This Sunday's New York Times Magazine will feature a medical story on the cover for the second week in a row. (And the week before, the cover story was an environmental whodunit.) This time, it's "...
This Sunday's New York Times Magazine will feature a medical story on the cover for the second week in a row. (And the week before, the cover story was an environmental whodunit.) This time, it's "Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That," about work to develop a drug to increase female desire. And last week's was "Germs," a story by Michael Pollan about the microbes that live in and on us and likely play a major role in human health and well-being.
First, sex. The story, by Times contributing writer Daniel Bergner, is clear, entertaining, thorough, and just titillating enough to keep it interesting and at the same time appropriate for the Times. Bergner begins with an anecdote in which he describes a participant in a study of a new drug called Lybrido, a woman he calls...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests are free in Spain if a woman has at least 3 direct relatives who suffered breast cancer. The same happens in countries like Argentina. In others like Ecuador, the test is not available. Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy appeared in all Spanish-...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) BRCA1 and BRCA2 tests are free in Spain if a woman has at least 3 direct relatives who suffered breast cancer. The same happens in countries like Argentina. In others like Ecuador, the test is not available. Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy appeared in all Spanish-speaking newspapers, but only a few discussed the specific situation in their countries. Also, most reporters seemed to be more concerned about a possible increase in patients’ fears, than analyzing if the procedure should be more common. As instance, a story in Spain says that only 10% of Spanish women with BRAC mutations follow mastectomy. If compared to a 30% in US (NYT story), the question is obvious: ¿should more Spanish women be having preventive mastectomy? Of course it is a very sensitive topic, and we must prevent the...
I've already posted this week on conflicts of interest, orphan drugs, and the "...
I've already posted this week on conflicts of interest, orphan drugs, and the "financial toxicity" associated with some medications, and now I've found a story that combines all three.
A new cystic fibrosis drug--the first to be developed based on understanding of the genetics of the illness--is an orphan drug that can help only about 4 percent of patients with cystic fibrosis. Its financial toxicity is such that it can destroy the finances of those whose lives it saves: It costs $307,000 per year. And it sits in the center of a swarm of conflicting interests involving a pharmaceutical company, a non-profit patients' organization, and researchers who have taken their money.
This...
23May 2013
Can being a little bit overweight possibly be better for your health than maintaining "normal" weight?
Many doctors and obesity researchers would say no, but one persistent researcher has done a series of studies suggesting the opposite is true: A little extra weight might reduce the chance of...
Can being a little bit overweight possibly be better for your health than maintaining "normal" weight?
Many doctors and obesity researchers would say no, but one persistent researcher has done a series of studies suggesting the opposite is true: A little extra weight might reduce the chance of dying.
Virginia Hughes tackles this complicated issue in a piece in Nature, where she writes that the epidemiology is complex, and the cofounding factors are difficult to eliminate. And the message to the public coming out of all of this is perhaps most complicated of all.
The researcher challenging the orthodoxy is Katherine Flegal of the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC. Her latest study, published in January, found that "people deemed 'overweight' by international standards were 6% less likely to die than were those of...
Toxicity is a common side effect of cancer treatment. Such things as fatigue, nausea, and pain are a serious concern for oncologists, who know that they can impede treatment and diminish quality of life.
Now, in a two-part essay published in the journal Oncology, doctors at Duke University argue that the...
Toxicity is a common side effect of cancer treatment. Such things as fatigue, nausea, and pain are a serious concern for oncologists, who know that they can impede treatment and diminish quality of life.
Now, in a two-part essay published in the journal Oncology, doctors at Duke University argue that the financial side effects of cancer treatment can be just as important in impeding treatment and diminishing quality of life. Cancer treatment's costs are rising, the treatment is often being overused, and the rising costs are increasingly being passed on to patients, the doctors write.
I first caught wind of this essay, which appeared online Feb. 15 and April 15, this week when I ran across an April 25 story by Nick Mulcahy at Medscape, who was apparently one of the first to pick up on it--possibly the first. It's important story,...
Correction: The Joseph Mercola piece on fluoride first appeared in January. Last week was when I first learned he was a regular blogger for the Huffington Post, which in itself seemed worth a Tracker entry.
One of the things I like and will miss about newspapers is the systematic way they separate news...
