Observer Article

Science Advisor to the Next President

The position of Presidential Science Advisor was created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in November 1957, a month after the Soviet Union stunned the United States and the world by […]... More>

Perils of Provocative Scholarship

In 2003, Nicole Taus filed a civil suit against me regarding an investigation that I conducted with Melvin Guyer, University of Michigan, into the accuracy of a published report by […]... More>

Cover Story

Talk to the Hand: New Insights into the Evolution of Language and Gesture

In his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, humorist David Sedaris chronicled his pain at trying to learn French, in France, at age 41. His commiseration with a fellow language […]... More>

Observer Article

Assessing Trauma and its Effects Without Distress: A Guide to Working with IRBs

Early in my career, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) I was working with insisted that a proposed study which included questions about sexual abuse was ethically inappropriate to conduct. The […]... More>

Observer Article

Update on NIH Peer Review Changes

As previously reported (see the December 2007 and January 2008 Observers), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is contemplating significant changes in its peer review system. Peer review has been […]... More>