Science 2.0

Science 2.0® - Science for the next 2,000 years, Non-profit, non-partisan, independent.
Updated: 1 hour 6 min ago
Wash Your Hands, Organic Restaurants, And Quit Giving People Norovirus
Most of the country laughed when an expensive Los Angeles Times 'Foodie' event gave elites who paid up to $800 per ticket norovirus.
Norovirus is gastroentitis, a 'stomach flu', sometimes called food poisoning, except related to bad hygiene rather than spoiled products. You see it a lot on cruise ships because so many people are in such a small area and it can be hard to kill using hand sanitizer. It can easily be prevented, though.
Wash your hands, obviously after using the bathroom or before preparing food.
Norovirus is gastroentitis, a 'stomach flu', sometimes called food poisoning, except related to bad hygiene rather than spoiled products. You see it a lot on cruise ships because so many people are in such a small area and it can be hard to kill using hand sanitizer. It can easily be prevented, though.
Wash your hands, obviously after using the bathroom or before preparing food.
Categories: Science 2.0
Epidemiologists Can Link Weedkillers To Your Prostate Cancer Even If You Were Never Exposed
A recent epidemiology paper links common weedkillers to prostate cancer and further claims four of them cause death.
Obviously they can't show that, there is no plausible biological mechanism, no increase in prostate cancers, and no evidence any of the people who got prostate cancer had contact with the pesticides at all.
Obviously they can't show that, there is no plausible biological mechanism, no increase in prostate cancers, and no evidence any of the people who got prostate cancer had contact with the pesticides at all.
Categories: Science 2.0
The Left Abandoning Their War On Vaccines and Nuclear Energy Will Bring a Golden Age To America
In the fall of 2020, the contentious election saw progressives claiming the COVID-19 vaccine was rushed and that the Republican president was risking lives to help his Big Pharma buddies.
They won the election and now blame Trump for everyone who died, they turned on epidemiology after a peer-reviewed paper claimed a well-known 'miracle drug' could work off-label for COVID-19 as well, and because the vaccines were rolled out when a Democrat was president, they took credit for it.
They won the election and now blame Trump for everyone who died, they turned on epidemiology after a peer-reviewed paper claimed a well-known 'miracle drug' could work off-label for COVID-19 as well, and because the vaccines were rolled out when a Democrat was president, they took credit for it.
Categories: Science 2.0
What Did Biden Know And When Did He Know It About The COVID-19 Origin?
The US Defense Intelligence Agency National Center for Medical Intelligence, America's first line of defense against medical threats, expressed concern about gain of function research at the Wuhan Lab.
The Biden administration buried it. They were even prohibited from presenting the evidence in meetings, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
The Biden administration buried it. They were even prohibited from presenting the evidence in meetings, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Categories: Science 2.0
The Buried Lottery
As part of my self-celebrations for having survived 20 years of blogging (the anniversary was a few days ago, see my previous post), I am re-posting a few representative, old articles I wrote in my column over the years. The selection will not be representative of the material I covered over all this time - that would be too tall an order. Rather, I will hand-pick a few pieces just to make a point or two about their content.
Categories: Science 2.0
For Christmas, 600,000 Kids Should Get A Biopesticide Against Mosquitoes That Kill
GMOs had quietly been in use for decades when they became controversial - for saving a fruit in Hawaii that legacy techniques like breeding and chemicals had not.
The Rainbow Papaya became a home run for genetic engineering, the first genetically rescued organism, and that made it a target for environmental groups who had ignored it when it was saving diabetics by creating insulin.
Lawyers have not stopped campaigning against GMOs since, and are calling on all media allies to criticize Mexico for refusing to ban GMO corn, but while they fight the past, biotech may be winning another fight for the future; against malaria.
The Rainbow Papaya became a home run for genetic engineering, the first genetically rescued organism, and that made it a target for environmental groups who had ignored it when it was saving diabetics by creating insulin.
Lawyers have not stopped campaigning against GMOs since, and are calling on all media allies to criticize Mexico for refusing to ban GMO corn, but while they fight the past, biotech may be winning another fight for the future; against malaria.
Categories: Science 2.0
Progressives Are Outraged That Mexico Sided With Science On GMOs
Anti-science activists are outraged that Mexican experts ruled against their government's publicity stunt claiming they would ban "GMOs" and the most popular weedkiller used by Mexican farmers.
Some of it was just populism - Mexico buys $3 billion worth of GMO corn per year from the US and the way to encourage more domestic corn sales is to ban it in the use of things people want, like tortillas.
Some of it was just populism - Mexico buys $3 billion worth of GMO corn per year from the US and the way to encourage more domestic corn sales is to ban it in the use of things people want, like tortillas.
Categories: Science 2.0
Environmentalists Should Embrace 'eDNA' Technology
Once upon a time, environmentalists embraced biotechnology as key way to reduce pesticide use. Rachel Carson, author of "Silent Spring", was a fan of genetic engineering. That was before we all learned that environmental groups are only 'for' something if it means they can raise money being against something. Biotech was great - until it was real. Then they hated it. Along with hydroelectric power and natural gas, and how they will want to tear down solar energy, once it stops being a government gimmick.
Categories: Science 2.0
Organic Food Provides Food Poisoning At Los Angeles 'Best Restaurants' Event
If you want to virtue signal your eating habits to others, Los Angeles is a great place to be. Everyone touts organic, holistic, free-range, wild-caught, artisanal, non-GMO, you name it and if the price can be expensive, someone will sell it.
