Modern biotechnology greatly benefits the quality and quantity of food, human and animal health, and the environment. Unfortunately, misinformation and misunderstandings about biotechnology in the popular media make it difficult for consumers to make informed assessments. This booklet explains the facts behind genetic modification (GM) and explores some of the issues surrounding the increasingly contentious...
These shootings occurred from 1980 to 2019. Seventeen contributing factors were considered, including lockdowns, types of weapons used, geography, and type of school. The most critical factors for the 133 shootings were:
Reprinted by permission of McGill University Office for Science and Society.
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The conservation of mass is one of the fundamental principles of chemistry. But it does merit a detailed look. The electric battery was invented in 1800 by the Italian Alessandro Volta who demonstrated its abilities in front of Napoleon who awarded him a gold medal for his work. Within weeks, chemists were passing electrical currents through everything to see what would happen. Water was an obvious target for their investigations and it quickly became apparent that it could be broken down into its components, namely hydrogen and oxygen through the passage of an electric current.
But what was happening here? In 1808, John Dalton finally provided an explanation not only for...
1. Big Think interviewed Dr. Alex Berezow for their article Are there limits to the truths science can discover? The discussion ranged from defining evidence-based public policy to setting limits on what science should determine.
2. In Washington Examiner, Dr. Josh Bloom and Henry Miller, MD, discussed Senator Dianne Feinstein's unscientific chemical scare bill.
3. I moderated a panel called "The Challenge Between Critical Thinking and Emotional...
After consulting experts in molecular biology, microbiology, toxicology, chemistry and nutrition and ignoring precautionary principle claims by anti-science activists, the government of Canada has affirmed that a variety of rice called Provitamin A Biofortified Rice Event GR2E (Golden Rice), which has higher levels of provitamin A and is intended to be sold in countries where diets are typically low in vitamin A, is otherwise no different that varieties of rice that have been genetically modified for thousands of years.
They also do not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently...
The decision of what to feed a newborn can be fraught with anxiety — is breast milk the only way to go? If I choose formula am I somehow cheating my baby?
Well, there are literally millions of healthy Americans who were raised on formula — imperfect as these older versions may have been. And formula manufacturers are constantly updating their products, trying to make them more and more like the gold standard — human breast milk. The latest advance is the addition of a new ingredient class — certain complex carbohydrates called oligosaccharides.
Various members of this class of carbohydrates are known to be present in human milk, and different women produce different types. They are important in the...
American Council on Science and Health advisor Dr. David Seres, who is the director of medical nutrition and a clinical ethicist at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, has a message for the judgmental: Stop Telling the Obese to Lose Weight.
Dr. Seres, who is especially critical of the TV reality show "The Biggest Loser," cites a study in the latest issue of the journal Obesity that reinforces what is already known — rapid weight loss is not only ineffective, but actually counterproductive for managing obesity.
...
Thanksgiving brings food while the day after, called Black Friday, brings shopping. No interest? You are clearly not a "sport shopper", someone who is on a quest to get the best deal and is willing to trample others to get new stuff a day after they gave thanks for the stuff they already have. If you have ever been in a store on Black Friday you know first hand the frenzy that ensues. Why do some seem to thrive in that setting? Scholars from San Francisco State University developed the "Sport Shoppers" term for them. They used surveys, interviews and closet inventories and concluded that sport shoppers are analogous to athletes in that they view shopping as an achievement and working at...
The public has increasingly become jaded about the efforts of environmental groups and anti-science activists to raise money by promoting fear and doubt.
Since Rachel Carson first shot to popularity with a book claiming that a pesticide, DDT, was ruining the environment (still cited by people who really want to believe someone sprayed DDT, got cancer and died 6 months later, though Professor I. L. Baldwin, professor of agricultural bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin, who led the National Academy of Sciences committee studying pesticides and wildlife and reviewed the book in Science called it a prosecuting attorney s impassioned plea for action) no effort has been spared to get a lot of things banned.
Fast forward to Population Bombs lamented by Dr. Paul...
Bananas are one of the most popular fruits in the world, but a rapidly spreading fungus has the potential to wipe them out. The fungus, called Fusarium oxysporum Tropical Race 4 (TR4) is sickening the Cavendish banana.
The fungus originated in Southeast Asia, and over the past decade, has spread to Africa, Australia, and the Middle East. Many fear that it will spread to Central and South America, where 82 percent of the world s banana supply is grown.
The problem is that our bananas are monoculture crops the...