No Necronomicon? Harvard Claims A Surprising Number Of Books Bound In Human Flesh
When you have been around as long as Harvard, and your library contains 15 million books, you are bound to have a few that are bound in human flesh.Wait, what?
Yes, an interesting article by Samuel Jacobs in The Crimson from 2006 got resurrected recently. It detailed what librarians would rather not become an object of morbid fascination - that some of their books are bound in human skin. Odd, right?
Weekend Science: Create A Kid Nucleation Experiment In Your Driveway
Nothing says fun to a kid like talking about carbon dioxide and nucleation sites and surfactants.Actually, that sounds really, really boring. But if you instead tell them you are going to cause a giant geyser of soda to erupt in the driveway, they will get pretty excited. Then they will ask what happens if you use different sodas, and then different candies, and suddenly a little experimental physicist or chemist is born.
Whey Acid Dumping: Greek Yogurt Is Killing Gaia
Enjoy Greek yogurt?Maybe, if you hate nature.
Because it is now a $2 billion a year industry, activists have turned on it, a fate that the $29 billion organic food industry has so far escaped.
One Green Planet says the greek yogurt manufacturing process is "creating an ecological nightmare beyond all comprehension" which tells you that no one at One Green Planet can do simple math. And they are prone to hyperbole. It is entirely in my ability to comprehend what a cup of yogurt can do.
Organic Food Does Not Reduce Cancer Risk
Organic food has built a lot of mythology around its process - more ethical, more nutritional, fewer pesticides, a larger penis for the sons of organic shoppers - but one claim was a puzzler only subscribed to by the kind of people who buy homeopathy and healing crystals; that eating organic might reduce the risk of cancer.It’s Been A Bad Decade For Union Of Concerned Scientists
A decade ago, a well-orchestrated political campaign against Republicans in general and George W. Bush in particular turned everything into an anti-science issue. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which is run by a former Democratic staffer, was front and center in that effort, even drafting a popular 2004 petition saying Bush "has continued to distort and suppress science" which was dutifully signed by a bunch of people who were never going to vote for a Republican anyway.California GMO Food-Labeling Bill Clears Committee
California State Sen. Noreen Evans wants any food that contains a genetically modified ingredient to have a special label declaring it - unless the product is alcohol.How To Take Millions Of Tons Of Pesticides Out Of Our Environment
When Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" was taking the country by storm 50 years ago, it was a puzzle to scientists and farmers who did not see the cultural future looming in front of them. Scientists dismissed it as anecdotal evidence while farmers recognized that if you don't use a pesticide according to instructions, bad things happen. Both knew that without pesticides, yields would be devastated.Bitsy’s Brainfood Says Its Cereal Will Make Kids Smarter
If there is one thing wealthy elites across the developed world share in common, it is increasingly denying vaccines and genetically modified foods.“Darwin, did you ever see a Grampus?”
We often think of April 1st as more of a modern event, because it's sort of stupid and we think of our ancestors as being more serious.Not so.
Even the eminent biologist Charles Darwin got pranked by his shipmates on the HMS Beagle, April 1, 1832, as evidenced by his diary.
While March 31st only noted a "A fine rattling breeze" the following day had him excited to make a new discovery:
Twerking The Zeitgeist: Fans Of Science Should Be Worried About Cosmos Ratings
The reboot of Cosmos was on the must-see television list for many; it is a prime-time non-fiction science program, with one of the best hosts in science media, a generous budget, airing on 10 channels, and even had music by the guy who did Captain America. Excitement was high.Then it actually began. It had an alarming non-science gaffe - the story of the likely insane philosopher Bruno reconfigured to be...what exactly, no one is sure. 25% of Episode One was devoted to talking about mean old religion in the middle of a narrative about cosmology only to have Neil Tyson then dismiss the entire story as Bruno not being a scientist anyway.