Who knew that the US Government and various states had commissioned hundreds of comic books? Richard Graham, librarian at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, knew, and he assembled a collection of more than 180 digitized examples on the UNL website. Charles Schutlz (Peanuts), Hank Ketcham (Dennis the Menace), and Chic Young (Blondie) were just three of the artists who turned in stints as civil service cartoonists. Topics ranged from the benefits of treating children for lazy eye, to the wonders of DDT in the battle against malaria. Dennis the Menace had a thing or three to teach the Mitchell family about household safety. The...

22 December, 2009
peanuts-csWriting in the New Scientist, David Nutt, recently fired as chair of Britain's scientific advisory council on the misuse of drugs, offers cogent thoughts on the nature of scientific advice to government. Moneyquote:
I can trace the beginning of the end of my role as chairman of the UK's official advisory body on drugs to the moment I quoted a New Scientist editorial (14 February, p 5). Entitled, fittingly enough, "Drugs drive politicians out of their minds", the editorial asked the reader to imagine being seated at a table with two bowls, one containing peanuts, the other the illegal drug MDMA (ecstasy). Which is safer to give to a stranger? Why, the ecstasy of course. I quoted these words in the Eve Saville lecture at King's College London in July. This example plus other comments I have made – such as horse riding is more harmful than ecstasy – prompted Alan Johnson, the home secretary, to say that I had crossed the line from science to policy. This, he said, is why I had to go. But simple, accurate and understandable statements of scientific fact are precisely what the advisory council is supposed to provide...
More after the jump.
08 November, 2009