Fluoxetine, the antidepressant in drugs such as Prozac and Lovan, has been found to increase the risk of birth defects when taken during pregnancy. A meta-analysis of 16 studies, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, determined that fetuses ...
More »Government’s science roadmap ‘needs fuel’: Universities Australia
The Australian Animal Health Laboratory, which hosts research into exotic livestock diseases, is just one facility flagged for upgrade under the government’s new National Research Infrastructure Roadmap. In it, chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel, the Roadmap’s chairman, identified nine research ...
More »Gay panic defence no excuse for murder: SA report
In 2003, Tasmania became the first state in Australia to repeal the use of "gay panic" as a provocation defence; and in March 2017, Queensland became the latest state to revoke its use. This leaves South Australia at odds with ...
More »Fish and microbeads study becomes fishier
Did you or someone you know shun microbeads, common in skin exfoliants, last year? If so, it was probably due to a widely-reported study, published in esteemed journal Science, that found these tiny plastic particles harmed damselfish larvae. Now, following ...
More »Scientists lack consensus on the March for Science
In 2017, vaccines are falsely linked to autism; homeopaths make millions of dollars from snake-oil treatments they claim can cure cancer; and Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier, heads the US Environmental Protection Agency. These facts paint a dystopian picture ...
More »$6 million boost for Monash partnership with children’s hospital
Monash University’s partnership with Melbourne’s Monash Children’s Hospital has been given a $6 million boost to allow medical students to learn within its walls and for clinical trials to be conducted. Monash vice-chancellor professor Margaret Gardner said these funds from ...
More »Political leaning predicts science bias
Small ‘l’ liberals are drawn to blue-sky research, while conservatives are interested in applied science, new research has concluded. The study, Millions of online book co-purchases reveal partisan differences in the consumption of science, published in the journal Nature Human ...
More »UniSA crowdfunding research into suicide prevention, stroke recovery and feral cats
The University of South Australia is pitching its research to the people via a newly announced crowdfunding project. The research that people can contribute funding to includes a project on preventing asylum seeker suicide, a study on helping stroke survivors ...
More »One-third of suspected predatory journals appoint ‘Dr Anna, a fraud’ as editor
One-third of predatory academic journals, targeted in a sting operation, appointed an editor named Dr Anna O Szust, whose name, when translated from Polish to English, means ‘Dr Anna, a fraud'. The journals, of which 120 were suspected of being ...
More »Publish or perish a minor issue, research reveals
A meta-analysis of research literature has thrown into question the commonly held assumption that science exists in a culture of 'publish or perish'. Meta-assessment of bias in science, published in the journal PNAS, found “little evidence” that biases in scientific ...
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