We’re back with another installment of Spotlight on Science. Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb (University of California, San Diego) talks about her research into how the chemical compound Coenzyme Q10 could benefit Gulf War veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness (GWI). Her article is among the most popular from the journal Neural Computation over the last year, according to Altmetric Explorer. Read the article for free on our SOS page.

How did you first become familiar with Gulf War Illness (GWI)? Has there been a significant increase recently in awareness of this condition?

I first heard about the condition in the mid-1990s, around the time reports came out on the condition from the Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) and Institute of Medicine (IOM). I was immediately concerned that the demands for evidence differed radically for postulated physiological vs. psychological causes. Where postulated “organic” (physiological) causes were considered, the bar was high: absence of evidence for a causal role was construed as evidence of absence of a role. Moreover, they hadn’t looked hard for evidence—e.g. omitting consideration of animal studies, the primary setting in which controlled exposure to toxins is allowed. In contrast, for hypothesized stress and psychological causes, mere suggestion of a role was deemed sufficient proof. No evidence was required that those with more stress were more likely to become ill. No demands were made for evidence that people in other historical settings with similar psychological stress, without the chemical stress, had become similarly ill, etc.*

In honor of Alan Turing's 104th birthday Chris Bernhardt, author of Turing's Vision: The Birth of Computer Science, discusses the pioneer's groundbreaking research paper and how it shaped modern computing.

On June 23, 1912, one of the founders of computer science, Alan Turing was born. He is now famous, having been portrayed on stage by Derek Jacobi and in film by Benedict Cumberbatch. He is well known for his work during the Second World War on code breaking that was pivotal in the Allied powers’ victory, and also for his test to determine whether human intelligence is distinguishable from that of machine intelligence. We all know of his arrest and prosecution for being gay, and for the chemical castration that followed, and we know of his tragic death by cyanide poisoning. But not many people outside of computer science are aware of the groundbreaking paper he published in 1936.

Two days ago a federal appeals court upheld an earlier F.C.C. decision to label broadband technology a utility, maintaining net neutrality. Regulating Code authors Ian Brown and Christopher T. Marsden offer their take on the decision.

On June 14, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals upheld the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) right to regulate Internet Access Providers (IAPs) as common carriers. This confirms the US agency’s power to regulate IAPs to ensure users can access the content, applications, and services they wish without interference from their access provider: what is known as net neutrality. It is part of a wider international regulatory trend to support user rights and prevent interference with Internet traffic. However, as we showed in Regulating Code (2013), this regulatory trend is counteracted by the controlling tendency of the technologies deployed by the national security state and private surveillance partners. Our book was published only months prior to Edward Snowden’s revelations about cooperation between Five Eyes nations (including the USA, Canada and UK) and their corporate partners to conduct mass surveillance, and our warnings that net neutrality cannot be disentangled from privacy, surveillance, copyright enforcement, state censorship, and the role of social media, have come home to roost.

Last week’s post for Pride Month featured an excerpt from David Getsy’s Queer. Continuing our celebration, we went deep into our backlist to bring you Simon LeVay and Elisabeth Nonas’ City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America. City of Friends, written in 1995, explores the diversity of the various gay communities that existed at the time. Aside from surveying the various communities, LeVay and Nonas examine topics surrounding this vibrant group, including history, health, culture, and rights. Published at a time of increasing acceptance from the general public, yet many years before the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, City of Friends provided a unique perspective from one of the most diverse communities in the United States. The following is an excerpt from the Preface of City of Friends.