The Biologist - pdf's for media

The Biologist - Vol 58 No 3 - September 2011:

Click here to see the Opinion Piece by Aric Sigman on day care.

The above paper, authored by Dr Aric Sigman, has received a great deal of media attention, and has sparked a nationwide debate about childcare in very young children.

Some news reports have distorted or exaggerated the nature and content of this article, always a risk when authors broach sensitive and uncomfortable topics. In addition, there has been debate about whether Dr Sigman himself has distorted the evidence in his paper.

Dr Sigman has released a statement relating to the article:
“The express intent of this article is to provide readers with the under-acknowledged and often uncomfortable findings of bioscience studies on day care. I selected studies that were generally negative precisely because most biologists and policy makers are unaware of the existence of these studies. The intent is to redress an existing imbalance in the perception of day care as a 'complex, waiting to be understood - but at the moment benign’ lifestyle practice. An article of this type cannot possibly deal with all the various viewpoints and complexities involved in the area and so by definition the article is limited to the main thrust of my argument.”

Dr Sigman’s work is based on reputable research from respected scientific journals.
The Society of Biology welcomes debate on controversial issues, and we have actively engaged with the Science Media Centre to ensure other views are presented. The Society does not have a view on the issue and we believe it is for readers to decide their own views on the topic. Aric Sigman does not speak for the Society and the views expressed in the article are his own.

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Click here to see the Opinion Piece by Lauren Pecorino on cancer survival.

Please note that views expressed in The Biologist are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or the Society of Biology.