Critical thinking in biology- Experiments as the gold standard for research: A new twist June 18, 2019
- Vaccination is in the news again (original posting of April 12, 2019, updated with new information on June 4, 2019) April 12, 2019
- Becoming an ecologist: A detour makes a difference March 17, 2018
- Why I worry about climate change March 16, 2018
- On climate science, the New York Times blows it May 8, 2017
- “This is a sad day for the children of the U.S.” April 19, 2017
- Monarch butterflies, milkweed, and migration: The law of unintended consequences February 3, 2017
- Medical use of marijuana revisited January 11, 2017
- Storytelling in science: What can we learn about critical thinking from stories about mountain lions and sea otters? July 23, 2016
- Careful readers are a writer’s best friends March 8, 2016
Category Archives: Medicine
Experiments as the gold standard for research: A new twist
Worldwide, there were more than 1.56 billion people who used Facebook daily in March 2019. There were “only” half as many daily active users in 2014, but typical adults in the U.S. already spent 40 minutes daily on Facebook, much … Continue reading
Posted in Correlation & Causation, Ethics, Experimentation, Experimentation, Medicine, Psychology, Teaching, Vaccination
Tagged experiment, medical ethics, Psychology, randomized controlled trial, social media, survey research
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Vaccination is in the news again (original posting of April 12, 2019, updated with new information on June 4, 2019)
I’ve written two blog postings about vaccination. One outlined two factors that may have contributed to recent outbreaks of whooping cough (pertussis) in the United States: increased rejection by parents of vaccination of their children against whooping cough, and replacement … Continue reading
Posted in Evaluating evidence, Medicine, Vaccination
Tagged Ethics, evidence, politics, Vaccination
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“This is a sad day for the children of the U.S.”
Howard Mielke is a toxicologist at the Medical School of Tulane University in New Orleans. He described March 21, 2017 as “a sad day for the children of the U.S.” in response to news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) … Continue reading
Posted in Causation, Ethics, Medicine, Science and politics
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Medical use of marijuana revisited
I described two experimental studies of the use of marijuana to reduce pain in Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology and discussed two technical reviews of the medical value of marijuana in a subsequent blog posting. The gist of these … Continue reading
Posted in Causation, Correlation & Causation, Evaluating evidence, Experimentation, Medicine
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Research on medicinal uses of marijuana: Is the cart before the horse?
I describe two studies of medicinal uses of marijuana in Chapter 4 of Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology to illustrate why experiments are considered the gold standard for research. In June 2015, two months after the book appeared, the … Continue reading
Posted in Experimentation, Medicine
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