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 […]
Ebola – What’s the Point of the World Health Organisation?
WHO is supposed to be a global health organization, not a global biomedical organization. The Ebola crisis, argues Robert Dingwall, reveals the extent to which it has lost sight of this mission.
The Scottish Referendum: Social Science and National Identity
As the independence vote moves from all-consuming question to historical incident, what are the lessons that Scottish universities and in particular Scottish social scientists should take away?
On the Ethics of Facebook – and Drawing the Right Conclusions
What does the Facebook emotional contagion study really tells us about research ethics? Perhaps, argues Robert Dingwall, that its time to deregulate public social science.
Social and Natural Science: Has the Square Been Circled?
A natural scientist reflects on a conference that focused on bringing natural and social scientists into a a shared, and continuing, conversation.
Quantophrenia is Back in Town
Many social scientists find themselves members of a cult of quantification, argues Robert Dingwall, in love with numbers for their own sake even when those numbers produce no useful knowledge.
100,000 for AllTrials by International Clinical Trials Day
International Clinical Trials Day is on Tuesday May 20th but half of all clinical trials have never been published and some have […]
Tamiflu and the Ethics of the British Medical Journal
No one expected Tamiflu to be a wonder drug, but indications are that it’s moderately useful in fighting a serious public health threat. But that message was lost last week in an ill-starred rush to beat up on ‘wicked’ Big Pharma, argues Robert Dingwall.
Two Myths and One Truth About Congressional Testimony
Impact is all the rage right now, but what happens when you’re finally given a path to a bully pulpit? Testimony is only the tip of the iceberg – there’s much more opportunity if you look a little deeper.
