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Europe Ponders Another Year Trying To Combat Fall Armyworm Without Modern Pesticides

The polyphagous Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm), a Lepidopteran pest, has European farmers...

The End To Universities Using Graduate Students As Piggy Banks Is Near

In the 1980s, the majority party in Congress saw demography claims that people with college educations...

Contrary To The Poltical Narrative, A Lot Of Government Science Funding Doesn't Go To Science

Every day we read a new headline warning us that American leadership is about to erode because...

Ohio State Endorses Probiotic Yogurt - Using Mouse Studies

A new paper from Ohio State University can be considered a giant endorsement for yogurt that makes...

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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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PM2.5 Is Killing You, Claim Ecologists, Except There Are No Deaths

PM2.5 Is Killing You, Claim Ecologists, Except There Are No Deaths

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

A new simulation claims small-micron particulate matter, so small you need an electron microscope to see it, is killing 250,000 people each year. PM10, 10 microns in size, is a well-known killer. That is wildfires and smog but after smog was drastically reduced in the 1990s, the target went down 400%, to 2.5. Suddenly air quality maps could be orange and red again, even though the air is cleaner in wealthier countries than it has been since the 1980s.
COVID-19 Border Closures Increased German Dislike Of Immigrants

COVID-19 Border Closures Increased German Dislike Of Immigrants

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

Early in 2020, the President of the United States said America should cut travel from China due to COVID-19 concerns. This was dismissed as xenophobia by states like New York and California, because the World Health Organisation had not declared it a pandemic.(1)

In Europe, 18 countries knew better than to wait for WHO to ignore claims from China that it was not a pandemic and closed their borders.
Opiate Of The Masses: Ancient Andes Used Hallucinogens To Keep People Positive

Opiate Of The Masses: Ancient Andes Used Hallucinogens To Keep People Positive

May 05 2025 | comment(s)

Americans like to be outraged by things, in 2025 the right is outraged by seed oils while the left is outraged about lack of capitalism, but older civilizations wanted people to stay calm.

When we think of the Andes today, we may think of the Incas, but they were colonizers just like Spain. Some 2,000 years before the Inca the Chavín had extensive farms and art and architecture throughout what Europeans later named Peru. And they did it with a lot less violence than most other prehistorical cultures on the continent.(1)
How Things Are Made

How Things Are Made

May 03 2025 | comment(s)

If the supply chain collapsed tomorrow, could you build a toaster? 

Would you really even want to try? People make homemade jam and all-natural weedkillers that are ironically stuffed with chemicals but no one makes their own toaster. It would be among the first things dismissed as unimportant in a post-apocalyptic world.
Cigarette Smoking Is A Pediatric Disease, And Kids Today Want No Part Of It

Cigarette Smoking Is A Pediatric Disease, And Kids Today Want No Part Of It

May 02 2025 | comment(s)

Cigarettes are a known carcinogen because you are inhaling smoke. Any time you inhale smoke, PM10 from fires or marijuana or anything else, you are rolling the dice of your future.

Decades of health awareness campaigns by us and groups like us have made a difference among the young, just like smoking cessation and harm reduction tools such as nicotine vaping, gums, and patches have helped older people mitigate harm. Recent data show our "5 by 35" campaign begun in 2008 - down to 5% of Americans smoking cigarettes by 2035 - seems to be on track. 
Fortified By Silk: Nutrients And Pesticides Get A New Targeted Approach

Fortified By Silk: Nutrients And Pesticides Get A New Targeted Approach

Apr 29 2025 | comment(s)

Greenpeace is in a longstanding campaign to oppose a public domain Golden Rice created by scientists so that it can be grown to create more Vitamin A and prevent blindness in children of poor countries.

It is part of their long history of promoting claims farming is a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. The reality is that farmers simply want ways to safely and affordably improve yields. Science is the best way to create that and corporations are the best way to make it scale. No conspiracy needed.