Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
Bill: Make ‘National Interest’ Explicit in NSF Grants
In February officials with the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the National Science Board trooped up […]
Malaria Vaccine – Great Science But What’s the Point?
Bully for the researchers who have developed a vaccine can build resistance against some instances of malaria, says Robert Dingwall. But before the WHO recommends for its adoption, he suggests a harder look at user-centered design and cost-benefit analysis may be in order.
Making Sense of Screening: Public Expectations About Screening Still Don’t Match What Screening Programmes Can Deliver
Misconceptions about how screening works, its limitations and possible harms are still being perpetuated by media stories and high profile cases, such […]
Ebola: WHO and the Consequences of Ignoring Social Science
A new report from the World Health Organization on the response to the African Ebola outbreak backs up what our Robert Dingwall has been writing all along — by downplaying social science lives have been lost. The question now is whether a new WHO can improve.
Open Letter on Innovation Urges Real Support for Basic Research
More than 250 universities and scholarly groups and the CEOs of 10 corporations have released an open letter urging American policymakers to “heed the warnings” about the nation’s waning commitment to basic research.
Close Encounters of the Dental Kind
After an unplanned visit to an American dentist, Robert Dingwall reflects on the power and the role of the case study
Data, Democracy, and Janet Norwood
Making decisions without data soils the public policy process with ideology, partisan politics, and misinformation, all things the late Janet Norwood abhorred. Her voice, commitment, and professionalism will be sorely missed.
Antibiotic Resistance – Missing the Point?
There is no point in improving the innovation pipeline for antibiotics, argues Robert Dingwall, if the drugs that come out at the end all fall into the same chaotic patterns of use as today.
