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Not enough has been made of the expletive-laced response from Mr Bunning in response to the plea to extend unemployment benefits. Given the economic evidence that unemployment benefits help the economy - by improving consumer spending - the GOP continues to fight them. Is this because they don't want the economy to improve, since it would help Obama and the Democrats?

These are worrying developments for the future of science education in our schools, and therefore for the future of science in this country. Politics and religious beliefs are being used to control education. Parents and politicians don't like what the facts say, and so they don't want their children exposed to the scientific basis for these findings.

There is an interesting and critical opinion piece today in the NY Times, inspired by the movie 'The Hurt Locker'. I've heard other comments on the hurt locker too - particularly that some service members feel it portrays them as unprofessional cowboys when they feel they are anything but.

The NY Times had an opinion piece on the NYPD's policy of 'stop, question, frisk'. This policy is clearly being applied racially: African-Americans constitute 25% of the city's inhabitants but made up 52% of the stops. Whites, despite making up 44% of the city's population, represented just 10% of the stops. In over 88% of the stops, the person stopped was doing nothing wrong.

The NY Times had a great article on the Origin of HeLa cells, a commonly used cell line that anyone who has spent time in a lab recognizes. Sadly, the tremendous value of this resource came at a price of patient rights and consent. It was a different era for consents and patients rights, but as scientists we should still take notice.

A flawed study linking autism and vaccines has finally be retracted, although not before it was used by the anti-vaccine lobby to justify endangering millions of children by frightening their parents into opting out the vaccine. Predictably, autism rates did not decline but cases of preventable childhood diseases increased...