How scientists communicate

Exploring how cells communicate.

Lessons from Fukushima: scientists need to communicate better.

Roy Shore was the co-chair of a scientific panel that compiled the WHO Health risk assessment from the nuclear accident after the 2011 great East Japan earthquake and tsunami released in February. He talks to Fiona Fleck about the challenges of producing valid science in a highly charged environment.

How scientists explain disease

In spite of its beguiling title and glowing blurb on the dust jacket, medical historians are likely to find this work remorselessly presentist, historically inaccurate and very hard going. It is the sort of book that gives philosophy of science something worse than a bad name. Besides the roller-coaster ride between technical philosophy and banal simplifications there is an unreconstructed real...

How clinician-scientists think.

Science is a human activity and like all human activities, it has its share of drama and pathos. The scientific product is often an interaction of certain ways of thinking, personality traits, and circumstances. This essay examines these factors and how the melding of that could lead to breakthrough discoveries. It may in some instances, go wrong, or take a morally ambiguous path.

How to communicate with vaccine-hesitant parents.

Development of safe and effective vaccines is one the greatest medical triumphs. However, despite high immunization rates in the United States, 85% of health care providers (HCPs) will have a parent refuse a vaccine for his or her child each year. HCPs have the greatest influence on a parent's decision to vaccinate his or her child. To effectively communicate with vaccine-hesitant parents, HCPs...