Evolutionary Psychology: Your Parents Income During Pregnancy Made You Gay

Evolutionary psychology, the discipline that claimed we're being manipulated by flowers and evolved...

Oil Kept Congo From Starving - Western Academics Don't Seem To Like That

If even a wealthy like Germany has to lie about emissions to placate government-funded environmentalists...

China Sells Western Progressives Solar Panels While Switching To Nuclear Power

China has quietly overtaken France to become the world's second-largest producer of nuclear energy. ...

If You Care About Earth Day, Stop Buying Organic, Fair Trade And Other Junk Stickers On Products

As Lenin's Birthday Earth Day approaches, all of media are pillaged by public relations flaks being...

Hank Campbell

I founded Science 2.0® in 2006 and since then it has become the world's largest independent science communications site, with over 300,000,000 direct readers and reach approaching one billion. Read More »

Why Do Democrats Want To Get Rid Of The NIH Public Access Policy?

Sep 17 2008 | comment(s)

Public access for studies paid for by taxpayer money seems like a no-brainer. There's no reason peer-reviewed journals should get to charge researchers (paid for again by taxpayers) and then have a copyright on the work. Last year the government approved a bill that would require government-funded (NIH) researchers to submit their studies to PubMed Central no later than 12 months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It was a real win for open access advocates, many of whom wrote here about it.

Anglican Church Sends Darwin An Apology, Promotes Him On Their Website, In Honor Of His Bicentenary

Sep 14 2008 | comment(s)

The only thing I get tired of more than crazy people invoking Galileo as their defense against criticism of whatever bizarre science 'theory' they are foisting on the world are people on the other side who paint legitimate skeptics as 'Holocaust deniers' - in both cases the comparisons are done by people who have no knowledge at all about the analogy they are using. But sometimes the Galileo comparison is apt and no one got more religious criticism that turned out to be misplaced than Charles Darwin. The church in his native land thinks so as well, and some 150 years too late will concede that it was tough on Chuck.

I am betting the LHC will not destroy the Earth - any takers?

Sep 09 2008 | comment(s)

Yes, I am putting my money where my brain is. The LHC is big news ... for about 24 more hours. Heck, watching The Today Show this morning, even Matt Lauer said he was going to Google Dr. Otto Rössler - and it sure means something when they can get my kid to ask if a black hole is really going to consume the Earth on my birthday and why she should have to do her homework if Strangelets are the only things that will see it anyway. I can't argue with that. I am not sure why I even bothered to write this blog. Except ... except ...

A 'Missing Link' In Space? Maybe Not, But A Backward-Orbiting Object May Provide A New Origin For Comets Anyway

Sep 06 2008 | comment(s)

When scientific terms become part of the cultural fabric they often lose their meaning. Biology has had its share of modern misunderstandings with 'evolution' becoming colloquial rather than scientific, along with the general term 'theory', which today is used by anyone with a crackpot notion about particle physics, math or the end of the world due to a tunnel in Switzerland.

So it goes. That's why today we have advertising claims like 'the next evolution in cars' and then press releases about the 'missing link' in comets.

Hey, we don't shape the culture, we just try to cut through it. So this time we will talk about the 'missing link' between an Oort cloud and Halley's comet and discuss the 'evolution' of these mysterious space bodies, which will make biologists here irritated. Later on we can use terms like 'genesis' and 'creation' in their place so religious folks can feel slighted also.

Why mention all that? Well, we run out of science terms to use when there is no previous explanation for an object, so we have to fall back on cultural ones in order to convey why something is important. In this instance, a team of scientists has found an unusual object whose backward and tilted orbit around the Sun is just baffling enough that it may tell us about the origins of some comets.

You heard me. Researchers from the Canada-France Ecliptic Plane Survey project have discovered an object that orbits around the Sun -- backwards. And it is tilted at an angle of 104 degrees, almost perpendicular to the orbits of the planets. Take a look:

Yahoo! Buzz For Science

Aug 20 2008 | comment(s)

Yahoo! Buzz, a competitor to social news sites like Digg and Reddit, has been opened up to the entire worldwide community. We've been critical at times of sites like Digg, which are overrun by marketing people and have a secret 'auto-bury' list of sites that aren't tithing properly. It isn't just Digg, Shoutwire and any number of small sites are the same way, but the leader will take the most heat and deservedly so. Sites like ours, that don't need to make money from Digg or artificially pumping up traffic, can take a stand and so we have. Why? Well, it's social media, not who-pays-to-be-seen media. In a world where only people who pay get to be seen, we could never exist because we're the only large science site not owned by a media corporation or the government.

Eco-Tourism Is Big Business But Can Wildlife And Tourism Mix?

Aug 13 2008 | comment(s)

To some on the fringes, the only good planet is one without people. To some pseudo-environmentalists, a good planet is one where theirs is the only SUV. To millions more, nature is a way to escape the rigors of city life and enjoy the outdoors without being intrusive.

Ecotourism is big business these days. Convincing society that nature's beauty should be preserved and enjoyed has convinced more people than ever they should actually enjoy it.

But an examination of Californian forests says that hiking, bird-watching and other low-impact activities are linked to a sharp drop in carnivores like bobcats and coyotes. In other words, if you really care about Mother Earth you should leave nature to conservationists who get paid to monitor wildlife and instead walk around the local mall.