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David Dobbs on science, nature, and culture.
I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find clips here.) Right now I'm writing my fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion, which explores the hypothesis that the genetic roots some of our worst problems and traits — depresison, hyperaggression, violence, antisocial behavior — can also give rise to resilience, cooperation, empathy, and contentment. The book expands on my December 2009 Atlantic article exploring these ideas.
I've also written three books, including Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral, which traces the strangest but most forgotten controversy in Darwin's career — an elemental dispute running some 75 years.
If you'd like, you can subscribe to Neuron Culture by email. You might also want to see more of my work at my main website or check out my Tumblr log.
Category: Healthcare policy
"If there's any way out of our current health-care morass, it's this: In health care, more expensive care is often no better than less expensive care."
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:29 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
"if a skilled physician cannot resist orders for expensive tests and unnecessary drugs, there is no chance that individual consumers, even if they have more skin in the game, will be more successful. "
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:14 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
A few years ago, a friend of mine had a baby. A few weeks into the child's life, it became apparent she was suffering from cerebral palsy. It was quite a blow.
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:34 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
Tell me again why we don't just have vaccination clinics at school?
Posted by David Dobbs at 5:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
That post reported the news (via FiercePharma) that Pfizer had tucked away in its financial disclosure forms a $2.3 billion charge to end the federal investigation into allegations of off-label promotions of its Cox-2 painkillers, including Bextra. ... Because my post was was one of the few things already on the interwebz before Justice held its news conference, the Google rush shot it toward the top of the search results.
Posted by David Dobbs at 3:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
Here's my short list for the day: Helen Branswell reports that WHO is unpersuaded by the unpublished paper showing seasonal flu vaccine may raise chance of getting swine flu. ... The gist: The possibility that the seasonal flu vaccine could increase risk of contracting swine flu, says Laden, "concerns me quite a bit, as my wife is 8 months pregnant, flu is a very serious risk for pregnant women and their babies , she teaches in a high school, and got her seasonal flu shot last week.." One can hope, fervently, that the swine-flu vaccines, which start getting punched into people in the U.S. today , find their way very rapidly to a flu clinic near Laden's better half.
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:38 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Healthcare policy
As Congress debates healthcare reform, we often hear that hopes for comprehensive reform -- fundamental changes, like a public plan or a radical, Netherlands-like overhaul of regulation -- simply aren't realistic. I hope to explore later why this seems so to those casting the votes. In the meantime, a couple reports make an interesting juxtaposition.
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:15 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Healthcare policy
"The greatest fear Democrats should have at this point is what will happen when millions of hard-working, lower-middle-class American families without health insurance are told they're about to be slapped with a $500 to $1000-a-month bill to buy a plan ... [and] be told that their employers and the government aren't going to help out."
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:36 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
As Obama explains, world leaders are puzzled that healthcare gets painted with a Hitler moustache. and other news.
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:27 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
Confusion grows over the still-unreleased study that apparently finds, contrary to other studies, that getting this year's seasonal flu shot may raise your risk of getting swine flu. Peter Sandman, meanwhile, argues that since the swine flu seems to have largely displaced the seasonal flu, getting vaccinated for the latter doesn't make much sense. (I'm doing so this afternoon anyway.)
Posted by David Dobbs at 6:12 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
laelaps 02.02.2010
Gene Expression 02.01.2010
Greg Laden's Blog 02.01.2010
erv 02.01.2010
The frontal cortex 02.02.2010
