Today the ACLU, PUBPAT, and the U.S. Solicitor General made their arguments appealing a decision made a few years back to allow companies the right to patent human genetics. The ACLU and PUBPAT brought a lawsuit in May 2009 against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah Research Foundation, [...]
5Apr11
Patents on Human Genes
By: Barry Belmont
27Feb11
‘Capitalist Science’
By: Barry Belmont
The two key lifestyle choices in my life — science and ‘libertarianism’ — often coexist in a peaceful harmony with one another. Their mutual emphasis on free expression, evidence, and procuring accurate pictures of the human condition lead to a synergy in so many aspects that I’m rarely at a loss for how to approach any particular [...]
By: Barry Belmont
If you haven’t seen this yet, you should:
14Oct10
The Tragedy of the Commons
By: Barry Belmont
So for those of you interested in theory behind the experiment to be conducted today at 12:15, consider this blurb from Garrett Hardin: The rebuttal to the invisible hand in population control is to be found in a scenario first sketched in a little-known pamphlet (6) in 1833 by a mathematical amateur named William Forster Lloyd [...]
By: Barry Belmont
Recently published research out of North Carolina State University has identified a “tipping point” for national debts. That is, at a certain point in which the national debt actually begins to have an adverse effect on economic growth. The results? If a country’s public debt reaches 77 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), bad [...]
By: Barry Belmont
Taken from news.com.au. THE United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earths first contact for any aliens that may come visiting. Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN’s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference [...]
23Sep10
Vaccinations: Part 1 of Several
By: Barry Belmont
So, being an avid follower of the Skeptic’s movement for a good portion of my life, I have been bombarded with refutations of “anti-vaxers” for the past several years. For some reason, I have tried to pay it little mind, usually placating myself with “Well, it’s just a parent’s decision to raise their child” much [...]
By: Barry Belmont
There are such things as objective moral truths. For anyone who disagrees:
By: Barry Belmont
This article originally appeared on the physicsworld.com news section [hence, the British-ism in the title]. It is written by Edwin Cartlidge, a science writer based in Rome. For those of you with a particular interest in the ‘game theory’ approach to the development of social cohesion. Physicists Study How Moral Behaviour Evolved A statistical-physics-based model [...]
