On Thursday August 25th from 2:00-3:00pm Andrew Maynard will moderate a free ACS Webinar entitled, “Small is Beautiful: Everyday Applications and Advances in Nanochemistry.” The Webinar will consist of a short presentation followed by a Q&A session with speaker Dr. Paul Weiss of UCLA. The event will address questions such as: “What can we do [...]
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The materials that most current regulations were designed to handle are pretty simple by today’s standards. Sure they can do some nasty things to the environment or your body if handled inappropriately. And without a doubt some of the risks associated with these “simple” materials are not yet well understood – especially when it comes [...]
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Health systems have experienced drug shortages of epic proportion in the last several years, and it has not shown sign of it slowing down. On a daily basis, health systems across the nation find themselves faced with the challenges of adequately managing an ever-growing number of new and existing drug shortages. In 2010, 211 drug [...]
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Earlier this spring, I found myself at a restaurant with a relatively large group of other public health students. I couldn’t help but notice that one of them added a liberal amount of salt to his already-well-seasoned French fries. “You’re an epidemiologist!” I exclaimed, as surprised as if I had just seen a PETA member [...]
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I’d like to begin my first-ever blog by noting what a tremendous honor and opportunity it is for me to join the faculty of the University of Michigan Risk Science Center. Risk has been a part of my life for years, from enjoying the board game Risk™ as a child, to taking every imaginable risk [...]
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In yesterday’s New York Times, Andrew Revkin reposted an excerpt from David Ropeik’s book “How Risky Is It, Really?” His purpose was to draw attention to Ropeik’s concern that society needs to figure out how to manage people with “poor” risk perceptions: Ropeik put the question thusly: How does society deal with the dangers of [...]
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Students at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health complete an internship in the summer between their first and second years in the program. Students travel far and wide to work on some of the most important issues in public health today. A few months ago we asked students working in areas related to human health [...]
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What keeps you awake at night? Or glued to Twitter? Or surfing the news feeds? We’re putting together the next series of Risk Science Unplugged discussions, and would love to have your ideas on important issues affecting public health – from risk scares, to making informed decisions on risks and benefits, to the latest research [...]
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Since the 1940s, the well-known magazine, Highlights for Children, has had a popular column that attempts to socialize children into behaving in ways that follow Western mores. The two children in the cartoons, Goofus and Gallant, are proxies for the archetypes of bad and good behavior, respectively. Goofus will take more apples than he is [...]
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The Risk Science Center has just launched its new profile on Vimeo. Take a look at the first videos we’ve posted on our four new channels: Risk Science Unplugged, 2005 Risk Science Symposium – Calculation to Communication, 2007 Risk Science Symposium – Nanotechnology and Health, and 2009 Risk Science Symposium – Air Toxics. Make sure to check [...]
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In the planning stages since 2006, a major revision the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’s chemical hazard communication standard is now scheduled for September 2011, according to a regulatory agenda released yesterday. The revision is expected to make extensive changes in requirements for chemical labels and safety data sheets, with the goal of [...]
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The journal Nature has just published a commentary of mine on the dangers of defining engineered nanomaterials for regulatory purposes (doi:10.1038/475031a). As the piece is behind a paywall, I thought it worth posting an early draft here. It’s not as well developed as the final commentary, but I don’t think it reads too badly. For [...]
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Last month the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration all released documents concerning the regulation of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials. Today the New Haven Independent quoted UMRSC Director, Andrew Maynard, in an article on the possible outcomes of these new guidelines. We hope you enjoy reading the article, and look [...]
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Yesterday Andrew Maynard chatted with Alex Hogg of Moneyweb Radio about the implications of emerging nanotechnologies. You can check out the full text or read an excerpt below. Click here to listen to the interview. ALEC HOGG: In future we’ll be getting a monthly update on the small stuff from nanotechnology guru Dr Andrew [...]
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Lord Voldemort’s Demise: Where He Went Wrong
by Mark Stewart on July 23, 2011
It is in the nature of humans, I think, for us to look back and attempt to rewrite history. We try to answer questions such as “What lessons can be learned?” and “What mistakes were made?” In this vein, with the release of the last Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part [...]
Tagged as: Harry Potter, public health
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