A Pew Research Center analysis of science-related pages on Facebook found that people are most likely to encounter "how-to" tips or advertisements rather than stories about scientific discoveries.

The reason is simple. Facebook shows people what they want to see based on past behavior. So shocking IFLScience or Buzzfeed 'X Did Y and you'll never guess what happened next!' titles will get clicked on more than articles about nematodes, making the former more likely to show up in the future. 

Vegetarians are not winning in the public consciousness but they are certainly winning in media and academia. The reason is simple: claiming something is harmful is a great call to action whereas telling people they are healthier in the modern world than ever before won't raise money at all.

The controversial group International Agency for Research on Cancer, which has been shown to have been hijacked by activists who didn't declare conflicts of interest, declared red and processed meat carcinogens on the same level as mustard gas, plutonium and cigarette smoking, and since California is required by law to automatically put IARC ingredients on its Proposition 65, there has been a rush to chase grants reaffirming why they are right. 

This is an article in New Scientist that’s being shared in social media which says it's a new caclulation of the future of the Universe according to the theory of false vacuum. It’s scaring many people because when you read it as far as it goes, before you have to pay to read, it doesn’t give a timeline, so they think it could happen any moment. Also, because it says “there’s a chance” that it has already collapsed in a distant corner of the cosmos. I'm writing this as part of a series of posts to help people scared of false or exaggerated doomsdays, which often get to the top of Google, Apple News and Facebook trending and are read by many people who have no idea how to take them including children as young as 14 and sometimes much younger.

At a press conference Saturday, a team of scholars presented data that sent an icy chill through the hearts of activists against science and medicine, like Pete Myers of Environmental Health News and Fred vom Saal, who sell natural alternatives to modern products which they claim are all "endocrine disruptors."

They showed that regular exposure to lavender or tea tree oil was linked to abnormal breast growth in young boys - prepubertal gynecomastia - because the common plant-derived oils act as endocrine-disrupting chemicals.  

USDA has reported that honeybees are down 4 percent for 2017, which set off another flurry of Beepocalypse claims by corporate journalists who desperately want to believe that modern science is killing us.

What gets left out of the story is that the 4 percent is down from a 22 year high.

There is no Beepocalypse, no Colony Collapse Disorder, no anything. It is just a statistical blip, as has happened in bees since even casual record-keeping began over a thousand years ago.

Trigger Warning [general trigger warning]: My analysis of the current situation is deeply concerning, but there is some hope. As an autistic abnormal of that kind, I try perfecting consistency in my interpretations, insisting on self-critical scientific method – also in all of the following. However:

Before heading to a work-vacation in Europe I got an email asking if I might be willing to be a last second replacement on a panel at a film festival called Festival du Film et Forum International sur les Droits Humains (International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights), in conjunction with the March session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

I am very glad to observe that Adam Falkowsky has resumed his blogging activities (for how long, that's early to say). He published the other day a blog entry titled "Where were we", in which he offers his view of the present status of things in HEP and the directions he foresees for the field.
I was about to leave a comment there, but since I am a very discontinuous blog reader (you either write or read, in this business -no time for both things together) I feared I would then miss any reply or ensuing discussion. Not that I mean to say anything controversial or flippant; on the contrary, I mostly agree with Adam's assessment of the situation. With some distinguos.

I do not keep crocodiles[*] in my drawer, so this short piece will have to do today.... Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned British cosmologist, passed away yesterday, and with him we lost not only a bright thinker and all-round scientist, but also a person who inspired two or three generations of students and researchers, thanks of his will to live and take part in active research in spite of the difficulties he had to face, which he always managed to take with irony. Confined on a wheelchair by ALS, and incapable of even speaking without electronic assistance, he always displayed uncommon sharpness and wit.