The death of Margaret Thatcher (British prime minister from 1979 – 1990) last week has taken over the UK media. Margaret Thatcher was unusual in many respects, including being both a politician and a scientist. Mrs Thatcher possessed a chemistry degree from Oxford and worked in the chemical industry before becoming an MP.
The threat from antibiotic resistance should be treated as seriously as the threat from terrorism and climate change, said the UK’s Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies this week.
At 8:30pm on March 23rd it will be Earth Hour, when people across the world will be turning out the lights. Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture to highlight the environmental challenges facing the world with actions springing from the international campaign.
Statistics does perhaps have an image problem. Ask people what they think of statistics, and you are likely to get some negative responses. The public does not (very broadly speaking) understand statistics and probability. Neither do many politicians. The media can manipulate statistics and misrepresent data. As a science, statistics is seen as complicated, dull, geeky and even irrelevant.
Hurricane Sandy, sweeping the East Coast of the USA, has been predicted with great accuracy. The people in New York and surrounding areas were evacuated where necessary; the authorities gave a clear and unambiguous message and the loss of life has been minimal. Buildings have on the whole survived intact, a testament to building standards in New York State.
Science was not mentioned very often in the latest heated presidential US debate, but look a little behind the scenes and you will find matters of science and technology are being hotly debated.
Scientific misconduct is the reason for two-thirds of retractions of scientific research papers, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the USA.
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