Correction: The Joseph Mercola piece on fluoride first appeared in January. Last week was when I first learned he was a regular blogger for the Huffington Post, which in itself seemed worth a Tracker entry.
One of the things I like and will miss about newspapers is the systematic way they separate news and features from op-ed pieces. And while the op-ed pages give people a voice, they were distinct from the stories gathered by staff writers who were paid not to voice their opinions but to go out and check into things. And if you had an agenda or something you wanted to sell, you could pay to take out an ad.
Enter The Huffington Post, which featured this offering by Joseph Mercola: Harvard Study Confirms Fluoride Reduces Children’s IQ.
I first came across Mercola – apparently medical doctor - a few years ago when someone started...
There surely will be an inquiry into the apparent demise of the epochally successful Kepler spacecraft's ability to look fixedly at one place in the sky. For nearly four years it has examined a specific spangle of stars. Its gargantuan data stream revealed peculiar, slight dimmings that fit what should...
There surely will be an inquiry into the apparent demise of the epochally successful Kepler spacecraft's ability to look fixedly at one place in the sky. For nearly four years it has examined a specific spangle of stars. Its gargantuan data stream revealed peculiar, slight dimmings that fit what should happen when planets have crossed their disks as seen from our vantage point. It's already hit pay dirt with the best seeming to come and now, pffffft. More on the inevitable post-mortem in a moment. First a summary and a roundup of media accounts.
News started circulating about a week ago that the 1.1-ton spacecraft had put itself into safe mode. It has had a recent history of doing that but this one looks a lot worse. One of three operating reaction wheels had already given up the ghost. The craft started with four of them spinning like tops, including a backup. Now down to two of them, the Kepler planet-finding factory cannot point the big...
21May 2013
On Monday, a massive tornado plowed a near 20-mile path through suburbs of Oklahoma City, killing dozens of people and destroying entire neighborhoods. My purpose in writing about it here at the Tracker is to take a look at the ways that...
On Monday, a massive tornado plowed a near 20-mile path through suburbs of Oklahoma City, killing dozens of people and destroying entire neighborhoods. My purpose in writing about it here at the Tracker is to take a look at the ways that science writers helped illuminate the power of that storm. But stories of big storms are always first stories of devastated lives and I'd like to start by extending the sympathy and best wishes of all of us here to people in those damaged communities.
The tornado that struck in the region of Moore, Oklahoma yesterday was reportedly as much as a mile wide at points and reached peak wind speeds that topped 200 miles an hour. According to the National Weather Service, that classifies it as an EF-4 tornado on the widely accepted...
[Updates Wednesday morning with Poynter comment regarding its partnerships with the European Journalism Centre.]
[Updates with more European junkets being promoted by the European Union of Science Journalists' Associations.]
"As one of the most prestigious competitions...
[Updates Wednesday morning with Poynter comment regarding its partnerships with the European Journalism Centre.]
[Updates with more European junkets being promoted by the European Union of Science Journalists' Associations.]
"As one of the most prestigious competitions of its kind, the European Inventor Award each year pays tribute to the creativity of inventors, whose quest for new ideas drives technological progress and economic growth, shapes our society and improves our daily lives," says an announcement directed at British science writers.
That's a story that might be worth covering. The award ceremony will be held in Amsterdam next week, not a terribly long or expensive trip for British journalists.
But they needn't worry about the price of the trip or their lodging.
The European Patent Office and the European Journalism Centre say they "...
Maybe it's just me, but I can't get enough of Sandra G. Boodman's medical mysteries in The Washington Post. I'd like to see a collection of these, maybe as a Kindle single, so I could have them all in one place.
Boodman was...
Maybe it's just me, but I can't get enough of Sandra G. Boodman's medical mysteries in The Washington Post. I'd like to see a collection of these, maybe as a Kindle single, so I could have them all in one place.
Boodman was back again yesterday with a tale that was not only a mystery, but an outrage. I'm tempted to use a familiar vulgar phrase to describe my reaction, but that would be impolite. The doctors who saw 16-year-old Allison Partridge let her down, and there ought to be some sort of punishment for that. Maybe require them to attend 10-week remedial sessions to watch videos of her condition before they are allowed to practice again?
Even specialists failed to recognize what was going on....
