As the hoopla about swine flu continues to dominate the front pages and airwaves, let me draw your attention for a moment to a tiny story hidden away at the back of today’s New York Times.

It seems the gentleman infected with drug-resistant TB who ignored public health warnings and got on a series of airplanes in 2006 so he could go on his honeymoon is suing the Centers for Disease Control.  The agency released his medical records back then in an effort to find and stop him before he infected anyone else.  Apparently, the stress caused by the damage this did to his professional reputation and marriage (which ended in divorce) are worth some undisclosed amount.

Let’s try not to laugh too hard at this irony, lest we uncover our mouths in public.  And here’s to all who exhibit personal responsibility and restraint to help improve public health!

Now, I must go wash my hands for a full 20 seconds.

If you do a Google Image search for “scientist,” seven of the first twenty pictures are either labeled outright as “mad scientist” or are clearly pejorative cartoons of carcinogen-toting, absented-minded professors.  This is sort of surprising in a world that’s heaving a collective sigh of relief to watch President Obama restore science to its rightful place.

But we’ve always been of two-minds about science.  On the one hand, we trust and respect it.  For example, the highly regarded General Social Survey released preliminary data last month showing that twice as many Americans have a “great deal” of confidence in the scientific community as they do in organized religion.

On the other hand, popular culture still reflects the sentiment uncovered in my Google search.  From “The X-Men” to “Heroes” to the opinion pages of the national’s leading newspapers, society vilifies scientists and highlights the archetypal fear that research runs amok if unchained.

Unchained greed is another theme that taints science.  Indeed, we can expect plenty of news coverage about overpaid doctors and big bad industry as policy makers rethink how we pay for health care and examine the way clinical research is reimbursed.

So, as scientists boldly answer the President’s call to re-enter the public arena, I hope they do so with humility and honor.  They are ambassadors of an exquisite power.  And like all powerful things, human beings revere and revile it.  We fear it even as we seek it out.  This is a great opportunity for science.  Don’t blow it.

If you believe that science and scientists should inform public policy, then take a minute to read John Tierney’s article “Politics in the Guise of Pure Science” in last week’s New York Times science section.

He argues that scientists champion their own causes at the expense of others, and that society would be better served if scientists were “honest brokers” who use their expertise “to expand the array of technically feasible options rather than steer politicians to a preferred policy.”

He’s not alone in this idea.  Many Americans believe scientists are – or at least should be – rational bystanders who interpret data to find the best possible solution to complex issues.

But scientists are not impartial arbiters by training, nor often by temperament.  Indeed, many critical acts of science are overtly acts of persuasion.  (Read more…)

Northwestern University has been celebrating Darwin’s 200th birthday with programs aimed at creating a common conversation across campus.

So I wasn’t that surprised when in class the other night, what could have been a mundane discussion about “junk science” veered into an interesting one about evolution.  More specifically, a discussion about why such a large segment of Americans don’t accept it. (Read more…)

It’s all because of a luscious looking nectarine from Chile.

I had a host of reasons why I couldn’t possibly add a weekly blog to my to-do list, but just before I opened the email inviting me to do so, I had been standing in the produce section of Dominick’s on a frigid day staring longingly at a pyramid of tree ripe nectarines – trying to weigh apples and oranges.

Which data from a sea of scientific studies not designed to be compared should I rely on? (Read more…)