most familiar examples of scientific positivism in the study of human psychology. By their nature, however, they cannot succeed at what they claim to do. A science of ‘creativity’ that excludes artistic and literary expression has much to do with a commercial society’s efforts to co-opt the full range of human experience, and very little to do with the qualities that make that experience the extraordinary and irreducible phenomenon that it is.

August 12, 2010 – 8:24 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in History of Ideas, Science and Policy | Tagged 'Miserere', Anti-intellectualism in American life, Creativity, Ellis Paul Torrance, Gregorio Allegri, Leo Tolstoy, Myers-Briggs, Richard Hofstadter, War and Peace, Westover, William Byrd | Comments (2)

‘Climategate’ Redux

When hackers in 2009 obtained data and e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, they did more than light the tinder box of ‘global warming’ skepticism. The disclosed material also exposed a dismissive attitude shared by many scientists toward the public’s right to know the full results of research funded by public funds, an especially worrisome attitude when that research may influence important national and international policy decisions.

July 28, 2010 – 9:02 pm | By Sylvia Kraemer | Posted in Environmental Policy, Open Systems, Science and Engineering in the Law, Science and Policy | Tagged Climate Change, Climategate, FOIA, Global Warming, Open access to research data, University of East Anglia | Comments (2)