A new Hastings Report compilation is based on the notion that genomics are the reason we still have medical inequality. Since genomics is a field that exists to sequence our DNA content and therefore help understand disease, it seems odd to posit that it could promote inequality when studying biology we all share.read...
read moreWhy is Homo neanderthalensis gone while Homo sapiens have bent the world to our will? In recent years, there has been speculation that climate change wiped out Neanderthal people, or interbreeding with us, since many of us have DNA shared by Neanderthals (we also share 60 percent of our DNA with a banana) but a new paper affirms the earliest belief about survival of the fitter, commonly...
read moreBeinecke MS 408, commonly called the Voynich Manuscript (after Wilfrid Voynich, a book dealer who bought it in Italy), has long dismissed as gibberish by most, but beginning in 1915, and certainly since the 1960s, it has also been a source of fascination for people who believe it must be a code. Or a recipe book. Or something. It is actually a proto-Romance language, according to a new paper. It...
read moreMany people don't realize July 4th, 1776 was not the day the war between America and Britain started, it's simply the day we traitorous colonists finally had enough of our own country's army attacking us, taking over our homes, stealing our food, locking up our guns, and throwing us in jail for no reason and we put the separation in writing.(1)read...
read moreA paper in Current Anthropology uses writing to distill what the authors believe are seven rules of morals common worldwide. It's certainly a catchy idea for people who sit at the bar asking why Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East can't get along but there is a big problem putting them into practice. Some morals aren't creating common ground because they are in opposition to each...
read moreThere is a reason that environmental groups and other anti-science activists out-earn the pro-science non-profit world by 1000X, and that reason is emotion.See a scientist be emotional or aggressive in defending their work and any number of people, including other scientists, will chide them and say that is not how scientists are supposed to act. Meanwhile, the trial lawyers who run environmental...
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