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More Expensive Milk Won't Help Farmers Enough - Culture Has Changed

More Expensive Milk Won't Help Farmers Enough - Culture Has Changed

Feb 25 2019 | comment(s)

I don't drink much milk now, though I did when I was a kid. I think I eat more cheese than I did then, and that makes sense. We were a poor family on a subsistence farm and cheese is expensive. Milk was not. At least if you got it right from the farmer. 

But most of us don't get it right from the farmer, which is one reason why an increase in milk prices in the U.S. won't help dairy farmers much, any more than it will in Australia or any other country. Most people do not buy dairy products from a local farmer, they buy food in stores. And the products in those stores may not even have been made using milk from this country.
Zebra Stripes And Flies: Occam's Razor Versus Stripes Make Terrible Landing Strips?

Zebra Stripes And Flies: Occam's Razor Versus Stripes Make Terrible Landing Strips?

Feb 22 2019 | comment(s)

It is believed by some that zebras have black and white stripes as a defense mechanism against flies. To others, that seems too complex. In an Occam's Razor evolutionary universe it only leads to more speculation - why would they evolve such a sophisticated defense mechanism when it doesn't help, and flies are no less attracted to zebras than they are horses? Are zebras more prone to infectious diseases carried by African biting flies?  Or is the whole premise more like evolutionary psychology than science, where there is speculation neckties evolved so men would look like superior mates?
Basic Income: How's It Working In Finland?

Basic Income: How's It Working In Finland?

Feb 21 2019 | comment(s)

The preliminary findings from Finland’s basic income experiment are out and they show mixed results. Both advocates and critics of the idea of a universal basic income will find cause for consternation and celebration. Though widely anticipated by basic income enthusiasts, the Finnish experiment will only fuel further debate on whether or not the idea works.

Kratom Rising: Calls To US Poison Control Centers Increase

Kratom Rising: Calls To US Poison Control Centers Increase

Feb 21 2019 | comment(s)

The natural opioid kratom, the leaves of a tropical tree in Southeast Asia (Mitragyna speciosa) is a great analgesic because it's an opioid.  It has become popular because supplements are exempt from government oversight unless companies are causing people to fall over, which has happened - they seized 90,000 bottles of it in 2016 and want to ban its importation due to concerns about safety.
Artificial Sweeteners Are Not Harmful For Gut Microbiota, They Are Even Prebiotics

Artificial Sweeteners Are Not Harmful For Gut Microbiota, They Are Even Prebiotics

Feb 21 2019 | comment(s)

Food is plentiful and affordable, and that has brought an increase in consumption of foods that matched an ancient evolutionary mandate; sweetness.

In ancient times, humans knew that sweetness meant more calories and in a world where they often weren't sure where the next meal would come from, getting as many calories when they were available was important. When agriculture came into existence, farmers began genetically modifying foods to be bigger and sweeter. Beginning in the late 1980s, science gave us a true food boom, with more food grown on less land with less environmental strain than thought possible when claims of a "population bomb" by authors such as Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren were popular.
Ashitaba Won't Help You Live Longer, It Won't Even Help You Become A Samurai

Ashitaba Won't Help You Live Longer, It Won't Even Help You Become A Samurai

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

The race is on to be the food craze of 2019 and the leading contenders so far are biltong - beef jerky from South Africa - and angelica keiskei koidzumi (ashitaba) from Japan.

If a plant can have a leaf cut off and have it grow back the next day, why not assume eating it will help humans? Because we know more science now than 18th century soldiers did. 

But once a supplement takes off, more studies showing magical benefits will be soon to follow, and Nature Communications is helping get things going - perhaps because the credit card cleared. It certainly can't have gone through real peer review.
Journalist travel grants for Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Journalist travel grants for Heidelberg Laureate Forum

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

From September 22-27, 2019, recipients of the Abel Prize, ACM A.M. Turing Award, ACM Prize in Computing, Fields Medal, and the Nevanlinna Prize will gather in Heidelberg to meet with 200 young researchers from all over the world at the 7th Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF). 

