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Safe Water May Be Killing You

Safe Water May Be Killing You

Apr 28 2025 | comment(s)

The drinking water treatment process is designed to remove harmful pathogens that are prevalent in nature, but a new study suggests that it may be harmful also.

Scientists know that inert ingredients are not harmful you but the authors of the new paper invoke the environmental "chemical cocktail" MacGuffin. Since every harmless product has not been tested in every possible combination with other inactive ingredients, they suggest agricultural, pharmaceutical and other common products could be hazardous to our health in ways that scientists don't know about.
Earth-Like Exoplanets Are Common

Earth-Like Exoplanets Are Common

Apr 27 2025 | comment(s)

A new study of light anomalies combined with results from a Korea Microlensing Telescope Network microlensing survey show that super-Earths exist as far from their host star as our gas giants are from the sun. Which means that Earth-like exoplanets are a lot more common NASA press releases over every new statistical wobble suggest.
Bioprinting Pancreatic Tissues

Bioprinting Pancreatic Tissues

Apr 26 2025 | comment(s)

Trial lawyers hate when scientists note that animals are not tiny people, so their claims PFAS which harms animals in high doses does not mean it impacts humans at all. That animals are not little people are why drugs and medical devices must survive human clinical trials. There would be 10,000 cures for cancer being sold if effectiveness in a mouse was enough.

Animal activists also hate animal trials. They will be happy about bioprinting organic tissue models that function like living organs. 
America Has The Cleanest Mining On The Planet, So Deep Sea Tech Makes Sense

America Has The Cleanest Mining On The Planet, So Deep Sea Tech Makes Sense

Apr 25 2025 | comment(s)

America has the strongest environmental protection in the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and government scientists showed that the Keystone XL pipeline was much better for the environment than shipping by rail. Their data were sound. With 20,000 miles of pipeline zipping across the Ogalalla acquifier, leaks were rare and only a few gallons before they were fixed.(1)

Weird progressive rants about energy, vaccines and food aside, Americans know science is often right, and the science shows that American regulations keep the environment safe by a very conservative margin.
Using AI To Find Neural Traits In Social Interaction

Using AI To Find Neural Traits In Social Interaction

Apr 25 2025 | comment(s)

An algorithm that maps individual brain activity can reveal a “neural fingerprint” of  transient brain states during social interactions. 

The authors of the new paper believe their work demonstrates that individuals whose neural fingerprints are more aligned tend to more readily enter a shared state of deep focus—commonly known as team flow—which has profound implications for enhancing teamwork and performance across various high-stakes environments.
'Here Is The Letter That Has Destroyed My Universe' And 4 More Astrophysics Revolutions

'Here Is The Letter That Has Destroyed My Universe' And 4 More Astrophysics Revolutions

Apr 25 2025 | comment(s)

On this day, April 25, in 1929, the world learned how astronomer Edwin Hubble had discovered that the universe was much larger than we had believed. On this day in 2025, you can preorder a book and on the 29th learn about this and four other Astrophysics discoveries that changed how we see the universe - and ourselves - in The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions.


By Ersilia Vaudo, translated by Vanessa Di Stefano. If you use this link we get a penny or something.
RIP To The Deniers For Hire Called Organic Consumers Association

RIP To The Deniers For Hire Called Organic Consumers Association

Apr 21 2025 | comment(s)

The Organic Consumers Association, the embarrassing stepchild of the organic industry founded by the late Ronnie Cummins in 1998, has a positive-sounding name but has been nothing except negative for science and the public. Though the United States Department of Agriculture calls them an "organic agricultural products marketing and trade resource" organization they have really just been fifth columnists against vaccines, affordable food, and everything else that helps the modern world.
Fish Is Healthy, Fishing Is Sustainable, So Activist Groups Opposing It Are Just Playing Politics

Fish Is Healthy, Fishing Is Sustainable, So Activist Groups Opposing It Are Just Playing Politics

Apr 19 2025 | comment(s)

Epidemiologist, nutritionists, and food fad profiteers love to talk about the benefits of fish, yet they weirdly believe only wild caught fish is nutritious. This sort of scientific confusion by people who don't know any science isn't really new, they also babble on about "antioxidants" when trying to claim high fructosr levels in honey are health food while high fructose levels in corn sugar will give your child autism.
Big Organic Continues To Oppose Food That Uses No Pesticides

Big Organic Continues To Oppose Food That Uses No Pesticides

Apr 19 2025 | comment(s)

I get pitches for stories every day and sometimes I want to see if the world that opposes science has made any progress now that a member of a Republican administration who was formerly one of their own, former Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is being helped by their rhetoric.

So when I got a message from a PR rep for the Real Organic Project™ about their client, I wanted to know if they still oppose hydroponic food. Hydroponic food uses no soil, which means in a controlled environment it needs no pesticides. The public loves that idea. The last time a survey was done, only 7% of the public wanted to know about GMOs in their food unsolicited while over 70% wanted to know what pesticides are used in food production.(1)
Prosthetic Hearing: Soft Brainstem Implant One Step Closer To Human Trials

Prosthetic Hearing: Soft Brainstem Implant One Step Closer To Human Trials

Apr 18 2025 | comment(s)

The cochlear implant has helped many regain hearing functionality and a new study shows a potential roadmap for those whose cochlear nerve is too damaged; the auditory brainstem implant.

The current auditory brainstem implant and its rigid structure does not allow for good tissue contact, which means a majority of the electrodes must be switched off due to unwanted side effects such as dizziness or facial twitching. A soft, thin-film version with electrodes embedded in silicone leads to a pliable array less than a millimeter thick.

