Category Archives: Science

Theranos verdict: In the U.S., it is fine to lie to consumers but not to investors

Hyper-capitalism has systematically weakened regulations to help capital at the cost of consumers. The verdict on the Elizabeth Holmes case simply illustrates the growing post-’90s disregard for consumers.

The verdict on Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who was tried for fraud in a U.S. court, was guilty. Theranos was a company set up by Holmes and her former partner Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani and had promised to revolutionize blood testing. Their advanced biotech equipment—they claimed—would provide results for a whole battery of tests with just a few drops of blood. In its heyday, Theranos was worth more than $9 billion, and Elizabeth Holmes was looked at as “the next Steve Jobs.” She was also the face that launched $724 million in stock sales to private equity firms and venture capitalists. Holmes figured in Time’s 2015 list of the 100 most influential people of the year and was feted by Wall Street as the “world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.” Continue reading

A new water source that could make drought a thing of the past

Lack of fresh water is now a global crisis. Water shortages mean food shortages, with hunger creating death tolls substantially exceeding those of the current Covid-19 crisis. According to the United Nations, some 800 million people are without clean water, and 40% of the world’s population is impacted by drought. By one measure, almost 100 percent of the Western United States is currently in drought, setting an all-time 122-year record. Meanwhile, local “water wars” rage, with states, cities and whole countries battling each other for scarce water resources. Continue reading

The subliminal death wishes of the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers

Those who think wearing a face mask somehow negates their freedom and by getting a COVID-19 vaccine they will die have it all backwards. Continue reading

What happens to wildlife swimming in a sea of our drug residues?

Wastewater exposes plants and wildlife to hundreds of chemical compounds. Researchers are learning about potential side effects and solutions.

Fish hooked on meth? It’s a catchy headline that made the rounds a few weeks ago, but it represents a serious and growing problem. Our rivers and streams have become a soup of hundreds of drugs—mostly pharmaceuticals—that come from the treated water released from wastewater facilities. Continue reading

The big lie of the U.S. war on global terrorism

Successive American administrations and the State Department have often shut their eyes to international terrorism and even covered it up. Continue reading

Remembering the great scientific crusader who showed that no biological basis for race exists—Richard Lewontin

Lewontin fought a lifelong battle against racism, imperialism and capitalist oppression.

On July 4, Richard Lewontin, the dialectical biologist, Marxist and activist, died at the age of 92, just three days after the death of his wife of more than 70 years, Mary Jane. He was one of the founders of modern biology who brought together three different disciplines—statistics, molecular biology and evolutionary biology—that mark the discipline today. In doing so, he not only battled crude racism masquerading as science, but also helped shed light on what science really is. In this sense, he belongs to the rare group of scientists who are equally at home in the laboratory and while talking about science and ideology at a philosophical level. Lewontin is a popular exponent of what science is, and more pertinently, what it is not. Continue reading

Emerging climate-fueled megadrought in western US rivals any over past 1,200 years: study

‘We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts.’

The western United States is likely being gripped by an “emerging” megadrought partly fueled by the climate crisis, says a study published Friday. Continue reading

The difference between climate change caused by humans and those of Milankovitch Cycles

As I knew would happen, my review of the very serious and heavily documented book, “Unprecedented Crime” resulted in condemnations from the fossil fuel industry’s trolls and from libertarians who think that global warming is a scheme for government to seize more power over private industry. Personally, I wish the fossil fuel trolls and libertarians were correct, but there is scant, if any, evidence on their side. I must say that I am discouraged that the oligarchs’ disinformation campaigns are again taking precedence over fact. Continue reading

The climate crisis is back in the news

The prospect of drastic climate change is back in the news. But, for all too many people it is just that, a news item. It is like other eye-grabbing stories: a bit scary, but also happening somewhere else and at some other time. Of course, if you happen to be at that other place or approximate to that time (the latest examples would be the Florida Panhandle in mid-October and Mexico’s southwestern coast in late October), things get more immediate, more real. But otherwise it is theory. Examine your own sense of urgency as you read on. Continue reading

Global warming is real. The threat is real. Ecocide is on the horizon.

