Science 2.0
COVID-19 Border Closures Increased German Dislike Of Immigrants
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.
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.
Categories: Science 2.0
Fisetin To Prevent Artery Hardening
In a new study, researchers found that the polyphenol fisetin helps protect blood vessels from hardening, which is a common problem in older adults and people with kidney disease.
If eventually validated in human trials, it might mean it could prevent vascular calcification and reduce cardiovascular damage caused by aging and chronic kidney disease. Fisetin is in the flavonols family and is found naturally in fruits and vegetables but is also sold as an unvalidated supplement outside FDA testing.
Created with Discovery Studio Visualizer.
If eventually validated in human trials, it might mean it could prevent vascular calcification and reduce cardiovascular damage caused by aging and chronic kidney disease. Fisetin is in the flavonols family and is found naturally in fruits and vegetables but is also sold as an unvalidated supplement outside FDA testing.
Created with Discovery Studio Visualizer.
Categories: Science 2.0
FDA Begins Inspecting Foreign Medical Manufacturing Imports
With retaliatory tariffs against the EU and countries like China and Brazil, there has been concern about how much medical commerce originates from overseas.
It certainly does, and safety has long been an overlooked concern. Organic food has gotten a free pass, but that is just a USDA marketing gimmick so if 25% of it is fraudulent, no one is harmed, but medicines and devices can risk lives. American companies are forced to undergo 12,000 surprise inspections to insure safety but countries exporting to the US have enjoyed a double-standard. They demanded and got only 3,000 scheduled inspections.
It certainly does, and safety has long been an overlooked concern. Organic food has gotten a free pass, but that is just a USDA marketing gimmick so if 25% of it is fraudulent, no one is harmed, but medicines and devices can risk lives. American companies are forced to undergo 12,000 surprise inspections to insure safety but countries exporting to the US have enjoyed a double-standard. They demanded and got only 3,000 scheduled inspections.
Categories: Science 2.0
Social Drinking Is A Bigger Problem Than Drinking Alcohol Alone
No doctor tells patients to smoke cigarettes "in moderation", they are a known carcinogen and not smoking cigarettes is one of the top three ways to prevent lifestyle diseases. Yet culture has been grabbed by twin pincers when it comes to alcohol. American women are told if they have a glass of wine their child may get fetal alcohol syndrome while everyone else will be fine with alcohol in moderation.(1)
Categories: Science 2.0
Black Holes: Now With No Singularity
Albert Einstein has been proven right many times but some things his equations predicted have yet to be shown to be science and yet remain part of the popular consciousness about science.
Like a "singularity", where the laws of physics cease to apply, at the heart of black holes.
Though Karl Schwarzschild found an exact solution to Einstein's 1915 general relativity equations, which implied the existence of extreme objects now known as black holes, mass so concentrated that nothing — not even light — can escape their gravitational pull (thus "black"), the physics community remain unconvinced. For over 100 years many even found it problematic.
Maybe singularities are just math in some cases. Math is a language, languages can tell stories.
Like a "singularity", where the laws of physics cease to apply, at the heart of black holes.
Though Karl Schwarzschild found an exact solution to Einstein's 1915 general relativity equations, which implied the existence of extreme objects now known as black holes, mass so concentrated that nothing — not even light — can escape their gravitational pull (thus "black"), the physics community remain unconvinced. For over 100 years many even found it problematic.
Maybe singularities are just math in some cases. Math is a language, languages can tell stories.
Categories: Science 2.0
Character In The Dark: How People Face Moral Dilemmas
An old saying goes that 'character is what you are in the dark', which is a way of stating that how you'd behave if no one was there to see you is really who you are outside the world of surveys.
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Being Friends With A Gorilla Isn't Easy
You can't really be friends with a gorilla, but it's still easier than beating one in a fight, even if you are the 100th person trying. They are all really tough whereas an alarming number of human males buy organic beard cream but one thing they share in common is that some are more social and some are less.
