Blogosphere news (May 26, 2009)
Over the long weekend, I read a lot of blogs that were of interest to me. I thought I’d provide some short analysis and links for those of you who want to read about it.
By Michael W Simpson
- So, you think dolphins are nice, cute creatures. Typical of many animals, they’re sexually aggressive, practice infanticide, and are violent against competing cetacean species. Miriam Goldstein discusses the harsh reality of one species of dolphins.
- I’m sure you’ve heard about Darwinius masillae. Then apparently you’re missing the hype. Ed Yong has written an amusing (and a bit irreverent) piece about the 47 million year old fossil. Other scientists are also weighing in on the over-hyped primate. Though the fossil is important to understanding the evolution of primates, it is a bit troubling that a poorly written paper was published in conjunction with a History Channel special. Eventually, the fossil will give us some clues to the evolutionary pathway since it appears to an example of a primate that lived right at the point where primates split into two broad groups: strepsirrhines, which includes the lemurs and lorises, and the haplorhines, which includes hominids. Of course, this has nothing to do with medical products, but I’ve been reading so much about it, I just couldn’t ignore it.
- Then there’s Orac’s the case of Daniel Hauser. If you’re not aware, Daniel is a 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin's lymphoma who underwent one course of chemotherapy. Then, he decided he wanted to pursue a woo-based therapy that resulted from his fear of chemotherapy and his mother’s suspiciously invented Native American religion. A Minnesota judge ordered Daniel's parents to have Daniel visit a physician and then receive the appropriate care for the disease. Soon after the legal order, his mother Colleen fled the jurisdiction last week and were last thought to be heading for Mexico. Daniel was facing certain death. His mother recently returned with Daniel, so that he might get the best medical treatment. I hope this will end well, but I worry about Daniel’s life with these parents.
- Moving from medicine to geology, there seems to be some volcanoes ready to erupt in Saudi Arabia. Or not.
- Back to medicine. Another pseudoscientific and dangerous “cure” for autism. Chemical castration?? Why hasn’t their medical license been pulled?
- There is no such thing as spontaneous human combustion.
- 12-step programs for treating alcoholism are no better than a doctor saying “quit drinking.”
By Michael W Simpson