At a secret enclave in the San Francisco metropolitan area, synthetic biologists and DIYBio tinkerers have been hacking nature up to fix the one thing about the vegan diet that would be difficult for many Americans: going without cheese.

iGEM - the 10th international Genetically Engineered Machine competition - is tackling expressing casein proteins in yeast to make cheese. Not a cheese substitute, real cheese, without milk from a cow or a goat.  

In America, radical environmental groups get something of a cultural free pass. 

It's understandable, because America is a two-party country. Due to that, otherwise scientifically literate Democrats will rationalize the anti-vaccine, anti-GMO and anti-nuclear members under their umbrella as being 'anti-corporate' while scientifically literate Republicans don the same blinders about climate science and denial of evolution.

Years ago, when science media was generally in decline, both financially and content-wise, I held up Popular Science as the poster child for how to be successful: Appeal to your market and stay out of the culture wars.

Things have changed, and they have begun the slow, sad decline already experienced by their competitors, which got those companies sold for peanuts. Their editorial tone began to be called out in comments, leading to their online content editor to declare, in elitist tones that would make any cultural mullah proud, that "shrill, boorish specimens of the lower Internet phyla" had spoiled it for everyone and they were shutting off comments.