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How Trump Is Making Taiwan Safe(r)
Let’s write a letter to Donald Trump. Trigger warning: Lots of sarcasm here.
Not-so-dear Don,
Categories: Science 2.0
USDA Results Show Science Can Feed The World If Governments Get Out Of The Way
Until the 1980s, the modern-day Malthus acolytes like Drs. Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren predicted Population Bombs and advocated for government-mandated sterilization and abortion to prevent it.(1)
Science didn't buy into the doomsday narrative and the poor have benefited.
Rather than the world starvation social authoritarians claimed only they could prevent, food has become so plentiful and affordable that modern social authoritarians now demand poor people be banned from buying food that government panels segregate. For the first time in the history of planet earth, the poorest people can afford to be fat.(2)
That was not a problem for the poor even 50 years ago.(3)
Science didn't buy into the doomsday narrative and the poor have benefited.
Rather than the world starvation social authoritarians claimed only they could prevent, food has become so plentiful and affordable that modern social authoritarians now demand poor people be banned from buying food that government panels segregate. For the first time in the history of planet earth, the poorest people can afford to be fat.(2)
That was not a problem for the poor even 50 years ago.(3)
Categories: Science 2.0
We Won't Lose Vaccine Leadership Due To Less Government, Government Has Always Done Little
"If it was up to the NIH to cure polio through a centrally directed program instead of independent investigator driven discovery, you'd have the best iron lung in the world, but not a polio vaccine." - Dr. Samuel Broder, M.D., former Director of the National Cancer Institute
Categories: Science 2.0
Age 60 And Up: Walk Faster To Reduce Risk Of Stroke
Epidemiologists correlate inputs to outcomes by looking at surveys and diaries and then seeing what foods, products, or behaviors to outcomes, like better or worse health.
It isn't science and is often exploited but it has led to big public health wins, like showing that cigarettes and alcohol cause cancer - instances were human clinical trials would be unethical. Recommendations like not adding salt or not eating eggs became fads because epidemiologists claimed it and media highlighted it, the same way the Mediterranean Diet and buying organic food did. There are so many confounders scientists throw up their hands and walk away but corporations exploit it to billions of dollars in revenue.
It isn't science and is often exploited but it has led to big public health wins, like showing that cigarettes and alcohol cause cancer - instances were human clinical trials would be unethical. Recommendations like not adding salt or not eating eggs became fads because epidemiologists claimed it and media highlighted it, the same way the Mediterranean Diet and buying organic food did. There are so many confounders scientists throw up their hands and walk away but corporations exploit it to billions of dollars in revenue.
Categories: Science 2.0
Swedish Physics Days
On August 13-15 I will attend for the first time to the Swedish Physics Days, an important national event for Swedish physics. This year the congress takes place at Lulea University of Technology, the institute where I am currently spending some time, hosted by the Machine Learning group through a Guest Researcher fellowship granted by WASP (Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program).
Categories: Science 2.0
A Sad Semiconductor Circus
Donald Trump, alleged by many to be President of the United States, has demanded that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan resign immediately. Thanking the American public for our “attention to this matter,” Trump claims Tan is “conflicted” due to his investments in China.
I dare suggest that Tan respond as follows:
Categories: Science 2.0
I Made An AI Clone Of Myself And Now I Am Going To Live Forever
"I made an AI clone of myself and now I am going to live forever" is not a joke.
My AI twin, Bloombot, created by Ryan Dean, the Chief Technology Officer of the Howard Bloom Institute, is designed to carry on my way of thinking after I shuffle off this mortal coil.
In other words, it is going to do its best to replace me.
No, the BloomBot is not exactly me. But it defies belief. The Bloombot is nimble on its digital feet, can do research that would take me a month in seconds, and can write phrases I wish I had written myself.
And sometimes the BloomBot goes even farther. It uses my ideas as seeds and erects trees of imagination and reasoning that rise to rapturous heights.
My AI twin, Bloombot, created by Ryan Dean, the Chief Technology Officer of the Howard Bloom Institute, is designed to carry on my way of thinking after I shuffle off this mortal coil.
In other words, it is going to do its best to replace me.
No, the BloomBot is not exactly me. But it defies belief. The Bloombot is nimble on its digital feet, can do research that would take me a month in seconds, and can write phrases I wish I had written myself.
