Words about science and hiking
One of the things I like about writing for Quora is that it is mostly a troll-free zone. The most annoying questions directed to me are usually from students hoping I’ll answer their midterm questions for them (e.g., “What nucleotide is found in DNA but not RNA?” or “What is the Lewis dot structure of Read More …
It’s not immediately obvious why fundamentalists so despise Darwinism. I mean, yeah, they advocate a literal interpretation of the Bible, and creation through evolution does not map perfectly on to the Genesis story. But the fundys have little problem ignoring other inconvenient teachings (that eating shellfish is an abomination, that rich men cannot get to Read More …
The key question here is “advancing where?”. Where exactly do we want science to go and what do we want it to do when it gets there? Let’s look where R&D money is being spent. Willingness to pay seems like a pretty good indicator of our true – as opposed to stated – desires. The Read More …
Most news about the science and business of antibiotic development is bad. Major pharmas continue to drop their antibiotic R&D programs. Those that remain are not being rewarded: of the 16 antibiotics approved 2000-2017, only 5 had sales of more than $100M. That might seem like a lot of money to you or me, but Read More …
I’ve certainly ragged on sci journos before for superficial and misleading articles (see here and here), so it’s only fair to give a shout out to one who consistently works to get it it right. Liz Szabo’s article in today’s NYT on the overpromising and underdelivering of precision medicine is well worth a read. Here is Read More …
There’s no question that pharmaceuticals – and the industry that produces them – have saved untold numbers of lives and reduced suffering on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. But I believe we are entering a new phase in which the viability of pharma is based more on faith than on evidence. The Read More …
As I’ve mentioned before, PT suffers from a lack of well-designed clinical trials. Part of this lack can be attributed to a mind-set of true-believerism among PT practitioners. Part of it can be attributed to a dearth of funding required to design and execute trials – not just for PT, but for anti-infective therapy in general. Read More …
Sepsis is the LaBrea Tar Pit of medicine. Many investigators go in; few come out, and those few are covered in ooze. As one review [1] notes: “More than 100 randomized clinical trials have tested the hypothesis that modulating the septic response to infection can improve survival. With one short-lived exception, none of these has resulted Read More …