Are you feeling under the weather? Why not feed a cold and starve a fever…or is it starve a cold feed a fever? Somewhere along the line, the phrasing of this popular dictum got switched around to ‘feed a fever starve a cold,’ adding more puzzlement to an already befuddled issue. Photo credit: Lily Monster ‘Starve a fever feed a cold’ is the original logic, dating back to the pre-scientific Dark Ages.

In science, objective observation is the gold standard - at least, that’s what most undergrads hear in every science class. But what exactly is the difference between objective vs. subjective? Since concepts are much easier to explain in context, let’s start with some definitions and then look at an example of how they migjht apply in real life. Pathologists making objective observations Definition of Subjective The Merriam-Webster dictionary, defines subjective as:

For the past decade, the internet has been swirling with rumors and anecdotes linking routine vaccinations with devastating illnesses, especially autism. Some have even claimed that routine vaccinations are responsible for HIV. Smallpox Vaccine (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The National Committee on Quality Assurance – a nonprofit that tracks the quality of health care – has reported that the number of children being properly immunized while on private healthcare plans declined by 3.