To get mathematicians and computer scientists some more recognition, the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) is giving travel grants for journalists to cover the event. Grants cover travel costs as well as board and accommodation during the stay in Heidelberg from September 21-28, 2019.
Grasses Have Been Genetically Modifying For Millenia - By Stealing

Grasses Have Been Genetically Modifying For Millenia - By Stealing

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

Grasses have been able to short cut evolution by taking genes from their neighbors, finds a new study.

Since Darwin, much of the theory of evolution has been based on common descent, where natural selection acts on the genes passed from parent to offspring. But sometimes what seems to be natural selection is really artificial, like lateral gene transfer that allows organisms to bypass evolution and skip to the front of the queue by using genes that they acquire from distantly related species. Even by stealing them.
70 Million Years Ago: Earliest Example Of Nest Sharing Discovered

70 Million Years Ago: Earliest Example Of Nest Sharing Discovered

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

Fossilized eggshells unearthed in western Romania represent the earliest known nest site shared by multiple animals. The shells – some complete and others broken into thousands of pieces – are densely packed and encased in mudstone which formed part of the remains of a bird breeding colony, probably comprising hundreds of seperate nests. 

Now in the collections of the Transylvanian Museum Society in Cluj Napoca, Romania, the samples date from the late-Cretaceous period (approx. 70 million years ago) and were discovered near the city of Sebeş in Transylvania by local palaeontologist Mátyás Vremir about nine years ago.
Clark Kent Was Right: Subtle Disguises Are Effective

Clark Kent Was Right: Subtle Disguises Are Effective

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

In the comics and films, Clark Kent wore reading glasses while Superman had no glasses but sported a lock of hair on his forehead - and no one figured it out. Ridiculous, it was later said.

Perhaps it was ridiculous if keen reporters who knew Kent well did not figure it out, but for the most part even subtle disguises work well for most people, according to a new study. Something as minor as complexion changes or a hairstyle are enough to convince people that in a world of six billion people, a one in a million chance of seeing a person who looks like someone you know is not that bad.
Single Top Production Nailed By LHC Experiments

Single Top Production Nailed By LHC Experiments

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

The ATLAS and CMS collaborations released yesterday a joint document where they discuss the combination of their measurements of the rate of production of single top quarks in proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC collider. The exercise is not an idle one, as the physics behind the production processes is interesting, and its study as well as the precise comparison of experimental results and theory predictions improves our ability to predict other reactions, wherein we might find deviations from the currently accepted theory, the Standard Model.
Ants, Twinkies, Cockroaches; What Could Really Survive A Nuclear Apocalypse?

Ants, Twinkies, Cockroaches; What Could Really Survive A Nuclear Apocalypse?

Feb 20 2019 | comment(s)

Cockroaches have a reputation for resilience, likely contributing to the belief that they could even survive a nuclear bomb and subsequent radiation exposure.

And though Fukushima was not a nuclear bomb, or even a real disaster (more people died trying to escape than from radiation), the claim that cockroaches were found led weight to their constitutions.(a) But is it really accurate? In the future, if a disgraced doctor finds Alita: Battle Angel in a junk pile, will she be with a cockroach? 
Dear Believers In Vampires And Integrative Medicine - Plasma From Young Donors Is Not A Remedy For Anything Except Wealth

Dear Believers In Vampires And Integrative Medicine - Plasma From Young Donors Is Not A Remedy For Anything Except Wealth

Feb 19 2019 | comment(s)

One new craze in the alternatives to medicine community is infusions of plasma from young donors, sold with the claim that it can prevent aging, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and even PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

Vampires are just a story people choose to buy, like homeopathy and organic food. Plasma in blood does contain proteins that help blood clot blood but unless you are a trauma patient or have a medically diagnosed clotting condition, you are not benefiting from plasma.
There's Finally A Name For Studies Done In Feces And It's...

There's Finally A Name For Studies Done In Feces And It's...

Feb 19 2019 | comment(s)

In vitro, in utero, these are science terms that have become commonly known. In vitro means studies in cells, like using test tubes, or a test for a fetus in the womb in the case of in utero.

