Chemistry

Will We Finally Get A Viable Alternative To Styrofoam?

Advocates for getting rid of gasoline love to use images from the 19th century, asking why the public is not using modern alternatives. They try to allege it is a corporate effort to suppress competitors but the argument doesn't work very well when th ...

Article - News Staff - May 15 2019 - 10:20am

Your Meat Does Not Bleed- But That People Think It Does Is Important For Plant-Based Substitutes

If you have cooked a steak or a hamburger you know that by the time you are ready to serve it, and certainly after you cut or bite into it, there will be liquid that oozes out of it.  Anti-meat groups know it isn't blood(1) but they use that imagery t ...

Article - Hank Campbell - May 22 2019 - 9:42am

Capricious California: Coffee Won"t Have A Prop 65 Warning, Which Means Few Products Should

After attracting scorn with bizarre classifications of a weedkiller, bacon, and hot tea, the French statistics group known as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) decided to puncture claims that activists had manipulated the process by do ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jun 5 2019 - 11:01am

Genetic Engineering May Lead To A World Where Malaria Can Be Contained Without DDT

DDT and other chemicals remain the most effective way to contain malaria- by eliminating the disease vectors that spread it. But even though the U.S. EPA has written the book for how DDT is to be sprayed inside homes, it was banned here over the objections ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2019 - 8:37am

No Toothpaste? Brush Your Teeth With An Arak Tree Twig

Most people use toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss to clean their teeth, but their use is by no means universal. Many indigenous groups, as well as people in developing countries, use traditional techniques to clean their teeth. Some of these techn ...

Article - The Conversation - Jul 10 2019 - 5:00am

Voodoo Epidemiology: Now BPS Is Causing Obesity. Will The Public Fall For This Hype Again?

Bisphenol S (BPS) and bisphenol F (BPF) are chemicals used in the lining of aluminum-canned food and drinks (to prevent spoilage). They were rolled out as a replacement for bisphenol A (BPA), a compound targeted by activists under claims it might statistic ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jul 25 2019 - 2:07pm

Another Study Finds Data IARC Ignored Shows The Weedkiller Glyphosate Doesn't Cause Cancer

Another paper has disqualified claims by organic industry trade groups, sympathetic academic journalists, and trial lawyer organizations that the weedkiller glyphosate, which acts on plants, somehow causes human cancer Thee researchers evaluated as yet unp ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2019 - 5:43pm

Dr. Squatch: Soap For Dudes Who Grew Beards To Seem Manly While Agonizing Over Which Organic Hand Cream To Buy

Urban beards are all the rage this decade, often worn by men in Euroweenie tight suits who want to hearken back to older times, when men were manly and not afraid of science. Not so today. If you wear a beard now, it means you want to look masculine while ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Sep 5 2019 - 1:04pm

Sulfur, Sodium- A Mysterious Salt Combination Preserved The Dead Sea Scrolls For Millennia

First discovered in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds looking for a lost sheep, the ancient Hebrew texts now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls are some of the most well-preserved ancient written materials ever found. And among the roughly 900 full or partial scrolls ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 7 2019 - 9:23am

Sticks And Stones May Break Your Bones But This Carbene/Carbocation Reaction Edits Molecular Skeletons

After Friedrich Wohler accidentally synthesized urea in 1828, chemical synthesis- and organic synthesis for that- has been a driving force in pharmaceutical innovation. We live longer and better than ever and we can thank the continuous advancement of synt ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2019 - 4:00am