06 MAR 2016 by ideonexus

 Fever Reducing Medicines Increase the Spread of Infection

To put our lower bound for fp into perspective, consider that approximately 41 400 (95% CI: 27 100–55 700) deaths per year are attributed to seasonal influenza epidemics in the United States [43] (and an order of magnitude more worldwide [44]). Taken at face value, our results indicate, for example, that if Embedded Image then at least 700 deaths per year (95% CI: 30–2100) (and many more serious illnesses) could be prevented in the US alone by avoiding antipyretic medication for the treatment...
Folksonomies: medicine fever influenza
Folksonomies: medicine fever influenza
  1  notes
 
15 APR 2011 by ideonexus

 Facts We Learn as Children Aren't Supposed to Change

People who don't know a lot about science treasure what they do know, what they learned early as children, like: a) Eskimos have lots of words for snow. b) Wait 20 minutes after lunch before going swimming. c) There are nine planets, and the ninth one is Pluto.d) The biggest dinosaur ever was the Brontosaurus.e) Triceratops was the one with the three horns.f) T-rex was awesome. One of the nice things about growing up is you don't have to spend time thinking about planets, digestion or awes...
Folksonomies: science facts
Folksonomies: science facts
  1  notes

When we learn things as children, we take those things as face value. So when science finds new evidence that changes those facts, we find it very challenging to give up the beliefs we thought were immutable.