What is the science behind the global warming produced by CO2?
“This spring, a team led by Robin Wordsworth of Harvard University figured out why the CO2 molecule is so good at trapping heat in the first place. The researchers identified a strange quirk of the molecule’s quantum structure that explains why it’s such a powerful greenhouse gas — and why pumping more carbon into the sky drives climate change. … global warming is tied to a numerical coincidence involving two different ways that CO2 can wiggle.”
From Quanta, Physicists Pinpoint the Quantum Origin of the Greenhouse Effect
With the election in the rearview mirror, perhaps now is a good time to reconsider how we vote.
“The debates over which is the best voting system will probably never end. Indeed, voting theory itself tells us that multi-dimensional choice is always subject to some infirmities and people may differ on which infirmities they are willing to accept. Nevertheless, we can conclude that plurality rule is a very undesirable voting system and the case for the Borda Count is strong.”
What is the Borda Count? From Marginal Revolution, The Borda Count is the Best Method of Voting
Can the road to hell be paved with good intentions? What if the intention was to save lives?
“Society has decreed that the death of a seaman is intolerable. So we have set up the Ocean Safety Directorate (OSD). The OSD's job is seaman safety. The OSD gets no credit for all the economic benefits associated with cheap ocean transportation. But if a single crew member is lost at sea, the OSD will have failed at its job, and its employees will suffer the consequences.”
From the Gordian Knot, What if tanker crew deaths are intolerable?
I finished my medical training long ago, before White Coat ceremonies and all the other pomp and circumstance – graduating was enough. But today, medical schools feel a need to celebrate crossing some liminal threshold between citizen and physician as described here.
“We pledge to ourselves to commit to integrity, humility, and wonder in both our learning and in our service of patients, to have the courage to be vulnerable and acknowledge our innate privileges, and to continuously address our implicit biases,” the Class of 2028 began their oath among their medical and dental peers last year. They wore their new white coats presented days earlier in a ceremony with family and friends.”
What is that all about? From Medscape, Lost in Modern Medicine: What Happened to the Hippocratic Oath?
Chuck Dinerstein, MD, MBA
Director of Medicine
Dr. Charles Dinerstein, M.D., MBA, FACS is Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. He has over 25 years of experience as a vascular surgeon.
