USDA: Cows Unfit to Stand Are Unfit to Eat (1)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
6 days, 23 hours
ago
permalink
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has proposed a rule banning cows too sick to stand from the food supply. If you're like me, you probably figured this was already the case: Industrial food production is ugly, but not so ugly that disease-dropped animals are deemed fit for the table. Not quite. As of now, animals unable to stand are judged on a case-by-case basis. (The losers end up with a 4-D grade -- dead, dying, ...
McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School (112)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week
ago
permalink
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin wants creationism taught in science classes. In a 2006 gubernatorial debate, the soon-to-be governor of Alaska trotted out the usual creationist education canard: "Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important, and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both." Teaching evolution and creationism in a scientifically balanced way is simply impossible. Evolution is accepted by scientists as ...
-
Alex said:
This is one of my non-negotiable issues. I understand a plurality of Americans may hold differing views on evolution, however, so it's clearly not political suicide. This distresses me.
-
Jenna said:
Boo!
-
Eric said:
creationist nonsense.
-
Paul Grenier said:
how many times can I vote again?
-
Josh said:
All those saying McCain wouldn't be Bush 2, please take notice.
-
Joey Doll said:
what about the flying spaghetti monster? my beliefs are being ignored!
-
sevas said:
"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of education. Healthy debate is so important [...]"what debate ?
-
washwords said:
oh. yay. siggggggh. hopes people realize all "gals" are not the same.
-
fox said:
terrifying
-
straylight said:
http://dwb.adn.com/news/politics/elections/story/8347904p-8243554c.htmlYeah, it's true.
McCain's VP Wants Creationism Taught in School (3)
share
digg
Go Green By Having Fewer Kids (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired: Wired Science (6)
1 week
ago
permalink
If you really want to go green, advised a recent British Medical Journal editorial, then help the population-booming developing world have fewer kids. It's interesting advice, but I'm somewhat ambivalent about the editors' focus on making contraceptives universally available. When countries prosper, birth rates fall: this is a well-known, global trend. The reasons are many, and certainly involve access to contraceptives -- but there are economic reasons, too. In developed countries, children aren't seen as ...
Remembering Thomas Weller, Unappreciated Vaccine Hero (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 2 days
ago
permalink
Thomas Weller, the Nobel laureate whose work made vaccines for polio, chicken pox and measles, has passed away. Weller's breakthrough involved the study of viruses in tissue cultures. Now taken for granted, this technique hadn't been developed during the mid-2oth century, when the polio virus ravaged America. Today's New York Times has an excellent obituary, which also contains this poignant description of the era:In the 1940s and 1950s, the much-feared and poorly understood poliomyelitis virus ...
Rubber Hand Trick Reveals Brain-Body Link (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired: Wired Science (6)
1 week, 2 days
ago
permalink
The rubber hand illusion is more than a vaguely creepy parlor trick. It's a window into relationship between our mental and physical self-conception. During the illusion, a participant's hand is hidden, and a rubber hand positioned so that it appears as her own. She knows that it's fake -- but when both hands are stroked simultaneously, what's seen and felt becomes blurred. Suddenly the rubber hand literally feels like it belongs to her. Consciously she ...
Neanderthals Not Dumb, but Made Dull Gadgets (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 3 days
ago
permalink
Neanderthals were stupid. They couldn't keep up with quick-thinking Homo sapiens, so they died. It's a tenet of anthropology -- and new evidence suggests that it's wrong. After analyzing tools used by Neanderthals, British and American archaeologists say they were just as well-crafted as those used by our ancestors. Flakes -- wide-bodied stones used for cutting by Neanderthals and Homo sapiens -- are just as useful, if not moreso, than narrow stone blades later favored ...
Google Earth Reveals Sixth Sense of Cattle, Deer (8)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 3 days
ago
permalink
Though my farm-raised father insists differently, there's something a bit spooky about cows standing in a field. They're just a bit too placid; I've always suspected that those limpid eyes hide strange secrets. And what do you know -- I was right! German and Czech biologists have shown that cattle, along with deer, instinctively stand in a north-south direction. They appear to possess a sixth sense of magnetism. After studying Google Earth satellite images of ...
A Rule of Thumb for Gut Bacteria (1)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 4 days
ago
permalink
When a bacteria has lived in human bellies for tens of thousands of years, it's probably best to assume that it does something worthwhile. The Economist has a story on Heliobacter pylori, a gut-dwelling microbe and longtime Wired Science favorite: nearly annihilated by modern hygiene and drugs, it causes ulcers and certain types of cancer, but may protect against other cancers, asthma and obesity. That in itself isn't new, but the article examines H. pylori's ...
Graphic Evidence Against Steroid Abuse [PICS] (42)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 4 days
ago
permalink
Know anybody who's using steroids and just won't stop, despite all your good advice? Then show them this picture. (Potentially NSFW, and gross -- hence its after-the-jump position.) Depicted is a 21-year-old amateur bodybuilder who arrived at a clinic in Dusseldorf, Germany with severe acne on his chest and upper back. He was a constant user of anabolic-androgenic steroids, of which acne is a side effect -- as is damaged sperm and shrunken testicles, both ...
