top story in September-October 2009
The Meaning of ‘Boo’
What happens when witches meet wonks? With Halloween approaching, Miller-McCune’s skeleton staff digs up some facts about the haunted holiday.
Shedding Light on Ice Hockey Blackouts
Miller-McCune magazine highlights current research that merits a raised eyebrow or a painful grin.
The Ancestor Hunter
The University of Arizona’s Michael Hammer is using advanced DNA techniques to figure out where we came from. Which, apparently, is not just one place, or even one species.
Racism, the Stressor
Readers are impressed and distressed by the idea that racism ages blacks before their time.
Faux Better or Worse
To save water, some cities let residents replace grass lawns with artificial turf. Environmentalists call for xeriscaping. Aesthetes wince.
Botox for the Brain
A Harvard psychologist argues that our mindless acceptance of stereotypes leads to premature aging.
From Sewage to Artichokes
Wastewater recycling and other water-efficiency programs are saving aquifers and helping a famed produce industry thrive.
The Un-Banging of Middle America
To chase street gangs out of suburbia, adults will have to make a dramatic change: They’ll have to start paying attention to the culture their children live in.
Soft Measures
You don’t always need a standardized test to know a school is in trouble. Just look in the boys’ john.
archive
Computer Error?
There appear to be cheaper, more effective ways to improve education in developing nations than the glitzy One Laptop per Child program.
An Iodine Chaser
In the capricious world of nuclear waste, a scientist focuses on promising technologies for the capture and storage of the maddeningly elusive iodine-129.
Breaking the Minority Attorney Drought
Why it’s time to minimize use of the LSAT in law school admissions.
The Panhandle Paradox
Are The St. Joe Company’s development plans for huge swaths of timberland in northwest Florida an environmentally sensitive ‘New Ruralism’ or a serious threat to irreplaceable ecosystems? Perhaps both.
Mental Problems
New book Healing the Broken Mind by Timothy Kelly demonstrates how to begin fixing America’s utterly failed mental health care system.
Playing Chicken With Antibiotic Resistance
The FDA bans injecting chicken eggs with antibiotics as a human health threat but backs down when industry groups — known collectively as ‘Big Chicken’ — squawk.
The Change I Almost Couldn’t Believe In
If the politicians in a sharp-elbowed place like Houston can work across party lines, why can’t yours?
Karl Marx and American Health Care
As the Germans and French have shown, a ‘public option’ for health insurance needn’t give government a socialistic monopoly.
The Ecstasy and the Agony
MDMA holds promise as part of a therapy that helps post-traumatic stress patients confront and extinguish their fears. But ecstasy’s recreational reputation has slowed research.
related to September-October 2009
politics
- Republicans Like Candidates Who Look Republican
- I Gave It a Nudge But It Won’t Budge
- Unconscious Bias Amplifies Anti-Obama Rhetoric
- Uncle Sam’s Hand on Your Salt Shaker
- The Genetics of Political Intensity
business
- Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
- Does Black History Need More Than a Month?
- Republicans Like Candidates Who Look Republican
- A Masterful Look at Anti-Apartheid
- Was Lou Gehrig’s ALS Caused by Tap Water?
science
- Charting Genomes: Old Hairs Create New Headaches
- A Light Bulb Moment in the Brain
- Scientists Find Missing Drink, umm, Link
- Humankind’s Ascent Took Path of Yeast Resistance
- Scientists Take Charles Darwin on the Road
culture
media
- Across the Science Gap
- Too Much Testosterone?
- Digital Disappearance
- Stereotypical Images Can Overwhelm a Nuanced Text
- Join the News Hunt
legal affairs
- LAPD Cracks Cold Cases With Science, Grit
- Breast Cancer Court Case Pits Patients’ Genes vs. Gene Patents
- ‘Toughness’ on Crime Linked to Racial Resentment
- Crimes, Damn Crimes and Statistics About Crimes
- Keystone Cops at the Police Lab
environment
- Grasslands Preserve the Lonely Prairie
- Phosphorus and the Oxygen Connection
- How Urban Planning Can Improve Public Health
- Faux Better or Worse
- Environment Becomes Heredity
health
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from the source
Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.
‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.
The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.
Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.
Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.
Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.
Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.
Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.
Hall of fame
Slugging — The People’s Transit
In Washington, D.C., commuters have taken thousands of cars off highways via a homegrown rideshare system known as “slugging.” Can the government create more slugs — without stepping on any?
Bacteria ‘R’ Us
Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.
A New Take on Political Ideology
An evolutionary psychologist proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs.
The Real Science Gap
It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