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Opiate Of The Masses: Ancient Andes Used Hallucinogens To Keep People Positive
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)
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)
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The Night Sky From Atacama
For the third time in 9 years I am visiting San Pedro de Atacama, a jewel in the middle of nowhere in northern Chile. The Atacama desert is a stretch of extremely dry land at high altitude, which makes it exceptionally attractive for astronomical activities. In its whereabouts, e.g., are some of the largest telescopes in the world - the Cerro Paranal Very Large Telescope (VLT), and the planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) now being built in Cerro Armazones. And I have news that an even larger telescope, tentatively dubbed RLT for Ridiculously Large Telescope, is being planned in the region...
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'Public Trust Doctrine' - How Lawyers Use Children To File Climate Change Lawsuits
An ancient legal principle has become a key strategy of American children seeking to reduce the effects of climate change in the 21st century. A defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2025 has not stopped the effort, which has several legal actions continuing in the courts.
The legal basis for these cases is called the “public trust doctrine,” the principle that certain natural resources – historically, navigable waters such as lakes, rivers and streams and the lands under them – must be maintained in government ownership and held in trust for present and future generations of the public.
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How Does Streaming Technology Work?
Live and on-demand video constituted an estimated 66% of global internet traffic by volume in 2022, and the top 10 days for internet traffic in 2024 coincided with live streaming events such as the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing match and coverage of the NFL. Streaming enables seamless, on-demand access to video content, from online gaming to short videos like TikToks, and longer content such as movies, podcasts and NFL games.
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How Things Are Made
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.
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.
Categories: Science 2.0
US Government Wants To End 54 Years Of Subsidized Media
The Trump administration’s drive to slash government spending on everything from the arts to cancer research also includes efforts to carry through on the Republican Party’s long-standing goal of ending federal funding for NPR, the nation’s public radio network, and PBS, its television counterpart.
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Cigarette Smoking Is A Pediatric Disease, And Kids Today Want No Part Of It
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.
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.
Categories: Science 2.0
Mississippi and Louisiana Clobber California When It Comes To Educating Poor Kids
The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress report card saw a worrying trend that has existed since President Obama gutted the successful No Child Left Behind educational program (at the request of education unions) and replaced it with the ill-advised Common Core. Reading scores for kids remain really low for as much as we spend on education. Reading, the most basic thing we do.
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AI Simulation Says Neonics May Make Bees Stressed Out
Honeybees are important pollinators for agriculture like the sweetener and almond industries but are also invoked by environmentalists targeting pesticides.
It's hard to separate marketing hype from reality but scholars believe simulations and a monitoring system could see if activists who target seed treatments like neonicotinoid pesticides have science or just-so stories.
It's hard to separate marketing hype from reality but scholars believe simulations and a monitoring system could see if activists who target seed treatments like neonicotinoid pesticides have science or just-so stories.
Categories: Science 2.0
Runaway Technology: What To Do?
Image credit: Depositphotos
In 2025 it’s hard to argue that social media are not to blame for much antisocial and suicidal behavior among preteens and teens (e.g., Orben and Matias 2025). The harms of online bullying, deepfake nudes, and fringe conspiracies, all present on social media, were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, years in which young people were buried in their screens.
Categories: Science 2.0
Cover Plants Can Remove Toxic Pesticides Like Copper Sulfate From Soil
For farmers, land is their most valuable asset so they protect it in ways environmentalists do not understand. By using science whenever possible, to reduce water, energy, and environmental strain.
Even organic farmers use toxic pesticides but because they are older and less effective they must use a lot more. A new literature review posits that organic farmers, and conventional as well, can reduce effects on soil using cover plants. Most farmers grow cover plants, animal feed or just plants to remain, between main crops to supply the soil with nutrients before the next planting. They also protect against erosion and may increase biodiversity above and below ground.
Even organic farmers use toxic pesticides but because they are older and less effective they must use a lot more. A new literature review posits that organic farmers, and conventional as well, can reduce effects on soil using cover plants. Most farmers grow cover plants, animal feed or just plants to remain, between main crops to supply the soil with nutrients before the next planting. They also protect against erosion and may increase biodiversity above and below ground.
Categories: Science 2.0
Fortified By Silk: Nutrients And Pesticides Get A New Targeted Approach
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.
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.
Categories: Science 2.0
University of Zurich Manipulates Reddit Users With AI Bots, But Say They Did It To Save The World
Without informing users or moderators on Reddit, the University of Zurich used AI to manipulate users in the Reddit group ChangeMyView.
Categories: Science 2.0