Science 2.0

Though the U.S. government and its hand-picked panel are claiming that the "opioid epidemic" is legitimate pain patients getting hooked on drugs because of lazy doctors and greedy pharmaceutical companies, the reality is much different. Only a small number of people considered addicted to opiods are not instead recreational users.

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The movie version of scientists is a lone scientist having a "Eureka!" moment in a laboratory - thanks, Archimedes. In modern times, for example, ecoterrorists attack because humanity is a plague, science creates a cure, we are saved, or a scientist is a myopic tinkerer who creates a virus and government wants to weaponize it, etc.(1) 

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From herbicides to vaccines to pollution, there is a science consensus but there are still pockets of people who refuses to accept them. They are bolstered by disinformation campaigns. When it comes to food or what car to drive, the difference is higher cost or kicking the pollution can down the road for future generations to solve, but vaccine denial is harming people with immune issues right now. 

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This study has zero academic credibility. It’s a report on climate change by two businessmen with no peer review and no scientific involvement. Its authors are a Melbourne businessman David Spratt , and a former executive of a fossil fuel company Ian Dunlop. It has a foreword by a retired admiral, Admiral Chris Barrie. They use unreliable sources, and they use reliable sources incorrectly, and misunderstand them. This report should not be used as a source on this topic. Instead use the IPCC’s own worst case climate change example - a 3°C rise by 2100

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Many American journalists have dispatched any pretense of objectivity, according to a new think tank report.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10059.html

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Last night I was absolutely mesmerized by observing the transit of Ganymede and Io, two of Jupiter's largest four moons, on Jupiter's disk. Along with them, their respective ink-black shadows slowly crossed the illuminated disk of the gas giant. The show lasted a few hours, and by observing it through a telescope I could see a three-dimensional view of the bodies, and appreciate the dynamics of that miniature planetary system. 

In this post I wish to explain to you, dear reader, just why the whole thing is so fascinating and fantabulous to see, in the hope that, should you have a chance to observe it yourself, you grab the occasion without considering the lack of sleep it entails. I am sure you will thank me later.

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On Applied Epistemic Helplessness


The often (always?) brilliant Scott Alexander has an essay that parallels the thesis of an essay I've been meaning to write for that last six years. It's the perfect topic to kick off this column which I've been meaning to get off the ground for the last six months, so here goes. The epistemological question he lays out was pivotal to me, setting me on a path to the range of topics and conclusions that I plan to tackle in this space.

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A new look at data tracked the diets, health and lifestyle habits of nearly 30,000 adults across the country for as long as 31 years has concluded that the risk of heart disease and death increases with the number of eggs an individual consumes.

The epidemiology paper believes that is due to the cholesterol.

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Health care has become political and that means everyone wants everything for little money, at least when it comes to their own treatment or those in their family. The other edge of the political sword is lawyers waiting to sue, which has led to high malpractice costs and even higher costs due to "defensive medicine" - running unnecessary tests and engaging in procedures doctors know aren't valuable in order to check off boxes if a lawsuit happens.

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Though every world science body sees no reason to be concerned about genetic engineering - hundreds of millions of humans and billions of animals have been just fine with a gene in one plant that is simply found naturally in another plant, well funded activist campaigns about "Frankenfoods" have largely succeeded. Organic food has ballooned in revenue because it claims no GMOs all while not mentioning their own less precise genetic engineering - mutagenesis, bathing organisms in chemicals and radiation to get a desired effect. 

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Researchers doing observations in Myanmar's Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary found that rain-filled tracks of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) were filled with frog egg masses and tadpoles. The tracks can persist for a year or more and provide temporary habitat during the dry season. Trackways could also function as "stepping stones" that connect frog populations. 

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After attracting scorn with bizarre classifications of a weedkiller, bacon, and hot tea, the French statistics group known as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) decided to puncture claims that activists had manipulated the process by doing a flip-flop on coffee. Though they were widely expected to increase the hazard designation, they suddenly reversed course and lowered it. 

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US Stem Cell Clinic LLC, of Weston, Florida, and US Stem Cell Inc., of Sunrise, Florida, and their Chief Scientific Officer Kristin Comella, Ph.D. have adulterated and misbranded a stem cell drug product made from a patient’s adipose tissue, U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro of the Southern District of Florida declared in a summary judgment against the defendants.

On behalf of FDA, The U.S. Department of Justice filed for a permanent injunction against the defendants in May 2018, after several attempts to provide the clinic and the individual defendants the opportunity to work with the agency to come into compliance with FDA regulations and protect patients from harm.

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Eating too much meat is considered a risk factor for high cholesterol, which is a risk factor for hypertension, which is a risk factor for heart disease. Given all that statistical correlation, it's no wonder the public don't know what to believe about red meat.

But white meat is no better. This is a relief for cattle ranchers, who have been subjected to decades of claims that white meat is healthier and red meat causes heart attacks. The controversial French statistical group International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) even lists red meat as one of its hundreds and hundreds of things they can statistically correlate to cancer, albeit in doses up to 10,000 times normal levels.

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Don't drink 25 cups of coffee a day, you shouldn't consumer anything equivalent to 25 cups per day, but if you do it won't be your arteries that give out, according to research presented today at the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Conference in Manchester.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expressing concern supplements containing vinpocetine, a supplement (e.g. Vinca minor extract, lesser periwinkle extract, common periwinkle extract) which is a derivative of the vinca alkaloid vincamine, an extract from the lesser periwinkle plant and which sellers claims will enhance memory, focus, or mental acuity, increase energy, and cause weight loss.

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A new paper says that racist experiences increases inflammation in African American individuals, raising their risk of chronic illness and providing more evidence that creates physical health outcomes, states a paper led by April Thames, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

"I looked at it as a chronic stressor. Our results showed that racial discrimination appears to trigger an inflammatory response among African Americans at the cellular level," states Thames.

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Pop culture is in a bit of a quandary. Though food is essential for life, culturally it is no longer a basic necessity, and that's thanks to science. We grow more food on less land than ever dreamed possible. Even Europe, with all its political limitations in agriculture. Food is a cheap commodity and that makes it a values issue.

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Cancer starts as a single rogue cell whose mutations then trigger aggressive growth, damaging the health of the organism. But if cancer cells were accumulating harmful mutations faster than they could be purged, wouldn't the population eventually die out? How do cancer cells avoid complete genetic meltdown? 

To try and find answers, researchers in a recent study probed the most famous cultured cancer cells, HeLa cells, isolated from cervical cancer victim Henrietta Lacks in 1951 and becoming the first immortalized cell line.

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Some will say that walking a dog is a conversation starter and the fitness benefits of walking are well-known, but most who walk their dog simply enjoy it, not because of health or social benefits.

Using 26 interviews combined with personal written reflections of dog walking experiences, the authors of a International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health paper found that while owners may say the reason they go walking is to benefit the dog, the importance of their own improved happiness and wellbeing is clear.

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