atoms into suns

A bunch of news items have grabbed my attention recently, so I figured I'd clump them all together here.

Researchers tested drugs on foster kids

By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found.

The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren't yet available in the marketplace.

The practice ensured that foster children - mostly poor or minority - received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.

What?!?!? Have we lost all sense of scientific ethics? Back when the story about researchers feeding mentally retarded kids radioactive cereal in the 1940s and 1950s came out, I thought that that sort of thing couldn't happen nowadays. Once again my faith in humanity takes a beating.

Do games and bad UIs account for rising IQs?

In this month's Wired, Steven Johnson talks about the fact that IQ scores have been on the rise for decades now, and seem to be accelerating. IQ testing companies need to "re-normalize" their tests every couple years, making them harder so that the average score remains about 100. There's lots of controversy over what, if anything IQ results mean, but Steven makes the point that IQ tests are certainly measuring something. Moreover, the area in which the general population is testing better are those tests that focus on reasoning out puzzles that resemble bad user-interfaces and/or video games.

If IQ scores keep going up, why do SAT scores keep going down? Because we're too busy playing games and programming VCRs and not busy enough reading and doing math? Naaah.

Student Organizes Time Traveler Conference

BOSTON - Attention, time travelers: Amal Dorai hopes you enjoyed the party he's throwing this weekend. Dorai, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is hosting a Time Traveler Convention on campus this Saturday. Make plans now, because it's the last such party.

This, this is why I lived in East Campus. I miss this kind of weirdness.

Trivia note: In the picture in the article, immediately behind his head is the door I used to go out every day on my way to class! Yay!