Author Archive

The Politicization Of Veganism

Written by Duggan Flanakin

How to Avoid Deficiencies on a Vegan Diet - Forth Life

image source: forthwithlife.co.uk

The average American ate some 220 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018, according to the US Department of Agriculture, surpassing a record set in 2004.

But some politicians have joined anti-meat and climate change activists in a massive effort to restructure the American diet – and to ensure … and mandate … that the rest of the world will be stuck with a mostly plant-based diet.

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Experts: Ice-Sheet Melt Estimates Still Highly Uncertain

Written by Alistair Berry

antarctica ice sheet

Estimates used by climate scientists to predict the rate at which the world’s ice sheets will melt are still uncertain despite advancements in technology, new research shows.

These ice sheet estimates feed directly into projections of sea-level rise resulting from climate change.

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Researchers Explore A Drug-Free Idea To Relieve Chronic Pain

Written by Will Stone, NPR

Ann Jones has been spending two hours each day in front of a green LED light — an experimental treatment aimed at alleviating migraines and other forms of chronic pain.

Ann Jones tried everything short of surgery for her chronic migraines, which have plagued her since she was a child.

“They’ve actually gotten worse in my old age,” says Jones, who is 70 years old and lives in Tucson, Ariz.

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Video: The Secret Life Of Chaos Theory

Written by Reel Truth Science Documentaries

Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand.

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New Lyme Disease Study: Ticks harbour pathogens associated with Lyme disease

Written by John D. Scott, Kerry L. Clark, Nikki M. Coble & Taylor R. Ballantyne

Lyme disease and human babesiosis are the most common tick-borne zoonoses in the Temperate Zone of North America. The number of infected patients has continued to rise globally, and these zoonoses pose a major healthcare threat. A new study provides fresh insights to better inform health care providers.

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A neutron star with an unusual magnetic field structure

Written by Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Russian astrophysicists discovered a neutron star with an unusual magnetic field structure
Credit: @tsarcyanide, MIPT

Scientists from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI), and Pulkovo Observatory discovered a unique neutron star, the magnetic field of which is apparent only when the star is seen under a certain angle relative to the observer.

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Stone Age chewing gum reveals life of a 5,700 year old young girl

Written by Ashley Strickland

This is an artistic reconstruction of Lola, a young girl who lived 5,700 years ago.

Lola, a young girl who lived in Denmark 5,700 years ago, had blue eyes, dark skin and dark hair. Her last meal included hazelnuts and mallard duck but no milk — she couldn’t stomach dairy.

And the reason we know any of this is because she chewed on birch pitch, a material that functioned a bit like an ancient chewing gum.

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Genetic Engineering In China Is Exploding

Written by Kristine Servando

This means that genetic  research will be a complete free for all.  It probably will have to be.  I know that this does not make anyone comfortable. It does mean that  ethical niceties will be mostly ignored.  Those may come as the technology matures and it is all better understood.
Think in terms of Frankenstein unleashed.  This is no longer an impossibility.
Genetic Engineering In China Is Exploding 

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Venus may have been habitable until 700 million years ago

Written by Faisal Khan

Artist’s representation of how Venus may have appeared with water — NASA

Despite Mercury being the closest to the Sun, Venus is the hottest planet in our Solar System due to the transformation that changed its atmosphere radically somewhere in the past. The average surface temperature of 462° C (864° F) of Venus can melt Lead.

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Scientists Observe Root Cause of Lithium Batteries Failures in Real Time

Written by Yin (Daniel) Duan

(Pixabay/Wikimedia Common)

(Pixabay/Wikimedia Common)

Lithium batteries have high energy storage capacity, but sometimes they have unexpected failures and can even cause a fire.

A team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) demonstrated for the first time how dendrites and whiskers — destructive, crystalline structures formed by lithium ions come into existence inside a battery.

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No End In Sight For The Biofuel Wars

Written by Paul Driessen

sorghum crop biofuel

The Big Oil-Big Biofuel wars rage on. From my perch, ethanol, biodiesel and “advanced biofuels” make about zero energy, economic or environmental sense.

They make little political sense either until you recognize that politics is largely driven by crony-capitalism, campaign contributions, and vote hustling.

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COP25: UN Climate Talks Collapse

Written by Craig Rucker

pelosi cop25

COP 25 was an utter failure for the United Nations.

Despite extending the conference into double-overtime, making it the longest COP ever, the UN was forced to adjourn without advancing the “rule book” for the Paris Climate Accord or agreeing on a framework for an international carbon market.

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How can we measure the Size of a Thought?

Written by Norbert Schwarzer

image: Peggy Heuer-Schwarzer, “Mental Leap: From Thought to Action”

Abstract:Yes, the size of a thought can be measured. But we have to dig quite deep before we are able to see how it can be done. At first we need to understand how the universe stores information and from there we derive a universal measure for the thing we call information.

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