And sometimes the BloomBot goes even farther. It uses my ideas as seeds and erects trees of imagination and reasoning that rise to rapturous heights.
Categories: Science 2.0
RFK Jr Is Wrong About MRNA Vaccines - They Make COVID-19 Less Deadly
US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has announced he is cancelling US$500 million (£374 million) of research into mRNA vaccines, citing unproven concerns about their safety and long-term effects.
Kennedy has claimed that mRNA vaccines “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics” – a misleading statement that contradicts the scientific consensus on viral evolution and effects of vaccination.
Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock
But scientific research shows that mRNA vaccines have saved millions of lives.
Categories: Science 2.0
NSF Gives 5 Teams $32 Million For Protein Design Initiative
The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships is giving $32 billion to five teams involved in using artificial intelligence-based approaches to protein design.
The goal is to speed up design of novel proteins with specific, desirable characteristics.
The new funding will be for:
Purdue University — Programmable Small Molecule Biosynthesis
UC Santa Barbara — De Novo Design and Evolution of Enzymes for Biomass Upcycling to Surfactants and Fuels
Arzeda Corp. — AI-designed Enzymes using Non-natural Cofactors for the Production of Bio-based Acrylates
The goal is to speed up design of novel proteins with specific, desirable characteristics.
The new funding will be for:
Purdue University — Programmable Small Molecule Biosynthesis
UC Santa Barbara — De Novo Design and Evolution of Enzymes for Biomass Upcycling to Surfactants and Fuels
Arzeda Corp. — AI-designed Enzymes using Non-natural Cofactors for the Production of Bio-based Acrylates
Categories: Science 2.0
California Wildfires Linked To Suicide And Harms From PM10
California has an environmental problem. The state is overwhelmingly desert and rain is scarce for 10 months out of the year. Water instead arrives from the mountains. Yet the state legislature and government are allied with environmentalists. They want dams torn down, which means water from the mountains that melts in the spring and summer can't be gathered. Not only do environmentalists now hate dams, their political supermajority has even stalled the water infrastructure improvements voters demanded over 10 years ago, using endless government panel reviews.
Categories: Science 2.0
El Niño May Cause Spider Declines
The El Niño climate phenomenon is consistently inconsistent, which plays havoc with computer models hoping to anticipate the effects of increased emissions from large polluting countries like China.
It may even be causing periodic booms and busts in spiders and overall insects.
It may even be causing periodic booms and busts in spiders and overall insects.
Categories: Science 2.0
The Mysterious Humans Near ‘Hobbit’s Island'
Over 1 million years ago, early hominims made a treacherous deep sea crossing to reach the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and in a modern corn field local people discovered what looked like stone tools in the sedimentary layers and called in archaeologists.
What they found in the Early Pleistocene site of Calio reset the date for colonization of the island; seven stone artifacts. Because this was near a river channel, the researchers believe this would have been the hub for hominin tool-making and other activities such as hunting.
What they found in the Early Pleistocene site of Calio reset the date for colonization of the island; seven stone artifacts. Because this was near a river channel, the researchers believe this would have been the hub for hominin tool-making and other activities such as hunting.
Categories: Science 2.0
Methanetetrol: We're In A 'Super Alcohol' Timeline Now
Methanetetrol, the only alcohol which has four hydroxyl groups (OH) at a single carbon atom, is out of this world.
Scientists meant that literally, it had been only theorized because it cannot occur naturally in Earth's everyday conditions but in extreme conditions of space it was assumed to exist. Now after a century of hypothetical existence, ultra-cold temperatures, near-perfect vacuum and high-energy radiation to simulate the environment inside interstellar clouds have combined to make it real.
The scientists from institutions in Russia, communist China, Hawaii, and Mississippi, believe their work could reshape our understanding of chemistry in the universe and shed light on the complex reactions happening in deep space.
Scientists meant that literally, it had been only theorized because it cannot occur naturally in Earth's everyday conditions but in extreme conditions of space it was assumed to exist. Now after a century of hypothetical existence, ultra-cold temperatures, near-perfect vacuum and high-energy radiation to simulate the environment inside interstellar clouds have combined to make it real.
