Cancer breakthrough — or nightmare? (CNN)
A simple blood test that detects minute quantities of cancer cells in the blood “could just as easily start a cancer epidemic. … The conventional wisdom is people either have a disease or they do not. But, in fact, there are a lot of people somewhere in between.” H. Gilbert Welch on overdiagnosis.
Intelligence and physical attractiveness (Science Direct)
If women prefer intelligent men because they have higher incomes and status, and if men prefer physically attractive females, eventually the two traits merge. Study finds physically attractive people are more intelligent.
Programmed for Love (Chronicle)
New Sherry Turkle book “Alone Together.” The growing trend in robotics to create machines that act as if they’re alive could lead us to place machines in roles that only humans should fill. Plus effects of social media on young people. “Although always connected, they feel deprived of attention.”
BMJ Blasts Lancet Role in MMR-Autism Scare (MedPage Today)
Brian Deer and the Lancet have at each other, tabloid style. Takeaway: There should be new procedures for enforcing ethical standards of medical research.
Damage of ‘False-Positive’ Mammograms Overlooked: Study (Businessweek)
Study finds false positives can cause anxiety and undermine the quality of life for up to a year, especially in those already anxious.
But Will It All Make Mommy Happy? (NYT)
Latest installment in the Asians-make-better-mommies-war. Janet Maslin reviews “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” “A diabolically well-packaged, highly readable screed ostensibly about the art of obsessive parenting. … Ms. Chua’s memoir is about one little narcissist’s book-length search for happiness.”
Amy Chua Is a Wimp (NYT)
David Brooks’ assessment of attacks on Tiger Mom. Chua plays into America’s fear of national decline. Her childrearing practices are exactly what upper-middle-class American parents do. “Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls.”
Image: UC Press
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