How to Teach Evolution (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
1 week, 4 days
ago
permalink
The battle over teaching evolution in the classroom has the unfortunate effect of reducing participants to generalities -- to sides and arguments, rather than individual human beings. Not that sides aren't taken and arguments made. But when the dust settles -- with, inevitably, evolution education given a legal mandate -- teachers and students are left to negotiate a tricky mix of science, religion and government intervention. To evolution's advocates, this seems an easy task: on ...
Bacteria Sacrifice Selves for Greater Good (3)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired: Wired Science (6)
1 week, 6 days
ago
permalink
Like American soldiers on the shores of Normandy during World War II, salmonella bacteria sacrifice themselves for the greater good -- a phenomenon that may illuminate the evolution of altruism. When salmonella enter the digestive tract, they fare poorly: other bacteria have already established their positions. But by sending an advance group digging into intestinal tissues, they set off an inflammatory reaction in their host, sweeping away the other bacteria. The advance group also dies, ...
Early Birds Get the Babes (1)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
2 weeks
ago
permalink
Ever felt like your romantic failings were set in motion long ago, with a few innocuous adolescent mishaps consigning you to a life of flubbed pickup lines and missed cues? Some birds have the same problem. German researchers who studied the reproductive habits of Sterna hirundo, a long-lived migratory seabird better known as the common tern, found that adolescent terns who arrived early at their seasonal mating grounds fared better in coming years than their ...
Jamaican Sprinting Dominance Isn't Genetic (2)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired: Wired Science (6)
2 weeks
ago
permalink
With Jamaica's sprinters dominating at the Beijing Olympics, it was probably inevitable that someone would wonder if Jamaicans aren't genetically predisposed to run fast. Out come the preliminary findings: 70 percent of Jamaicans appear to have ACTN3, a gene that codes for fast-twitch muscle fiber, ostensibly making them better short-distance runners. But if sprinting dominance tracks with racial genetics, why didn't Jamaica do better in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where their men won just ...
Presidential Election Already Decided ... in Voters Minds | Wired Science from Wired.com (4)
share
digg
Culture Shapes How People See Faces (7)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
2 weeks, 1 day
ago
permalink
Culture shapes perception so fundamentally that it may determine the way we look at faces. East Asians focus their gazes on the center of faces; Westerners looked to first the eyes, and then to the mouth. The findings were produced by University of Glasgow psychologists who tracked the eye motions of observers as they looked at portraits. The study was small and hasn't been replicated, but the differences were stark. Other researchers have found similar ...
-
DigDoug said:
This is how science reporting should be done. It clearly states it hasn't been replicated, but shows why it's still a fascinating study anyway.
Should Fast Food Be Banned? (3)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired Science (51)
2 weeks, 1 day
ago
permalink
Should people, as represented by their government, decide what sort of restaurants can operate in their community? San Jose's City Council yesterday rejected a one-year ban on the construction of new fast food restaurants. The proposal was patterned on a Los Angeles ban on new fast food joints in poor neighborhoods. The proposals are based on fairly solid science: unless you're one of the few people who eat salads at McDonald's, fast food is generally ...
Scientists Make a Fat-Burning Fat (10)
share
digg
by
Brandon Keim (67)
on
Wired: Wired Science (6)
2 weeks, 1 day
ago
permalink
Green depicts cells with inactivated PRDM16; red, a muscle protein is expressed; all nuclei, including those of brown fat cells, are blue. What if fat could make you lose weight? So suggests research into a little-known type of adipose tissue called brown fat. Though it's commonly thought that fat -- beyond the bit necessary for insulation and spare energy -- is unequivocally bad, there are actually two types: white and brown. White fat is the ...
Cloned Puppies: Sure, They're Cute, But at What Cost? (10)
share
digg
Wired Top Stories (842) permalink
Barack Obama's responses to ScienceDebate2008's questionnaire balance lofty rhetoric with policy-wonk detail -- not only on energy issues, which are a central part of his platform, but relatively esoteric issues as science education, bioterror and genetic privacy.Shared by adam (728) Alex Gorstan (4) Andrew (31) BrendoMan (114) BrianDau (3) Casey Kusiak (16) cgsheldon (119) Dylan Tarre (4) Elisa Gopin (23) Eric Daams (280) Gubatron (47) Guy (599) Hwy61 (4) Jay McGavren (1) Jean (2) joe torres (12) Josh (35) Ken Nadreau (8) Ken Nadreau (11) Lev Cantoral (2) Michael Liu (12) mike (49) Mike McCarron (13) Mike Nayyar (140) Myroslaw Bytz (5) Patrix (12) Paul Spoerry (55) Peety (86) Rick (9) Ritu (421) Robin Bal (103) Shawn Hill (53) Sun Tzu (313) Toby (137) Zaki (47)Contribute comment
