Watchdog Larry Husten at Forbes has chastised the New England Journal of Medicine for its failure to retract two papers by the Dutch researcher Don Poldermans, whose work was found deficient in an investigation by the Erasmus Medical Center, where he had been a leading researcher. “Back in August the NEJM editors decided not to retract […]
What if Congress passed a healthcare bill and nobody noticed?
It doesn’t seem right: We blame Congress for argument, empty rhetoric, and gridlock–and then when it passes a bill, we ignore it. Last week, the House and Senate passed legislation requiring tougher scrutiny of hospice facilities to guard against mistreatment of patients and selective admission of those likely to be most profitable. President Obama is […]
NPR cancels Robert Krulwich’s Wonders blog.
Robert Krulwich, a widely admired and respected science reporter at National Public Radio, said he has been told it’s time to move on. “NPR (in the form of a super top executive) sat me down and, after four years of generously supporting this blog, told me it can’t anymore. It needs to cut costs and […]
Did Norman Maclean’s ‘Young Men and Fire’ tell the wrong story?
[Correction: I mistakenly wrote that Schulz said the Wright brothers’ first flight was in 1905. She wrote that they kept a plane aloft for 39 minutes that year.–PR] If you haven’t read Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire, download it today. Published posthumously in 1992, Young Men and Fire succeeds brilliantly at three things: It is […]
“Stand Up To Cancer” didn’t stand up to tobacco.
Celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan, Katie Couric, Ariane Grande, and others who have lost family members to cancer helped last Friday’s Stand Up To Cancer telethon raise $109 million in pledges for cancer research. Most of the coverage appeared where you would expect–in the celebrity press. Entertainment Tonight “was on the carpet at the star-studded […]
Anti-GMO activist accuses The New Yorker of ‘grave fallacies that affect people’s lives.’
A profile of the anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva in The New Yorker in August by Michael Specter has drawn a blistering, 5,000-word rebuttal from Shiva, who accuses Specter of “character assassination,” a “tool used by those who cannot successfully defend their message.” The New Yorker’s editor, David Remnick, shot back in turn with a rebuttal […]