Scientists recently discovered surprising evidence that more brown fat (as a result of cold treatment) could increase a person’s risk of getting a stroke or a heart attack. The finding could explain why more people die of cardiovascular diseases during the winter months.

Party Like It's 1776


"These colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states"

There was a recent article discussing the observation of death and the chimpanzeesattitude towards it.

Of course, this gave rise to the usual round of questions and points regarding human interpretations of these actions and raised the question of anthropomorphism.  Yet, this was precisely one of the more absurd elements that was involved in these discussions.

About 5 million children worldwide have been born by IVF since 1978, and 1.4 percent of total births in the U.S. annually and as many as 4.4 percent in western Europe result from the procedure, according to government and industry figures. 

Across all types of IVF procedures, compared with spontaneous pregnancies, a study found no increase in the risk of autism, but in one type there was.

Is Law A Science ?

In a recent article The Science Of Law I asserted that law, or more properly jurisprudence, is a science.  The basis for that assertion was that both science and law are founded in the Baconian method.

In this comment, A Bear In The Woods, said in rebuttal:

The transcription factor Nanog plays a critical role in the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells and is expressed in a manner similar to other pluripotency markers, according to a new paper This finding contradicts the field's presumptions about this important gene and its role in the differentiation of embryonic stem cells. 

Gerovital H3, one of the "fountain of youth" miracles drugs that crop up once a generation, was banned in the United States in 1982, but the alternative medicine crowd that never let go of homeopathy after hundreds of years is reviving it. Anti-aging and longevity clinics now promote Gerovital H3 in pill form and as intravenous infusions.

Gerovital H3 is the dental anesthetic procaine hydrochloride (novocaine) but in the 1950s it was abused, unsurprisingly, by the Hollywood elites who gravitate toward fad diets and miracle treatments.

The noses of industrial livestock workers in North Carolina contained
drug-resistant bacteria
- livestock-associated Staph
- while the noses of antibiotic-free livestock workers did not, according to a new paper.  Workers were not experiencing Staph infections at the time of the study.

A ten-nation analysis of media systems and national political knowledge funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in the United Kingdom found that women living in the world’s most advanced democracies and under the most progressive gender equality regimes still know less about politics than men.

Over past centuries, the crews of ships regularly measured some basic properties of the waters through which they sailed, such as temperature and salinity. 

Though their accuracy has to be questionable, these historical observations have proven to be important for climate modelers who are trying to validate their work. In recent years, the importance of the deep ocean as a sink for the extra energy trapped by anthropogenic climate change has come to the fore.