The scientists from institutions in Russia, communist China, Hawaii, and Mississippi, believe their work could reshape our understanding of chemistry in the universe and shed light on the complex reactions happening in deep space.
Categories: Science 2.0
Extrasensorial Plot Premonition
In the previous article here, I tangentially examined a situation that arises often in collaborative data analysis: the digestion of the results in scientific graphs. The focus of that discussion was the building of a sceptical thinking attitude in my student - it is a really important asset in experimental science.
Categories: Science 2.0
Chronic Lyme Disease And Fibromyalgia: New Meta-Analysis Suggests Doctors Are Gaslighting Patients
A recent meta-analysis of 151 studies included 11,307 instances of some conditions physicians and scientists dismiss and critics of medicine deem it medical "gaslighting." Joining them are alternative medicine proponents, like Folk Traditional Alternative Complementary Integrative physician Jacob Teitelbaum, MD. As with Drs. Oz and Mark Hyman, he went to medical school only to declare that supernatural forces have been in play all along, forces that only herbs and supplements can help.
Categories: Science 2.0
To Go Where None Have Gone Before
Suppose we, meaning the human race, survive climate change, pandemics, and nuclear proliferation. What then? I’m talking about the long run.
We’ve got a faction who think the Earth would have been better off had we not survived – as if the rest of the ecosystem wouldn’t suffer from the radioactivity or the infections that killed us off.
Categories: Science 2.0
Dust Is Changing The Microbiome Of California Mice, Warn Academics
A new paper from a California university warns that dust is changing the microbiome of mice.
Because it is just in mice, and mice are not little people, this is only EXPLORATORY, but so are claims about vaccines, GMOs, and corn syrup and because scientists didn't stand up to those when epidemiology papers claimed their correlation was really causation, it might be worth nipping this in the rodent before the Los Angeles Times prints it as human fact.
Because it is just in mice, and mice are not little people, this is only EXPLORATORY, but so are claims about vaccines, GMOs, and corn syrup and because scientists didn't stand up to those when epidemiology papers claimed their correlation was really causation, it might be worth nipping this in the rodent before the Los Angeles Times prints it as human fact.
Categories: Science 2.0
Seventh Generation Crisis: 'Green' Products For Women Under Fire By PFAS Activists
'Green' chemical products have generally gotten a pass from the environmental community but with one of their own, former Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, now in charge of a gigantic government health agency and going after the modern world, the lawsuit money is too good to pass up. So-called eco-friendly chemical products have come under fire.
Categories: Science 2.0
Reference Letters
Lately I have been writing lots of reference letters for students who are applying to Ph.D. positions in Physics, and in so doing I have found myself pondering on the dubious usefulness of that exercise. So let me share a bit of my thoughts on the matter here.
Reference letters are meant to be an important input for academic selections, because they provide first-hand information on the previous experience of the candidates, from scholars who are supposed to be authoritative enough to be trusted, and unconcerned enough to provide a unbiased assessment.
Reference letters are meant to be an important input for academic selections, because they provide first-hand information on the previous experience of the candidates, from scholars who are supposed to be authoritative enough to be trusted, and unconcerned enough to provide a unbiased assessment.
Categories: Science 2.0
Europe Ponders Another Year Trying To Combat Fall Armyworm Without Modern Pesticides
The polyphagous Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm), a Lepidopteran pest, has European farmers in a panic and, when the environmental NGOs government funds are not around, it has politicians concerned also.
Though classified as a priority pest since 2023, fall armyworm remains easy to establish and fast to spread. Corn crops, a vital part of EU agriculture, remain at risk. Despite that, policymakers have been promoted using pesticides which work poorly but are approved by environmental groups while talking about climate change. The problem is clear but environmental activists have insisted human health and the environment will be impacted unless legacy products that are ineffective remain the sole solution.
Though classified as a priority pest since 2023, fall armyworm remains easy to establish and fast to spread. Corn crops, a vital part of EU agriculture, remain at risk. Despite that, policymakers have been promoted using pesticides which work poorly but are approved by environmental groups while talking about climate change. The problem is clear but environmental activists have insisted human health and the environment will be impacted unless legacy products that are ineffective remain the sole solution.
Categories: Science 2.0