Scientific Method, Anti-Foundationalism, and Public Decision-making

An examination of the legitimacy of attacks on lay assessments of environmental or other technological Risk. The case is made that rational policy requires an epistemology in which what we believe about Risk is bootstrapped onto how we should act concerning Risk

Workplace Pollution: Nuclear Safety, Ethics, and the Exploitation--Avoidance Argument

The author reviews evidence of poor worker health and safety practices in United States Department of Energy nuclear facilities in contending that less protective standards for workplace hazards constitute an environmental injustice not rectified by a hazard pay premium

Fragmentation In The First Galaxies

Using a one-zone model, we study the gravitational fragmentation of baryonic cold streams flowing into a typical first galaxy at high redshift to predict the expected fragmentation mass scale and thus a characteristic mass of the first population of stars to form by shock fragmentation. In this simplified model, we bypass the resolution barrier in simulations of progalaxy formation and directly probe the fragmentation mass scale of accreting gas streams. We find the fragmentation mass scale to be most strongly dependent on the metallicity of the gas and the background Lyman-Werner radiation field, and that either a large cluster of solar mass fragments or one large (10(5) M(circle dot)) fragment forms.Astronom

How Some Risk Frameworks Disenfranchise the Public

The author responds to recent characterizations of her work

The South Shore Food Hub : a jump start for the northwest Indiana local food system

This creative project proposes an intervention, specifically a food hub, which will strengthen the local food system in Northwest Indiana. The design of the proposed intervention draws from theorists and practitioners influential to the fields of landscape architecture and planning. The nature of the intervention is influenced by a review of relevant research on local food systems, food systems data and statistics, the history of the region, and local food system stakeholder input.Department of Landscape ArchitectureThesis (M.L.A.

Risk Estimation and Expert Judgment: The Case of Yucca Mountain

Professor Shrader-Frechette discusses factors responsible for acute disagreement between the federal government and Nevada citizens over potential Risks at Yucca Mountain and focuses on the use of expert judgment, concluding that some of them appear to exemplify bad science. That aside, she argues that 1,000 year predictions cannot be made from current knowledge of geology or, e.g., institutional behavior and concludes that permanent disposal of radioactive waste is currently impossible

Book Review

Review of the following: ELAINE DRAPER, Risky BUSINESS: GENETIC TESTING AND EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICES IN THE HAZARDOUS WORKPLACE. (Cambridge University Press 1991) [315 pp.] Index of names and subjects, glossary, notes, references. LC 90-28112; ISBN 0-521-37027-2 (cloth $49.50); ISBN 0-42248-5 (paper$15.95). [40 W. 20th St., New York NY 10011.

Evaluating the Expertise of Experts

Professor Shrader-Frechette maintains that a rigid distinction between risk assessment and risk management is unwise. Concerned about procedural fairness, she argues that the public should have a voice in both