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Declaring War On Frappuccino And Diet Soda Is Not A Valid Government Nutrition Guideline

You're not  a Frank-people because you eat Doritos, despite what people writing lifestyle/diet...

Physician Burnout Is Common - And Informal Rationing Is One Big Cause

If the government promises every home a great gardener, most people recognize they won't get a...

Cancel Culture Prevents The Best Researchers From Engaging With The Food Industry

After Chris Wild took over the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a UN-funded...

Vermont Should Stop Showing Leadership In Overruling Scientists On Farming

Despite Vermont's Agricultural  Innovation Board (AIB), created to inform regulatory recommendations...

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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 »

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Exobiology and Mars - extensive carbonate minerals found

Exobiology and Mars - extensive carbonate minerals found

Oct 10 2010 | comment(s)

A new report in Nature Geoscience says there may be large deposits of carbonate sedimentary rocks a few miles beneath the surface of Mars.

If substantial carbonate minerals exist it might indicate a past surface environment with carbon dioxide, in contrast to its current acidic (and inhospitable) state.  

Researchers Joseph Michalski and Paul B. Niles found evidence for carbonate bedrock deep under the Martian crust and believe the ancient sediments were linked to a volcanic eruption by the Syrtis Major volcano.
Conspiracy Theory - NASA Hiding Alien Life?

Conspiracy Theory - NASA Hiding Alien Life?

Oct 08 2010 | comment(s)

Conspiracy theorists love photo effects.   If you want to see a man on Mars, you will eventually find it.  But if NASA cleans up an image and then posts it, and then a high-contrast photo makes the rather weak lighting look like some anthropomorphized UFO, well, it's a conspiracy.

Face on Mars. Viking mission 1976
Herd Immunity For Plants - How GMOs Can Save Agriculture

Herd Immunity For Plants - How GMOs Can Save Agriculture

Oct 08 2010 | comment(s)

"Anti-science" or "cautious" ... how you regard skeptics of positions that are ethically or scientifically subjective is often a matter of how you already believe.   If you are a Republican concerned about the ethical implications of human embryonic stem cell research, whole books can be written on how Republicans hate science.   But if you are in astronomy and have watched every program started during the Bush years get gutted since Democrats took control of Congress, you might think Democrats hate Congress(1) more.  In reality there are legitimate issues involved and it is up to policy makers to navigate them.
DIY spacecraft - a family adventure

DIY spacecraft - a family adventure

Oct 08 2010 | comment(s)

Say you have a curious kid and you want to confirm the planet is round to, you know, show off how experimental results can verify mathematical ones.    If you are with the Brooklyn Space Program group, you build your own spacecraft, of course.

But it isn't that easy.    You can put a camera on a balloon, sure, but your camera needs to survive 100 MPH winds, temperatures of -60, speeds of 150 MPH and maybe a water landing.  To find it if it does land safely, you need to have a GPS attached that transmits coordinates to a cell tower.

Here is their story:
Life From Space Redux? 65 Cybele Is Second Asteroid Found With Water

Life From Space Redux? 65 Cybele Is Second Asteroid Found With Water

Oct 07 2010 | comment(s)

A persistent hypothesis is that perhaps life did not 'originate' on Earth at all, perhaps its building blocks came from space.

In April, the public, fed by astronomy's runaway hype train, were excited by the discovery of water on an asteroid - but it was exciting, it was just the conjecture that followed was a little cloying.
Elsevier Introduces Article-Based Publishing

Elsevier Introduces Article-Based Publishing

Oct 07 2010 | comment(s)

Publishing is evolving and, of the big publishers (The Lancet, Cell, etc.), no one is more forward-thinking than Elsevier.   

They recently announced Article-Based Publishing, their new way to  publish articles as final (and citable) without needing to wait for the full journal to be complete.  Article-Based Publishing is the assigning of final citation data on an article-by-article basis, separate from production of the journal issue.