By Kuei-Jung Ni In Washington state, a proposal (Initiative 522) to require labeling of genetically modified (GM) or engineered (GE) foods was defeated recently by votes of 45.17% in favor and 54.83% against. The state law would have implemented mandatory labeling requirements on food composed of 0.9% or more of GM ingredients, measured by weight….
By Richard Epstein Bad News On December 14, 2012, the US Food and Drug Administration granted an accelerated approval to the drug Ponatinib, which is used to treat patients with serious and life threatening forms of leukemia. Unfortunately, the risks associated with the use of the drug have proved to be far greater than anticipated. …
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By Christopher Robertson The Economist has a long, detailed, and readable piece about the difficulties of inferring anything from the published findings of biomedical science. There are all sorts of problems that fall short of scientific fraud, including the the biases caused by industry-funding of biomedical science, the biases of unblinded raters who see what they…
By Christopher Robertson Enjoying the fall foliage in Mt. Auburn Cemetery yesterday, I came across this marker for Benjamin Waterhouse. In the overwrought language that is appropriate on a grave marker: “In 1800 he introduced to the new world the blessing of vaccination. Overcame popular prejudice and distrust by testing it on his own children…
By Scott Burris Christopher Robertson recently posted here a semi-facetious suggestion of things that Democrats could ask for once the shut-down and the debt-ceiling dance turns into real bargaining. (How sad that this has to be seen as an optimistic statement.) That’s a good idea. I think we should all join in populating the health policy…
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In a fascinating opinion piece in the New York Times this past weekend, neuroeconomist Gregory Berns writes: “For the past two years, my colleagues and I have been training dogs to go in an M.R.I. scanner — completely awake and unrestrained. Our goal has been to determine how dogs’ brains work and, even more important,…
By Michelle Meyer Legal academics who work across disciplines sometimes find themselves in the uncomfortable position of explaining to their stunned colleagues the process by which second- and third-year law students, armed with author c.v.s, decide what gets published and where. Well, get ready to get your schadenfreude on. For the past 10 months, John…
