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Environmentalists, What Are You Asking From Dedmoroz Lenin For Earth Day This Year?

Tomorrow is Earth Day. It is also Lenin's birthday. That's not coincidence. The leader of...

How Ancel Keys Went From MAHA Hero To MAHA Villain

If a lot of the food and health claims you read and hear today seem like things left over from...

Are Baseball Pitchers Faster Today?

On September 7, 1974, pitching for the California Angels, Nolan Ryan, known for his velocity, became...

Ground-Nesting Bee Populations Don't Get Publicity But They're Everywhere

Honeybees get attention in environmental fundraising campaigns because people don't understand...

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Hank CampbellRSS Feed of this column.

I founded Science 2.0® in 2006 and since then it has become the world's largest independent science communications site, with over 300,000,000 direct readers and reach approaching one billion. Read More »

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4,000 Reasons To Love Chemistry - And That's Just In Whisky

4,000 Reasons To Love Chemistry - And That's Just In Whisky

Mar 28 2014 | comment(s)

If there is a pleasant, chemically-induced but culturally acceptable pastime, someone at U.C. Davis is probably studying it. They have one of my favorite beer scholars, Prof. Charles Bamforth, and are even setting up a coffee science group. Their nutrition department has been generously funded by Mars candy company and, no surprise, a whole 'science of chocolate' panel appeared at an AAAS meeting as a result. 
Rhynchohyalus Natalensis: Four-Eyed Deep-Sea Barreleye Fish Has 360 Degree Vision

Rhynchohyalus Natalensis: Four-Eyed Deep-Sea Barreleye Fish Has 360 Degree Vision

Mar 28 2014 | comment(s)

The Rhynchohyalus natalensis in a recent paper was caught about 1000 meters under the Tasman Sea and it has two pairs of eyes, allowing it to spot danger from every angle. One pair is upward-facing tubular eyes, to spot danger from above, while another set is on the side of its head, to detect bioluminescence from deep sea creatures.

The second type of eye is typically associated with invertebrates. The authors write that this is only the second instance in a vertebrate, after Dolichopteryx longipes, with both reflective and refractive optics.  

I particularly liked the description of how they modeled the optics and image focusing. The authors have the same question I have; this is cool, so why isn't it more common?
CDC: Autism Jumped 30 Percent Since 2012 - What It Really Means

CDC: Autism Jumped 30 Percent Since 2012 - What It Really Means

Mar 28 2014 | comment(s)

America has seen a 30 percent rise in autism since the last estimate in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

That's a big jump, an epidemic even. Mainstream media is going to have a field day and everyone will be looking for ways to demonize their favorite societal targets.

Before we start writing to Congress, we need to keep a few things in mind.

(1) It's an estimate based on diagnoses
How To Write A Science Article In 3 Minutes

How To Write A Science Article In 3 Minutes

Mar 26 2014 | comment(s)

Last week, the L.A. Times was able to post an article about an earthquake 3 minutes after it happened.

No human could write that fast. And no human did.
The Psychology Of Why You Want To Know The Plot Of Star Wars VII

The Psychology Of Why You Want To Know The Plot Of Star Wars VII

Mar 26 2014 | comment(s)

You want to know what movies are about - and that is why spoilers related to the upcoming "Star Wars" movie and "Avengers 2" and whatever else are so popular.

Hey, you knew how the RMS Titanic met its demise, and you still watched a movie about it, notes Rich Goldstein in The Daily Beast.  I didn't, but most of you did. And Shakespeare knew you wanted to know, that is why you read The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and not The Mystery Of Romeo and Juliet.

I know how The Grapes of Wrath is going to end, I still read it over and over again.
Cosmos Suffers Another Ratings Drop - Even Though It's Getting Better

Cosmos Suffers Another Ratings Drop - Even Though It's Getting Better

Mar 25 2014 | comment(s)

Who is to blame for the latest weekly decline in Cosmos ratings? The Walking Dead, NCAA basketball games, a mass exodus due to its opening effort to be culturally in-your-face?

There is always going to be competition on TV, just like there will always be competition for a government R01 grant. No point in whining about that. And Cosmos still takes shots at religion, but it isn't devoting 25 percent of episodes to it any more. Across the cultural spectrum, it's been much better during the last two weeks.