That infamous line from Star Wars is just one of many popular suggestions that truth is in the eye of the beholder. "One man's trash is another man's treasure." "Missing the forest for the trees." The film Rashomon and its numerous imitators. The parable of the blind men describing just the part of an elephant they can touch. The meme of two people standing on either side of a numeral which could either be a 9 or a 6. Our language and our culture are rich with illustrations of how perspective and perception shape our … [Read more...] about Science Corner: “From a Certain Point of View”
public health
Science Corner: Double Check, Please!
Content warning: discussion of substance use and overdoses "Find the differences between these two pictures" is a classic children's activity--and now a popular meme format from The Office. Maybe sometimes it is just something to the pass the time, but one can certainly imagine that it's good practice for focused attention and visual discernment, not to mention basics like counting and color recognition for the younger kiddos. Sometimes it can be a job for adults, too. Such was the nature of the task I was given a … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Double Check, Please!
Science Corner: A “Have-Done” Attitude
I've had the chance to watch more baseball this season than usual, specifically New York Mets games. Baseball lends itself to extensive data collection and precise situational adjustments. For example, teams can record where each individual hitter tends to hit the ball when thrown different types of pitches. When a given hitter has strong tendencies in one direction, the other team can shift their defense to that side and possibly adjust their pitching to favor that tendency. Opposing teams were making those kinds of … [Read more...] about Science Corner: A “Have-Done” Attitude
Science Corner: A Measure of Health
Last week we looked at the challenges of using racial categories for assessing health risks and making treatment decisions. One of the alternatives proposed is to substitute measures of health indicators for racial categories, to move away from contingent causes and towards more proximal biological markers. Among the common and readily obtainable metrics are weight and the related body mass index (BMI). Here again, correlations do exist between weight & BMI and health outcomes, but also, a single measure fails to … [Read more...] about Science Corner: A Measure of Health
Science Corner: Silent Science
This week, I'm (virtually) attending the annual meeting of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), one of the largest gatherings of folks doing the day-to-day work of public health in the United States. Yes, there is plenty of COVID-19 discussion, but that is far from the only topic. Each day there are hundreds of talks and posters about investigations, research, and applied science that will never make headlines. We are all probably more aware than we'd like to be about public health activities … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Silent Science