An analysis of everything from views on climate change to perceptions of risks from GMOs or vaccines brought up one universally valid truth: people tend to believe what their friends, affiliates, or peer-group believe. Peoples’ views on these topics have less to do with any opposition
Most of the time, mental illness and neurodegenerative diseases are confined to mind and body of the afflicted… but there is an exception to almost every rule. The exception to this rule is called the prion, but most of you may know it as
If I hear someone say “GMO ingredient” one more time, my head will probably explode in cloud of neural fireworks. When someone thinks that sugar or insulin from a genetically modified organism is somehow different from sugar or insulin from another source, I am
It isn’t something often mentioned, but it still threatens to tear the “green” label off of most available renewable energy sources. The reality of 99% of “green energy,” from solar panels to wind turbines, is that it requires rare earth elements. Although progress is
Research has been underway to harness the power of bacteria and turn it into electrical power since at least 2006. Originally performed with fuel cells, this technology has evolved to using plants as “carbon donors” which put sugars into the soil, which are then
Somewhere between 5-6% of Americans are vegetarians (according to a 2012 Gallup pole) and 8-10% of Germans identify themselves as vegetarians. I see videos on my Facebook newsfeed, on a daily basis, aimed at convincing me that eating meat is unethical and that we need to
To illustrate how broken our online search system has become we can first look at weight loss advice. It’s a relatively benign topic which impacts an ever-increasing number of people, approximately 40% of adults in the United States have searched online for weight loss
Salt water is famed for its abundance, but also for being bad to drink or use on your crops. After all, haven’t we all heard the term “to salt the Earth” being used to mean decimating it? Researchers from the Netherlands proved that this
You have probably heard that we have 93% fewer food crops available today than 100 yeas ago. That a great portion of our food diversity has gone extinct and disappeared. It seems logical when you look at the infographic above based on a 1983 survey of
Antibacterial compounds have been used to help humans overcome otherwise difficult bacteria since 1928, when Alexander Fleming discovered penacillin. Penicillin then came into use in the late 1940s, where it helped my grandfather overcome an ear infection that had afflicted him for over a year.
