Categories: "Science"

service to society

January 28th, 2017
Among his many accomplishments, Hood invented, commercialized, and developed multiple chemical tools that address biological complexity, including the automated DNA sequencer which spearheaded the Human Genome Project. more »

private and public flubs

February 8th, 2014
It's easy in such situations to engage in recrimination - they should have done this, or that, or the other thing, instead of what they did end up doing that led to the current disaster. But those are only symptoms. more »

give directly

December 14th, 2013
who better than the principles to know what it is they need to improve their situation? While a cow might suit some people, a new roof will better fit the needs of others, and a small motorcycle could make possible a small taxi or delivery business for someone else. more »

up with science

July 20th, 2013
I have chided Science Friday's Ira Flatow for his tendency to equate interest in research on a given topic to the necessity that the best (or perhaps only) way to accomplish that end is via government agencies and the political process. This post points out private alternatives that are becoming a reasonable alternative to support to research scientists. more »

risk and uncertainty, particularized

July 4th, 2013
The prospects of space travel include the chance of going out in a blaze of exploding rocket fuel - a scenario in the news recently with the loss of three more GLONASS satellites that were sitting atop a Proton rocket at Baikonur Cosmodrome more »

on three more from Planet Money

June 30th, 2013
The crew at Planet Money can get so close sometimes, I feel like I could just tap them into a broader assessment of some of the issues raised by their stories, and a greater appreciation for the laissez faire perspective of classical liberalism. more »

up with space tourism

May 30th, 2013
That achievement is not something that "we" can claim as a culture - it is something the rest of us can marvel at from the sidelines, but the responsibility lies with the individual people who are actually doing it, people who are brave enough to risk their money on the venture, and the scientists and engineers and managers and bookkeepers and marketing people and hundreds or thousands of others who are contributing to that hoped-for success. more »

employment compensation - health insurance

March 7th, 2013
There are other factors affecting the economy surrounding health care, but the main thing is the same as in every other part of the economy - people make their economic decisions on the basis of cost and benefit, and obscuring the cost side of that balance distorts the result. more »

metrics run amok

March 4th, 2013
... in the fervor surrounding the French revolution they introduced such changes [to clocks] at the same time as arriving at the length for the original meter and mass of the original gram, and the grad measure of angles more »

when worlds collide, who pays for it?

February 24th, 2013
Insurance as a model for protection against asteroids - concentrate the costs to those that benefit most, and spread the gain across the entire population of the planet more »