I agree. This looks like of the the standard news scare stories where correlation is implicitly connected to whatever correlation is trendy at the time. Drinking coffee is correlated with so many things that it is almost impossible to correlate with any health effects.
The same goes for green tea, water from expensive purifiers, beer, high income, low income,.....
Abuse of statistics can prove anything. Newspapers, blogs and dare I say it articles that get linked from slashdot are going to be prone to sensationalist statistics. The everyday headline science reports are mostly sensationalist rubbish written by journalists who care about the story not the science.
Not convinved that there is a cause and effect here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-cause_fallacy
On the Vitamin E prostate cancer link that is easily resolved. First assume that there is no correlation then assume that people have read articles saying that it is helpful (this link implies that such information was around http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/october2011/10172011supplements.htm). So people with prostate cancer or at high risk took vitamin E and eventually had a higher death rate. Does the article take such things into account?
The bit that gets me is that a school actually has a formal rule saying
"expulsion for any student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity".
My schools tended to have rules about playing conkers or skidding on ice but this is a different league.
Also is generating a little bit of hydrogen 'possession of a bomb or explosive device'? If so then bombs are everywhere.
Smaller reactor cores are going to be less efficient but a fission reactor is always going to have residual heat issues regardless of the design.
What about building the core above a hole, if things go Fukushima bad and the reactor is doomed to a fuel meltdown then just blow some career ending charges and drop the core into a hole followed by a few thousand tonnes of sand then some concrete. It would get hot down there but as the fission products decay it would calm down and no radioactivity would be released.
Most if not all juristictions have laws against assisted suicide. If you are doing LD50 tests then half the subjects will die - this is clearly never going to be a realistic possibility.
The alternative to testing on animals is not testing on animals and that is far worse. Would you use a drug/cream/paint that had never been tested on anything living? Would you expose it to your children? No animal is going to be a perfect match for humans but selling something that nobody has the faintest idea what it does to mammals would be totally irresponsible.
People talk about test tube testing but that is decades away. There really is no moral alternative to animal testing
Got to include a reference to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greasy_Pole
It is a real shame that this has been taken off YouTube. People who don't understand chemistry (and that includes 99% of politicians and journalists) have a worrying tendancy to latch onto words they dont understand and associate them with another word they dont understand that has health implications. Sadly I don't see this ending. Scare stories sell papers / TV ads etc.
'Asimov's New Guide to Science' is the best popular science book I know of. Much better than his scifi.
Anyone who reads this weighty tome will come out with a decent background understanding of physics, chemistry and biology and as a added plus it is a easy read for any age. A read of this is worth a year of schooling because it draws you in and is written by a polymath who is also a masterful author.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977262.Asimov_s_New_Guide_To_Science
One of the best things about Anathem is that it also works as a book about many concepts that are routinely used in physics and mathematics. The concept of working in coordinate systems that do not correspond to physical location is ubiquitous in many areas of physics. A large chunk of my physics degree seemed to be in done in abstract coordinate systems.
But I have to say that I can't see many 11 year olds getting the point of this book or even getting to the end.
I have to recommend 'An Instance of the Fingerpost' by Iain Pears. It is set just after the English civil war so there is some history there and the book is divided into several sections each corresponding to the point of view of one of the characters.
The first section is dominated by early scientific experiments with deductions that are often incorrect but that make sense given what is known at the time.
Other sections include mathematics and cryptography.
IMHO one of the best books I have read and it should be readable by that age range.
Slashdot Mirror
Asimov's New Guide to Science is a must read. The knowledge in that book is incredible.
Opened the shell and killed it in a flash
I suspect this is the starting material for a rock cam, I.E. a rock. Good luck with selling that.
I agree. This looks like of the the standard news scare stories where correlation is implicitly connected to whatever correlation is trendy at the time. Drinking coffee is correlated with so many things that it is almost impossible to correlate with any health effects. The same goes for green tea, water from expensive purifiers, beer, high income, low income, .....
Abuse of statistics can prove anything. Newspapers, blogs and dare I say it articles that get linked from slashdot are going to be prone to sensationalist statistics. The everyday headline science reports are mostly sensationalist rubbish written by journalists who care about the story not the science.
Not convinved that there is a cause and effect here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-cause_fallacy On the Vitamin E prostate cancer link that is easily resolved. First assume that there is no correlation then assume that people have read articles saying that it is helpful (this link implies that such information was around http://www.nih.gov/researchmatters/october2011/10172011supplements.htm). So people with prostate cancer or at high risk took vitamin E and eventually had a higher death rate. Does the article take such things into account?
The bit that gets me is that a school actually has a formal rule saying "expulsion for any student in possession of a bomb (or) explosive device... while at a school (or) a school-sponsored activity". My schools tended to have rules about playing conkers or skidding on ice but this is a different league. Also is generating a little bit of hydrogen 'possession of a bomb or explosive device'? If so then bombs are everywhere.
Very high frequency radio waves.
Smaller reactor cores are going to be less efficient but a fission reactor is always going to have residual heat issues regardless of the design. What about building the core above a hole, if things go Fukushima bad and the reactor is doomed to a fuel meltdown then just blow some career ending charges and drop the core into a hole followed by a few thousand tonnes of sand then some concrete. It would get hot down there but as the fission products decay it would calm down and no radioactivity would be released.
Most if not all juristictions have laws against assisted suicide. If you are doing LD50 tests then half the subjects will die - this is clearly never going to be a realistic possibility.
The alternative to testing on animals is not testing on animals and that is far worse. Would you use a drug/cream/paint that had never been tested on anything living? Would you expose it to your children? No animal is going to be a perfect match for humans but selling something that nobody has the faintest idea what it does to mammals would be totally irresponsible. People talk about test tube testing but that is decades away. There really is no moral alternative to animal testing
Beware dihydrogen monoxide. It is has been found in all cancers.
Got to include a reference to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greasy_Pole It is a real shame that this has been taken off YouTube. People who don't understand chemistry (and that includes 99% of politicians and journalists) have a worrying tendancy to latch onto words they dont understand and associate them with another word they dont understand that has health implications. Sadly I don't see this ending. Scare stories sell papers / TV ads etc.
'Asimov's New Guide to Science' is the best popular science book I know of. Much better than his scifi. Anyone who reads this weighty tome will come out with a decent background understanding of physics, chemistry and biology and as a added plus it is a easy read for any age. A read of this is worth a year of schooling because it draws you in and is written by a polymath who is also a masterful author. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977262.Asimov_s_New_Guide_To_Science
Just to back up my claims that this is a great book and that it fits your requirements: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052601855.html
One of the best things about Anathem is that it also works as a book about many concepts that are routinely used in physics and mathematics. The concept of working in coordinate systems that do not correspond to physical location is ubiquitous in many areas of physics. A large chunk of my physics degree seemed to be in done in abstract coordinate systems. But I have to say that I can't see many 11 year olds getting the point of this book or even getting to the end.
I have to recommend 'An Instance of the Fingerpost' by Iain Pears. It is set just after the English civil war so there is some history there and the book is divided into several sections each corresponding to the point of view of one of the characters. The first section is dominated by early scientific experiments with deductions that are often incorrect but that make sense given what is known at the time. Other sections include mathematics and cryptography. IMHO one of the best books I have read and it should be readable by that age range.