The tobacco companies’ response to the US Surgeon General’s report in 1964 linking smoking to lung cancer was countered by the tobacco companies setting up propaganda organizations to create a controversy by generating doubt over the link. This strategy staved off the inevitable for more than two decades. Continue reading

Species threatened as climate crisis pushes mother nature ‘out of synch’

In a new study showing that the timing of species' natural events is failing to synchronize, ‘everything is consistent with the fact it's getting warmer’

The warming of the Earth over the past several decades is throwing Mother Nature’s food chain out of whack and leaving many species struggling to survive, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue reading

How nuclear power causes global warming

Supporters of nuclear power like to argue that nukes are the key to combating climate change. Here’s why they are dead wrong. Continue reading

The pope smokes out Congress on climate change

The funniest line of the last few days came from Arizona’s Republican Congressman Paul Gosar. Continue reading

Ohio’s anti-green suicide

Swing state Ohio is plunging ever deeper into the fossil/nuke abyss. Continue reading

Scientists predict increased rain, floods for Northeast

Residents of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states will experience increased rainfall and floods if data analysis by a Penn State meteorologist and long-term projections by a fisheries biologist, with a specialty in surface water pollution, are accurate. Continue reading

The wonders of the ‘free’ market

In 2010, Michelle Holmes and Wendy Chen, physicians and faculty members at Harvard Medical School, published an observational study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology that showed that women with breast cancer who took aspirin at least once every week were 50% less likely to die of breast cancer. Continue reading

To bee or not to bee

A friend of mine from advertising, Richard Tucker, now working as a freelance producer, sent me a funny email the other morning with a huge bee on it. The headline reads “If I Die You Die,” which in advertising generally means, “Duck, a blood bath is coming;” or perhaps it’s a metaphor for the world of people. Richard is a very clever fellow. Continue reading

Nikola Tesla: Calling all freethinkers

Part Three

One thing seeming most reliable for seekers of truth about Nikola Tesla: 90% of available information is disinformation, or misinformation. What’s more, Tesla’s greatest triumph is not only forbidden information, fully reproducing Aether capture Tesla style can be a PSQ (Power Status Quo) capital offense. Continue reading

NASA: CO2 is a global coolant

SAN FRANCISCO—The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lowers the boom on Al Gore’s Big Lie that the humble, beneficial gas—C02—causes global warming. NASA states absolutely that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a Global Coolant and massively cools the Earth. Continue reading

Nikola Tesla: Calling all freethinkers!

Part Two

Had humanity been allowed to pursue Nikola Tesla’s Aether technology as Tesla envisioned, we might not be on the brink of martial law in America, and WWIII wouldn’t be breathing down our necks. The Power Status Quo (PSQ) are very heavy breathers with death on their breath. Continue reading

Nikola Tesla: Calling all freethinkers!

Part One

Humanity’s horizons glowed from the brilliance of Nikola Tesla. But to our horrible misfortune, the glow was much too bright for the Power Status Quo (PSQ). Money means power, and Tesla cost tycoons a lot of money by slaying with alternating current (AC) the dead-end direct current (DC) power distribution system of Thomas Edison (financed by J.P Morgan). Continue reading

The sun shines on the arrogant few

The last I heard about global warming was that—surprise! surprise!—when the sun melts the permafrost the lately labeled greenhouse gas methane is released. This is real science. I read this at physorg.com where I also read about quantum mechanics, outer space and medical news. The global warming humanocentrics—those who believe that global warming is solely due to humanity—would find this appalling, except that they do not read physorg.com. In fact, I don’t think they read any real science. Which creates quite a conundrum. Continue reading

What are the efforts to contain Fukushima? None. Really.

SAN FRANCISCO—The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant contains six reactors and is located along the northeast coast of Japan. Three of the six reactors disastrously melted down right through the concrete floor and entered the ground on Mar 11, 2011. The spewing of radioactive particles into the Earth’s atmosphere continues unabated. Continue reading