Superior conformity means patients will no longer get vague sounds and little speech intelligibility - and fewer side effects.
No Goldilocks, Webb Telescope Didn't Discover Life On K2-18b

No Goldilocks, Webb Telescope Didn't Discover Life On K2-18b

Apr 17 2025 | comment(s)

K2-18b, detected in 2015, orbits a star 124 light years away. Though it is over 800% as large as Earth, its space in the habitable zone of its star, like where we are, means the possibiliy that liquid water could exist on its surface.

The science community calls it The Goldilocks Zone. Like the character in the children's story who wanted porridge neither too hot nor too cold, a Goldilocks planet that might have life we could recognize would need to be in a similar narrow band.
UK Supreme Court Rules On Biological Sex - But The Debate Won't End There

UK Supreme Court Rules On Biological Sex - But The Debate Won't End There

Apr 17 2025 | comment(s)

Under the Equality Act of 2010, 'woman' refers to individuals based on their biological sex at birth, according to a unanimous ruling at the UK Supreme Court.


The case has been a David vs. Goliath story. Three Scottish women up against the Scottish government, which had made policy stating that a gender recognition certificate could go anywhere that those deemed biologically female at birth could go. What got it to the Supreme Court was a 2018 law mandating gender balance on public sector boards. Women noted that gender included the trans community and that created a 'shackled man' competition.

On A Roll

On A Roll

Apr 16 2025 | comment(s)

What? Another boring chess game?


Buzz off, this is my blog, and if I feel like posting a chess game, that's what is going to happen. But if you like the game, stay here - this is a nice game.

Again played after hiours today, and again on a 5' online blitz server (chess.com). What amazes me is that these days I seem to have a sort of touch for nice attacks and brilliant combinations. Let me show you why I am saying this.

The starting position arose after the following opening sequence:

tommasodorigo - UTOPII841, chess.com April 16 2025
People Are Fine With AI But Rarely Fooled

People Are Fine With AI But Rarely Fooled

Apr 16 2025 | comment(s)

Due to anti-vaccine hype from 1998 to 2021 which then flipped to the other major US political party, there is recurring rending of garments about science literacy. Add in a 9% difference between the left and right in acceptance of evolution and beliefs that fructose in honey is health food while fructose in corn syrup is poison, PFAS, and that GMOs cause lower grades in school, it's easy to see that US adult science literacy is only about 30%.
Foot and Mouth Disease in Europe Will Show Them the Expensive World of Only Organic Food

Foot and Mouth Disease in Europe Will Show Them the Expensive World of Only Organic Food

Apr 16 2025 | comment(s)

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europeans claimed they were successfully moving away from modern agriculture and conventional energy thanks to the organic™ manufacturing process and solar power. 

What they left out was that the "organic" food they were buying was from Russia, where either Russia invented magic or they simply swapped fields to being called organic, or it was a lie.(1) The biggest hypocrisy of European culture is pretending that buying food through a European company that buys it from Russia is not giving money to Russia. They use the same trick to continue to be reliant on Russian energy
Climate Change Is Causing More Snowflakes

Climate Change Is Causing More Snowflakes

Apr 16 2025 | comment(s)

In a bizarre experiment, scholars declared that survivors of one of California's annual wildfires instead suffered PTSD due to climate change.

It was a small group, 27 who had been near a fire in 2018, 21 who had seen smoke, and 27 in the control group. Participants had EEG brain scans taken while they engaged in behavior which could provide monetary rewards. The scholars also subjectively scored their Win-Stay behavior, basically how often they sought the highest long-term rewards.
When The Attack Plays Itself

When The Attack Plays Itself

Apr 15 2025 | comment(s)

After a very intense day at work, I sought some relaxation in online blitz chess today. And the game gave me the kick I was hoping I'd get. After a quick Alapin Sicilian opening, we reached the following position (diagram 1):


As you can see, black is threatening a checkmate with Qxg2++. However, the last move was a serious error, as it neglected the intrinsic power of my open files and diagonals against the black king. Can you find the sequence with which I quickly destroyed my opponent's position?

1. Qc2! 
Not So Elementary (the Cosmos, That Is)

Not So Elementary (the Cosmos, That Is)

Apr 15 2025 | comment(s)

Recently there are appeared a paper showing how Physics - Iron–Helium Compounds Form Under Pressure. which suggests that there might be helium from the original nebula from which the Sun and solar system formed still locked up in the Earth’s core.

This association of helium with iron might be connected with this item from Minnesota: UPDATE | High helium concentration buried deep in Iron Range - YouTube which opens the prospect of the USA being less dependent on other countries for its supply of helium, which is most often encountered in toy balloons but is essential in its liquid form for many of the body scanners use in medicine.

In A Rebuke To Activists, FDA Removes Animal Models From Drug Approval

In A Rebuke To Activists, FDA Removes Animal Models From Drug Approval

Apr 10 2025 | comment(s)

Among the 900 compounds that France's International Agency for Research on Cancer "suggests" are linked to cancer, nearly all have relied on studies in mice.

Scientists know mice are not little people but epidemiologists use animal models, very often at high doses, up to 10,000X realistic levels, to make their claims that everything causes cancer. Such abuse of animal models is why states like California, which abdicated science to IARC, has over 80,000 products with warnings about carcinogens yet no more or fewer cases of cancer.
Toponium Found By CMS!

Toponium Found By CMS!

Apr 10 2025 | comment(s)

The highest-mass subnuclear particle ever observed used to the the top quark. Measured for the first time by the CDF experiment in 1994, and subsequently confirmed by CDF and D0 in 1995, the top quark is the heaviest elementary particle we know of, and it is a wonderful physical system per se, which has been studied with momentum in the past thirty years at the Tevatron and at the LHC colliders. 
The top quark