Browsing all posts in March, 2010.

Sacerdotal Medicine

While we make fun of premodern medicine, regularly and promiscuously (and are about to start making fun of early modern medicine, regularly and promiscuously), it is important to keep reminding ourselves that there is an end to the madness. Modern medicine has reduced our maternal mortality from 6 out of every 1000 women (the number [...]

I’m Confused…

Two studies came out recently on the pregnant brain. We all know, of course, that pregnancy turns our brains to goo. It turns competent, capable professional women into quivering masses of protoplasm. Or at least, that’s what my hubby thought. The day before the test turned positive, I was on my own, a well-seasoned doc [...]

Why Kids Believe Weird Things

Near the end of Michael Shermer’s “Why People Believe Weird Things,” a book well worth reading as we confront the issue of critical thinking skills and how they affect science education, I ran into one of the weirdest things of them all. If it weren’t backed up by tons of evidence, I might think Shermer [...]