When the word "radical" is used four times in two sentences, something is amiss.

The Royal Society was founded back in the 1660s and serves as the "national Academy of science in the UK." Last year, Andrew Montford wrote a sobering report about its recent capture by environmental activists (see my post here).

Since then, cooler heads have not prevailed.

Confusion surrounding the term "autism" is surely nothing new. The word was first used in 1911 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who presumably invoked the Greek autos, meaning "self."

An antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia apparently paves the way for developing antibiotics to kill drug-resistant bacteria by knocking out a piece of the bug’s cell wall, researchers in Denmark reported today. The finding could help launch new ways to treat the global health threat of bacteria that have outwitted many, or in some cases all, existing antibiotics.

In the study, which appears today in the journal…

Why are female leaders rarer than rubies in green organizations?

Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of the European chapter
of Friends of the Earth

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Feminine Mystique - the book credited with igniting the second wave of American feminism (the first wave involved the struggle for the vote).

Which means it's an excellent time to raise an important question: Why are so few green groups led by women?

An academic paper funded by two National Science Foundation grants bears no relation to the intended purpose of that money.

In 2009, the US National Science Foundation awarded an "engineering education research" grant of $150,000 to Eric Pappas, a professor at James Madison University.

According to the official record, that money had a purpose. It was supposed to:

... even though one of its cited "experts" tacitly admits there is no established cause-and-effect relationship between typical/normal/current salt intake and adverse health effects.

In Merseyside, England, violence against sex workers is treated by the police as a hate crime. This means that when a sex worker is the victim of an assault, robbery, or rape, she or he can report the incident without fear of being charged with prostitution, because the police have agreed to place a higher priority on convicting the criminals who harm sex workers over criminalizing sex workers.

Why weren't the profound limitations of an electric car the butt of a comedian's jokes?

Rick Mercer is a Canadian comedian/satirist employed by the publicly-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Like his American colleague, Jon Stewart, he spends much of his time commenting on current affairs.

First and foremost, Mercer is an entertainer - a performer who wants to make us laugh.