Blog Profile / Percolator
| URL : | http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics | |
| Posts on Regator: | 135 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.4 | |
| Archived Since: | July 6, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
Flu Vaccine Gets a Passing Grade, Barely
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the vaccine was working, one critic called the evidence mixed. He also said the CDC wasn't paying enough attention to the dangerous illness.
The Philosophers That Philosophers Like Best
Nietzsche or Wittgenstein? Plato or Aristotle? Hobbes or Hume? Top thinkers name a dream team.
The Never-Ending War Over a Gun Statistic
A single number has provoked a dispute for nearly two decades between two researchers who don't respect each other very much.
The Bible: Morally Bankrupt or Totally Reliable
At a joint meeting of the the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, you get wildly different views of the goodness of the Good Book.
Did Obama Let the Left Down?
Cornel West has called Obama a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.” At a weekend gathering of scholars of religion, the tone was less harsh, but mixed.
Top-Ranked Journals Are Losing Their Share of Top-Cited Articles
Internet searches and online article databases are thought to be factors in the trend, according to a new study.
The Poll Quants Won the Election
The handful of forecasters who aggregated and crunched polling data were really, really accurate. Have the nerds defeated the gut-feeling punditry once and for all?
The Rise of the Poll Quants (or, the Demise of the TV Pundits)
The Princeton neuroscientist Sam Wang says he will "eat a really big bug" if Mitt Romney wins Ohio in Tuesday's election. Here's what Wang and a new breed of poll aggregators know that David Brooks apparently doesn't.
Academic Research Destroys Stock Values
After papers on trading strategies are published, the value of trades using those strategies slides by 35 percent.
Can Storms Sway Elections?
An author of a new paper on how disasters and other factors affect elections talks about possible political fallout from Hurricane Sandy.
The Researcher Behind the Ovulation Voting Study Responds
The social psychologist Kristina Durante addresses the harsh criticism of her study that links women's voting preferences to their fertility levels.
Has Philosophy Really Lost Its Bite?
The physicist Freeman Dyson thinks so. And, as it happens, so do some philosophers.
Scientists Step Closer Toward Healing Spinal-Cord Injuries
Some unusual methods for treating paralysis in animals show neuroscientists' new thinking about nerve damage.
Daniel Kahneman Sees ‘Train-Wreck Looming’ for Social Psychology
The Nobel laureate at Princeton University also thinks that a "Nature" headline distorted his views, and that it may cost him friendships.
Vegetarian Dinosaurs—With Fangs
The discovery of a tiny dinosaur with large canines breaks the link between teeth and diet.
The Lessons of Jesus’ Wife
What Harvard's Karen King has learned in the two whirlwind weeks since she revealed a controversial piece of papyrus.
Misconduct, Not Error, Found Behind Most Journal Retractions
The high rate of fraud should be yet another warning that universities and grant makers rely too heavily on publication rates as a measure of scientific performance, say the authors of a new paper.
College President Takes a Dive
Nova Southeastern University opened a new coral-reef research center, prompting its president to plunge into a coral nursery.
Duke Graduate Student Unlocks ‘Mystery of the Lost Sonata’
A work once attributed to the celebrated composer Felix Mendelssohn turns out to have been by his sister. Finding the manuscript to prove it was a separate detective story.
Why Lies Often Stick Better than Truth
There is no good reason to believe vaccines cause autism. The 1998 paper in The Lancet that championed the link was immediately pilloried and later withdrawn as fraudulent. Its author, British physician Andrew J. Wakefield, was found guilty of dishonesty and abuse of developmentally disabled children by the British General Medical Council. Show More Summary