Los Angeles media influencers love to sell readers what they want to buy and an event at the Hollywood Palladium costing $300-800 per ticket to promote the Los Angeles Times' list of the '101 best restaurants' was sure to make big money - even if you give 80 attendees food poisoning.
Los Angeles media influencers love to sell readers what they want to buy and an event at the Hollywood Palladium costing $300-800 per ticket to promote the Los Angeles Times' list of the '101 best restaurants' was sure to make big money - even if you give 80 attendees food poisoning.
Categories: Science 2.0
Twenty Years Blogging
Twenty years ago I got access for the first time to the interface that allowed me to publish blog posts for the Quantum Diaries web site, a science outreach endeavor that involved some 12 (then 15, then 25 or so IIRC) researchers around the world. A week before I had been contacted by the Fermilab outreach team, who were setting the thing up, and at that time I did not even know what a blog was!
Categories: Science 2.0
Gift-Giving Is In Our Nature
In ancient civilizations, rulers and nobles exchanged gifts as acts of prestige. Only when Assyria came into existence, and it had a need for manpower and resources to feed its conquering empire, did gifts turn into taxes and government become overlord of its people, who were moved from place to place and told what to do by elites.
Categories: Science 2.0
War On Science: Mice Are Not Little People Even If An Academic Hates Glyphosate
A recent paper claims the common weedkiller known as glyphosate gives mice Alzheimer's and therefore is a risk to humans.
Arizona State University researchers created an association between glyphosate exposure in mice and symptoms of neuroinflammation, as well as "accelerated Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology", whatever that is supposed to mean, and claim that farming could mean a persistent risk to human health.
Arizona State University researchers created an association between glyphosate exposure in mice and symptoms of neuroinflammation, as well as "accelerated Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology", whatever that is supposed to mean, and claim that farming could mean a persistent risk to human health.
Categories: Science 2.0
Red Alert Fatigue - Why Americans Are Getting Immune To Political Hysteria
“I am definitely not following the news anymore,” one patient told me when I asked about her political news consumption in the weeks before the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
This conversation happened around the time I talked with a local TV channel about why we saw fewer political yard signs during this year’s election season, compared with past ones.
Categories: Science 2.0
She's Not Going To Propose This Holiday And Here's Why
The Christmas period isn’t just for presents, sparkling lights and too much festive food – it’s also prime time for couples to get engaged. And for heterosexual couples, this is likely to happen in a specific way. The man will do the asking.
Categories: Science 2.0
Trump Bump Economic Confidence? Republican Presidents Correlated To Fertility Boost
A few years ago I noted that French motility was in freefall, down 30% in 30 years, and it was due in large part to the vast quantities of "organic" pesticides they consumed as the country switched to more organic food.
Categories: Science 2.0
Last Minute Christmas Gift: Build An Orgonne Accumulator
Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift? Doctor Wilhelm Reich, who claimed to be the discoverer of orgone energy (e.g. what other hippies in eastern nations call "chi" and in western nations call "life energy") created the Orgone Accumulator, an alternating wood/metal layered hexagon that absorbed energy from the aether - basically The Force that Boomers like George Lucas still believed in when he was making the original "Star Wars" trilogy - and directed it at people inside.
Categories: Science 2.0
California's Dairy State of Emergency Is Because They Deny Pasteurization Science Like They Denied Vaccines
On this day in 1768, eight years before the Declaration of Independence, an anonymous article in the Boston Gazette protested the military presence in Boston as a violation of civil liberties.
In 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued another "state of emergency", this time over bird flu...in Louisiana.
In 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom has issued another "state of emergency", this time over bird flu...in Louisiana.
Categories: Science 2.0
Christmas Tree Syndrome: America Is So Healthy Air Filter Companies Need To Claim Christmas Trees Are Harming You
Environmentalism is a $3 billion a year industry and the trial lawyers they help are orders of magnitude greater. What is the last public health win they gave us? Name a hysteria, from dying bees to BPA to DDT, and I can show you where actions were taken over the objections of scientists, not because science showed harm.
Categories: Science 2.0
'We Love Renewables But...' - Sweden Signals Going Back To Science
Ebba Busch, Swedish Deputy PM&Minister for Energy, says they need to go back to conventional energy, especially if they're going to continue to carry countries like Germany, that closed their nuclear plants.
Their decade-long focus on wind has caused prices to soar and reliability to decline, and even calls out Germany's Green Guru and Vice Chancellor, the philosopher Robert Habeck, PhD.
Ebba Busch, Swedish Minister for Energy, Business and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister
Their decade-long focus on wind has caused prices to soar and reliability to decline, and even calls out Germany's Green Guru and Vice Chancellor, the philosopher Robert Habeck, PhD.
Ebba Busch, Swedish Minister for Energy, Business and Industry and Deputy Prime Minister
Categories: Science 2.0
Of Momshells And Snowmanning: How Holidays Change Popular Language
I rarely win when it comes to cultural language stuff. Before 1999, an attractive older woman, for example, was to me a "Momshell" and no woman had any objection to a portmanteau of mom and bombshell (if they heard it - but a woman should not hear it, or your charm goes way down) yet after 1999's "American Pie" film the vulgar acronym "MILF" became the default. I have maintained for decades that we are worse off for it. If a young man used it in my presence where the woman could hear, I'd correct him. Not in a mean way, just by explaining there is a term that doesn't make him seem crass.
Categories: Science 2.0