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Environmental Groups Back In Court To Help Fellow Rich White People

The Usual Suspects of the anti-science movement, Center for Biological Diversity(1), Environmental...

Batteries Are Stuck In The 1990s Because Solid-State Batteries Keep Short-Circuiting

The electric car industry is held back by reliance on conventional energy. Despite spending trillions...

Dogs Have Been 'Man's Best Friend' For 14,000 Years

The bond between humans and dogs is one of the oldest stories in anthropology. It may also be a...

Is This The D'Artagnan Made Famous In 'The Three Musketeers' By Dumas?

“I have lost D’Artagnan, in whom I had every confidence,” wrote King Louis XIV to his Queen...

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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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Cyborg Bacteria Can Defeat Bioterrorism

Cyborg Bacteria Can Defeat Bioterrorism

Oct 08 2014 | comment(s)

The 21st century promises to bring a kind of science warfare only dreamed about in science fiction. Already it's become clear that it is possible to paralyze a large chunk of America and get policymakers in perpetual crisis mode, even with something as well-known as ebola.(1)

That kind of threat is getting mainstream attention now, but it has long been researched by government agencies that are in the business of predicting threats. And scientists working for them have recently created a hybrid bacteria - a cyborg mix of computer chip and genetically modified organism - that can not only detect infectious diseases but automatically mobilize to defeat them. This ain't your daddy's Deathlok.(2)
Is Biomedical Research Not As Good As Previous Generations?

Is Biomedical Research Not As Good As Previous Generations?

Oct 07 2014 | comment(s)

Dr. Steve McKnight is President of the American Society For Biochemistry And Molecular Biology and chairman of the biochemistry department at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He has probably also made a few enemies among young researchers in the society he manages. 

Governor Jerry Brown and the NRDC get it right on antibiotics

Governor Jerry Brown and the NRDC get it right on antibiotics

Oct 06 2014 | comment(s)

California Governor Jerry Brown has sided with the usually-anti-science National Resources Defense Council and vetoed a bill that would have forced factory farms to adhere to US Food and Drug Administration standards.

Yes, the governor of California and the NRDC don't want farms to use FDA guidelines.

How To Create A Link Between The Internet And Autism

How To Create A Link Between The Internet And Autism

Oct 02 2014 | comment(s)

A few years ago, Susan Greenfield said something zany, even for Susan Greenfield: that the rise in autism diagnoses were related to the Internet.

As Robery Olley once noted, she is the scholar who in 1994 during her famed Royal Institution Christmas Lecture claimed that playing Prokofiev at half speed was linked to suicide. That was not a shock to music listeners but it was to serious scholars.
Has Dracula's Childhood Dungeon Been Found?

Has Dracula's Childhood Dungeon Been Found?

Sep 29 2014 | comment(s)

It's not a surprise that as we get ready for Halloween season, stories will start to appear that relate to the macabre. And nothing is more macabre to modern minds than the tale of Vlad Dracul, who was on the front lines battling the Muslims in Eastern Europe and reputedly impaled 20,000 bodies as a warning to them.

It seemed to have worked, at least in that famous instance. You can imagine a sane Ottoman general seeing that spectacle and thinking 'Do we want to own a country where people have not set a guy like that on fire? The personnel headaches would be tremendous.'
No Flatlanders Allowed: Haggis And Whisky Flavored Potato Chips

No Flatlanders Allowed: Haggis And Whisky Flavored Potato Chips

Sep 26 2014 | comment(s)

Mackie's at Taypack Ltd. has been around since 2009 but the joint venture between the Taylors, Perthshire potato farmers, and Mackie's of Scotland,  has finally figured out a way to differentiate themselves from Frito-Lay: they are making potato chips flavored like whisky and haggis.

Everyone knows what Scotch is. Haggis is sheep stomach stuffed with meat and barley. Scotland's National Poet, Robert Burns, sang its praises in his works.


Credit: tjmwatson, Flickr