Chemical & Engineering News, known for its coverage of research, business, the chemical industry, and related industries, is not known for 10,000-word stories looking at social issues. In the current issue, however, Lisa M. Jarvis tackles the orphan drug problem in...
Chemical & Engineering News, known for its coverage of research, business, the chemical industry, and related industries, is not known for 10,000-word stories looking at social issues. In the current issue, however, Lisa M. Jarvis tackles the orphan drug problem in a long, comprehensive piece with a surprising turn: Orphan drugs, it seems, are no longer orphans. The headline on the piece is "Orphans Find a Home."
That's not true for all of them, but it's true for a growing number, as pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and investors, suddenly see that producing drugs for a disease that affects only a few thousand patients can be a potent money maker. This has not always been true, which is why orphan drugs were orphaned. Pharmaceutical companies were looking for drugs such as Lipitor that they could sell to millions of people. Now,...
Laura Beil at Science News begins her helpful survey of fructose research with an interesting historical footnote. She reports that two chemists found an enzyme that could turn...
Laura Beil at Science News begins her helpful survey of fructose research with an interesting historical footnote. She reports that two chemists found an enzyme that could turn glucose from cornstarch into fructose, which is sweeter. What's interesting is that the discovery was published in Science in 1957, Beil reports, and largely ignored. It was not until the 1970s that Japanese researchers learned how to use the finding to produce fructose on an industrial scale. And it was not until 2004, she writes, that consumers began to be concerned.
Beil does a nice job of looking over the research on whether fructose might be, as critics, claim, particularly harmful to health--worse than sugar, or sucrose, produced from sugar cane. As I read the story, it seems to say that there is evidence of harm from fructose, because of how it affects the...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) This Knight Tracker participated last Thu and Fri in the 7th Ibero-American conference of science journalism in Ecuador. With more than 400 attendees and excellent dialogs, the event was a great success. But the tracker felt that apart from words, more action is needed. Many...
(English intro to Spanish lang post) This Knight Tracker participated last Thu and Fri in the 7th Ibero-American conference of science journalism in Ecuador. With more than 400 attendees and excellent dialogs, the event was a great success. But the tracker felt that apart from words, more action is needed. Many students of journalism came to the tracker with sincere interest in science communication. We need to build specific capacitation and opportunities for them and for journalists working already in the media. Especially now that Ecuadorian government is increasing its investment in science and building Yachay City of Knowledge; an ambitious project aimed to promote scientific research and innovation and to create a knowledge-based economy in Ecuador.
El pasado jueves y viernes participé en el VII seminario iberoamericano de periodismo científico que se celebr...
"I expected lots of blog posts about Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy," Tabitha M. Powledge writes at On Science Blogs. "I didn't expect the torrent we're getting. My unscientific...
"I expected lots of blog posts about Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy," Tabitha M. Powledge writes at On Science Blogs. "I didn't expect the torrent we're getting. My unscientific impression is that this is the single most-blogged-about medical topic I've looked at since I began writing On Science Blogs in 2009, going on 5 years ago."
Why would that be, we might ask? "Even in mad mediaworld this is an extraordinarily potent mix, involving a super-celebrity superstar who always makes news and sometimes scandal (and whose equally high-profile partner, here somewhat in the background, does ditto), plus women's breasts (two of them), plus breast reconstructive surgery, plus a cancer that is irrationally terrifying, and all of this soaked in a subtext of sex sex sex." Trenchant, n'est-ce pas? By the way, Powledge titles...
This is not a news story but it got my mind into a perplexed state. That is, until I realized it might be that the question is not the right question the American ear wants to hear:
- The Curious Wavefunction (Scientific American Blogs) - Ashutosh Jogalekar...
This is not a news story but it got my mind into a perplexed state. That is, until I realized it might be that the question is not the right question the American ear wants to hear:
- The Curious Wavefunction (Scientific American Blogs) - Ashutosh Jogalekar: Who's the greatest American physicist in history?
The writer is a chemist with a biotech company in Massachusetts. His blog site is serious and sober. This essay on top US physicists is worth reading mainly because his personal answer is a name few of us in the ksjtracker community, even the physics writers, have ever heard of and even those who have won't likely have much to say. But its muscle comes from noting that while the list of illustrious American-born physicists is pretty long (...
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