Studies done in feces - yes, excrement - haven't really had a name, they though are common in gut bacteria analyses. Now they might, thanks to UNC School of Medicine scientist Aadra Bhatt, PhD, and colleagues; in fimo. Their proposal is published in the journal Gastroenterology.

Like Stonehenge? Brits May Have To Thank The French

Like Stonehenge? Brits May Have To Thank The French

Feb 19 2019 | comment(s)

By Charles Choi, Inside Science – New research suggests that megaliths -- monuments such as Stonehenge created from large rocks during the Stone and Copper Ages in Europe -- owe their origins to a mysterious culture from northwest France with advanced seafaring technology.

Roughly 35,000 megaliths are known throughout Europe, including standing stones, stone circles and megalithic tombs. Most megaliths date from 4500 to 2500 B.C., are concentrated in coastal areas along the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and share similar or even identical architectural features, said archaeologist Bettina Schulz Paulsson at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Immune Checkpoint Molecule Can Stop Cancer All By Itself

Immune Checkpoint Molecule Can Stop Cancer All By Itself

Feb 19 2019 | comment(s)

An immune checkpoint molecule, SA-4-1BB developed for cancer immunotherapy also protects against future development of multiple types of cancer when administered by itself, shows a new study.

The recombinant protein molecule SA-4-1BBL has been used to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of cancer vaccines with success in pre-clinical animal models. It accomplishes this by boosting the effectiveness of CD8+ T cells, adaptive immune cells trained to target the tumor for destruction. When the researchers treated normal healthy mice with SA-4-1BBL alone, the mice were protected when the researchers later exposed them to different types of tumor cells.

Patrolling the body instead of generating an immune response after the tumor is present

'Cellular Barcoding' Reveals How Breast Cancer Spreads

'Cellular Barcoding' Reveals How Breast Cancer Spreads

Feb 18 2019 | comment(s)

Cellular barcoding has been used to tag, track and pinpoint cells responsible for the spread of breast cancer from the main tumor into the blood and other organs, and also revealed how chemotherapy temporarily shrinks the number of harmful cells, rather than eliminating them, explaining how the cancer could eventually relapse.

Pinpointing the 'seeders' of disease

Most deaths from breast cancer are caused by the metastasis, or spread, of cancerous cells from the main tumor site into other organs. 

Paper Claims A Link Between Glyphosate And Cancer But Fails To Show Evidence

Paper Claims A Link Between Glyphosate And Cancer But Fails To Show Evidence

Feb 18 2019 | comment(s)

A new analysis,which appeared in the journal Mutation Research, claims To show evidence linking exposure to the common weedkiller glyphosate to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), a rare form of cancer, but it provides no new data and is not what it presents itself to be.

Could exposure to glyphosate -- an herbicide often paired with genetically engineered corn, soybeans, cotton, and other crops – be causing cancer? That question has become the central contention advanced by critics of agricultural biotechnology.

The Magic of 10's of Billions in Complex Systems?

The Magic of 10's of Billions in Complex Systems?

Feb 16 2019 | comment(s)

Why is it that large important complex systems often have about 10-100 billion (or 1E10 to 1E11 give or take an order of magnitude) objects? This seems to apply to the number of stars in the Milky Way (3E11), the number of galaxies in the observable universe (2E11), the number of cells in the first mammal (1E10), the number of neurons in a human brain (1E11), the number of nuclide pairs in human DNA (3E9), the number of proteins in a typical eukaryotic cell (1E10), and the current population of earth (7E9). Yes, many of these are not well determined yet and various estimates exist.

In a complex system there are hierarchies, e.g., organs, tissue types, and cells in humans. Variation is needed such that certain objects in the system can specialize and support the hierarchy.

Women Wear White To Promote Equality - But Other Colors Were Historically Important Also

Women Wear White To Promote Equality - But Other Colors Were Historically Important Also

Feb 16 2019 | comment(s)

During President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 State of the Union address, scores of Democratic congresswomen wore white to pay tribute to suffragists and their fight for women’s rights.