In the early days of Science 2.0, blogging did not get a lot of institutional respect. Public outreach was a waste of time, academics were often told, leave that to science journalists and the PIOs at schools who write press releases.

It seemed archaic. Anyone who knows how much of science is government-funded, about a third of basic research, knows that means it is political. Which means you cannot and should not let someone else write your narrative. It's too easy to manipulate. A decade ago, when a group wrote to Columbia University and asked them to remove Dr. Oz from the faculty because of his claims about supplements and that medicine was a corporate conspiracy, he got allies in corporate journalism to dismiss us as Big Pharma shills.(1)

Due to President Clinton's 1994 DSHEA law (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994), and diverting science funding to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a large number of people believe acupuncture works and that supplements can be alternatives to medicine.

Acupuncture is the placebo effect but some natural products can work - the problem is that if they work they may do something bad. Kratom is an example of a product banned in countries that grow it; unless it is for export to the United States. They know that it works, and also that it can kill Godzilla.

From Los Angeles to Portland to New York City, political protests have become common. That provides data for what may be happening in brains and how engaged people can avoid becoming a Tyler Robinson or Luigi Mangione or Antifa in Oregon.

The US is not special when it comes to protests, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says there have been over 140 mass demonstrations globally in the past year, with 30 ongoing.

A new paper(1) says  up to 80% of activists experience moderate to severe anxiety or depression. Are they protesting because they are anxious or are they anxious because they spend time in a group of protesters? 

When you picture a black hole, you probably picture in the center of a galaxy with matter swirling toward it. You're not wrong but that is why the exception proves the rule.

A recent study detected a surprising tidal disruption event where a black hole outside the center of a galaxy is tearing apart a star. Even stranger and defiance of black hole lore, the delayed and powerful radio outbursts suggest previously unknown processes in how black holes eject material over time. Designated AT 2024tvd, it is to-date the fastest-evolving radio emission ever observed from a black-hole-driven stellar disruption.

The process by which the nervous system continuously receives and interprets the body’s physiological signals to keep vital functions running smoothly, a "sixth sense" called interoception that tells your brain when you need to breathe, when your blood pressure declines or when you have an infection, is getting some star power; a Nobel laureate neuroscientist.

And an NIH grant.

A cross-sectional analysis of emergency Medicaid expenditures from data in the 2022 Medicaid Budget and Expenditure System found that of the 38 states plus Washington, DC, was nominal compared to overall spending.

There are confounders. Not all states allow it and 11 did not report emergency Medicaid spending on illegal immigrants and some, like California, now give health care for free to anyone regardless of their legal status, which means the $9 billion on emergency room care for illegal immigrants in 2024 is 70% due to that one state. Total Medicaid costs for illegal immigrants during 2021-2024 were $16 billion but this paper did not include other public spending.

Everybody wonders what will happen with artificial intelligence (AI). Truly, it could go in any of several ways. This column lays out possible scenarios.

Scenario-building is usually a group activity, however. So I invite your views on the driving forces and possible additional scenarios.

The next time someone tries to tell you ancient folk medicine was equivalent to modern science, remind them that people once consumed other humans as part of legal trade. Apothecaries sold powdered mummies, or at least what they claimed were powdered mummies, because of belief in medical cannibalism and that it cured everything from headaches to the plague.

Take that, antibiotics, your job could have been done by ground-up skulls.

Samhain, All Hallows Evening. Hallowe'en, Halloween. The name has changed but the world’s fascination with a day of spooks and scares has never wavered. Except it has also always been about harvests and farming and food.

It may seem odd to lump together food and ghosts but that is Halloween in a cultural nutshell; a confusing mash-up of cultures and beliefs. That is actually a good thing. It is evidence for how creating melting pots of people who become one community is better than a salad bowl where no one wants to include outside groups in their customs.

In 1956, prize-winning puppeteer Shari Lewis appeared on the Captain Kangaroo children's show and debuted a new...well, it was basically a sock with eyes.(1) She called it Lamb Chop, though, and her ventriloquism was a big hit with kids.

Imagine what she would think if she knew Lamb Chop toys were a big hit with dogs.

It's a science mystery why, but dogs love them. Dogs who like to cuddle are obsessed with it, as are dogs who want to destroy things. They like the squeaks, the softs, and perhaps that it almost resembles an animal. Dogs get obsessive-compulsive a lot, according to a new paper.