Last week, I had the honor of attending a memorial service at the University of Illinois for Dr. Fred Kummerow, a long-“retired” but never inactive member of the department I headed for almost 10 years. Fred was an inspiration to me personally to always remain physically and mentally active, and yes, limit my consumption of French fries!
I can’t think of a better way to note today’s March for Science on Earth Day than to highlight TED.com’s
Playlist of Jaw-Dropping Scientific Breakthroughs
https://www.ted.com/playlists/484/jaw_dropping_science_breakthro
Do something for evidence-based science, and for the Earth, and humanity.
Shurtz et al. recently published “Teaching Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine in the U.S. and Canada” in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.
A Stanford University study, reported by the Wall Street Journal and summarized in the following video link, demonstrated that 82% of almost 8000 students from elementary school through college cannot distinguish real from fake news.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a series of articles, some viewable without a subscription, about our “post-truth” world as it relates to discourse of any sort, but, in particular, how it affects and should be viewed by educators. Regardless of where you fall in the political spectrum, the recommendations at the end of the following article by Daniel T. Rodgers call for a return to full discourse about what constitutes “truth” in science.
The title speaks for itself! However, isn’t that what we should be teaching our future medical professionals every day? Veterinary medicine has the perhaps unique distinction of the “one and done” phenomen, where a study is done, and even if underpowered with inadequate cases, such a study is rarely repeated as it might be in human medicine. As a result, veterinarians, even going on “best evidence,” need to realize how razor thin some of this evidence actually is!