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Why Raw Dairy Farms In California Accelerated The H5N1 Bird Flu Pandemic

Californis is the largest dairy producer in the United States. It is also the most anti-science...

Affirmative Action In NIH Grants Revealed

The Supreme Court recently issued another ruling that seeks to end racial discrimination. most...

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...

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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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Science Fiction For The Weekend:

Science Fiction For The Weekend: "Tin Man"

Aug 21 2010 | comment(s)

It's been a good decade for "The Wizard of Oz" - much better than the Oz books merit but in that one story there is the kernel of something terrific that has resonated with people for decades.   There was a time when it was less cool - anyone watching "The Wiz" had to wonder what they were thinking but re-tellings of the story in more recent years have been terrific.

"Wicked", for example, tells the story of the Wicked Witch and she ends up being a lot more sympathetic.   The core storyline of "The Wizard of Oz" pops in and out but it is her story - and the musical is terrific. 
After The Singularity, Music Quality Will Be Even Crappier Than It Is Now

After The Singularity, Music Quality Will Be Even Crappier Than It Is Now

Aug 20 2010 | comment(s)

I took a moment to look at Ray Kurzweil's response to PZ Myers' second-hand dissection of his talk at the Singularity Summit(1) I attended last weekend (see The Singularity Stole My ATM Card) because Andrea Kuszewki is on the case and trying to keep things on track (like, can we reverse engineer the brain?
The Science Of The Root Beer Float

The Science Of The Root Beer Float

Aug 19 2010 | comment(s)

A few days ago, while talking about mundane business issues, I learned that today, August 19th, was the birthday of that famous childhood delight, the 'black cow', what would later be called a root beer float.

If you are not up on your carbonated beverage lore, root beer hails from the root of the sassafras tree or the sarsaparilla vine.  When the root mixture is mixed with water, sugar and yeast, it is sweetened and the yeast generates carbon dioxide and carbonates the water.
Evolutionary Psychologists Sex Up Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

Evolutionary Psychologists Sex Up Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

Aug 19 2010 | comment(s)

Despite being one of psychology's most memorable concepts and a genuinely good idea, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, immortalized in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and later Motivation and Personality, needs a makeover, say some researchers.  

Maslow's hierarchy says humans will fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher level ones.    If you're unemployed and losing your house because fuzzy 'jobs saved or created' statistics have no real value to you, for example, global warming will not be your biggest concern.   
An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft

An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft

Aug 18 2010 | comment(s)

Anthropology rules!   

If a physicist tried to do a research study playing "World of Warcraft" for 3 years his peers would say, "Don't try to church it up, Tommaso, you're just playing World of Warcraft" but when an ethnographer does it, they get funding from the National Science Foundation, Intel, and write a book about it.
Scottish Researchers Get It Backwards, Turn Whisky Into Biofuels

Scottish Researchers Get It Backwards, Turn Whisky Into Biofuels

Aug 18 2010 | comment(s)

Researchers at Edinburgh Napier’s Biofuel Research Centre have done something unthinkable - they have used Scotch to fuel cars instead of violence-filled weekends.

Well, not Scotch specifically, rather whisky manufacturing waste from Glenkinchie Distillery (The Edinburgh Malt). Whew, the culture dodged a bullet there.     But it's also a good idea.  Scotch is a $5.5 billion industry in Scotland and Edinburgh Napier hit on the idea that whisky by-products could be an excellent resource for developing biobutanol, a next-generation biofuel with 30% more output power than ethanol. 

To understand how it works, you need a quick primer on whisky.