Science 2.0

California and a few other states have more stringent "emissions" regulations that don't really improve the air, but because air crosses state boundaries and more regulations lead to higher costs for consumers they need a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to force it on the public. Every few years, EPA has dutifully complied and depending on when you ask, California is either cleaner than ever - regulations worked! - or we're all dying from virtual pollution - we need more regulations!

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Scholars at Tel Aviv University have recorded and analyzed click-like sounds distinctly emitted by plants.

The sounds are similar to the popping of popcorn and emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but frequencies human ears don't detect. The researchers believe plants usually emit sounds when they are under stress, and that each plant and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound.

Though the frequency is too high for human ears, it is in the range detectable by bats, mice, and insects.

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What would you do to get more likes or shares on your favorite social media platform this April Fool’s Day?

Would you blast an airhorn in your partner’s ear while they’re sleeping, record and upload their reaction online? Would you put hot chilli in their food, then film and share their distress?

Online prank videos are nothing new, and while many are lighthearted, a concerning sub-genre called “clout-lighting” has been emerging across the internet.

But in case you might be planning to clout-light your partner this April Fool’s Day, research shows it’s a surefire way to get dumped.

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Radio telescope observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed a cold stream of intergalactic atomic carbon gas feeding star formation in a massive radio galaxy in the young Universe.

The findings of galaxy 4C 41.17 provide observational evidence supporting hypothetical cosmological models and offer new insights into the origins of the cosmic materials that enable galaxy and star formation.

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A new paper notes that they can detect per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - deemed by environmental activists as "forever" chemicals because they persist from to eight years - in 42 samples of food packaging. Like food bowls that are compostable and sustainable and better for the environment than plastic.

Ironically, this new detection, and resulting scare, happened because consumers demanded alternatives to plastic after environmental public relations campaigns saying all the fish were dying. Most foods will not be safe in paper(1) unless you eat them right away. And yet the alternative is now claimed to be worse than the thing they wanted replaced.

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Genetic research found that horses evolved in North America millions of years ago and spread to Asia and Europe before dying out in the Americas 6,000 years ago.

Then in the early 1600s they were back, brought by Europeans, according to a new study.
Some stories claimed that natives only got horses after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 , when Spanish were defeated in New Mexico and left those and livestock.

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The FDA has granted OTC approval of Narcan 4 milligram (mg) naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray to Emergent BioSolutions; the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription. 

Naloxone reverses the effects of opioid overdose. Recreational fentanyl use has led to a major public health issue in the United States, with more than 101,000 fatal overdoses occurring last year, primarily due to illegal sale and use. 

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An object over 30 billion times the mass of our Sun has been detected thanks to gravitational lensing - where a foreground galaxy bends the light from a more distant object and magnifies it.

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When news about the climate is published, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, frightening headlines like “final warning” or “now or never” are often the norm. Some activists call this approach “climate doomism”, and are quick to criticize media publications and other influencers for it.

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When smog was prevalent, it was easy to see. Particulate matter 10 microns in size hover in the air, the famous London Fog was not natural moisture, it was PM10 pollution. In one event, nature combined with smog in London to kill 12,000 people.

After that, wealthier nations engaged in pollution control, and then PM10 and its health issues began to dissipate. In the 1990s and with much cleaner air, pollution activists and allied epidemiologists began to 'define pollution down.' PM2.5 was suddenly the new goalpost, they said, and showed air quality maps with red and orange to prove it.

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I) An article recently published in Nature concludes that the percentage of disruptive scientific findings and patents is much lower than it was a few decades ago.

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Once again, 500,000 students couldn't go to school due to a teacher's strike. Teachers are government employees, at least 40 percent and over 50 percent (if you count colleges) of the state budget goes toward education, but a lot of that has nothing to do with teachers. Much of the $129 billion is everything except education, it is nebulous state programs like $250,000,000 to "improve the quality of reading for students" which, like a 2014 voter mandate to add water storage, means years and years of proposals with little being done. 

A year after Governor Newsom bragged during his re-election campaign that his progressive policies were Making California Great Again, he says there is no money for teachers, but there is money for new government agencies.

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I am exploiting my column today to advertise a workshop that the collaboration I lead, MODE, is organizing at Princeton University this coming July. The workshop, the third of its series, aims to bring together physicists and computer scientists to join forces in the solution of complex optimization problems in experiment design.

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Assembly Bill 742 will limit the use of police dogs to search/rescue, drugs, and explosives detection, and ban their use in apprehension or crowd control. The reason is racism. 

Obviously dogs are not racist so Democrats who control the legislature, and the ACLU and NAACP groups behind the bill, think police dog trainers are racist -  dogs attack people of color twice as often as white people, they state.

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A new survey of 515 trans individuals found that 78 percent are happier since they transitioned from their biological sex. Transitioning means different things, though - only 16 percent report surgery, most changed their personal style or name while 38 percent had therapy. 

It's not all good news. Though they are happier now, in the past 41 percent have felt unsafe in a locker room, 64 percent have been verbally attacked, and 25 percent have been physically attacked.  43 percent reported suicidal thoughts.

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The anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety says someone is fatally shot or injured in a road rage incident every 16 hours.  Is that number real? Yes and no. The Gun Violence Archive they drew their claim from lumps criminals doing drive-by shootings and criminals being shot by police committing violent acts in with innocent victims. Even if it's only over half of the 500 they claim that is still over 300 per year.

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The DC Universe may have a harder time defeating evil in "Shazam 3" because the secret weapon of "Shazam: Fury of the Gods" will get banned if Democrats succeed in their latest front in the Forever War Against Science.

It is not just Skittles they are after, it is also Hot Tamales, pez, and others. The reason is because they contain chemicals.

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If you buy TheraFlu or some other product and swear it helps, you may be right. The placebo effect is real and while OTC "remedies" and supplements can be sold with no proof needed, to be called actual medicine it can't simply work as poorly as a sugar pill.

Yet about 30 percent of the time, people who take a placebo do feel better, the same way people who eat food labeled Non-GMO feel better taking a nocebo. Neither is improving health but a lot of things can sound like science or health if you look at statistics and create correlation.

That's epidemiology, an entry point to science, and epidemiology findings led to continued interest in various off-label treatments for COVID-19, such as ivermectin.(1)

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Expanded federal involvement in agriculture using expanded definitions of "waters of the United States" to cover tiny streams and even small ponds has led to a majority of US states fighting in court against Washington, DC.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown has granted an injunction against the Biden administration for Idaho and Texas.

It makes little sense to consider any of them WOTUS, since no American ship is traveling on them, nor could they. The White House is instead arguing because small streams can feed into larger rivers they all fall under the new definition. 

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The United Nations, which was basically last to acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic and even said allegations it originated in Wuhan were racist, has never stopped promoting every alternative to an accidental lab leak - and alleging any other discussion was racism.

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