Last Monday and Tuesday I gave a few lectures on Machine Learning at a Data Science school (IDPASC) in Braga, Portugal. I think that this topic has received so much attention in the last few years, with heaps of excellent resources now freely available online, that it is very difficult to be original and provide useful information to any student who is proactive enough to google "auto-encoders" by herself.

As if mothers don't get blamed for enough, a new paper claims attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)may have been caused by her diet during pregnancy.

The results of a study led by a team from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by "la Caixa", suggest that the risk of a child developing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be modulated by the mother's diet during pregnancy. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, analysed samples of umbilical cord plasma to quantify the levels of omega-6 and omega-3 that reach the foetus. The statistical analysis showed a higher omega-6:omega-3 ratio to be associated with a higher risk of ADHD symptoms at seven years of age.

A woman in Scotland can feel virtually no pain due to a mutation in a previously-unidentified gene, FAAH-OUT, according to a new research paper in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

She also experiences very little anxiety and fear, and may have enhanced wound healing due to the mutation   

The more intensive and narrow the agricultural process, the more intensive the greenhouse gas emissions - which means your organic vegetables, wild-caught salmon, and free-range grass fed beef is a larger contributor to climate change than modern farming techniques.

And that means rich White people disproportionately affect the environment through their eating habits, according to a new report in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.

The report looks at what different demographic populations eat and was undertaken to get a better understanding of the environmental impacts of the food consumption patterns of major demographic groups.

A Massachusetts-based company earlier this month cleared the last regulatory hurdle from the Food and Drug Administration to sell genetically engineered salmon in the U.S. Animal genomics expert Alison Van Eenennaam, who served on an advisory committee to the FDA to evaluate the AquAdvantage salmon, explains the significance of the FDA’s move and why some have criticized its decision.

1. How is AquaBounty’s salmon different from a conventional salmon?

Since 1990, the U.S Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.) has had NASA on its High Risk list due to persistent cost inflation and missed schedules.

Well, NASA is bold adventure, right? Doing things no one else can do? Bureaucratic timetables can't stand in the way of science. Except just the opposite is true. GAO regards NASA as a job works program for the opposite reason than that its missions are too bold for terrestrial accountants - it promises a lot and then once government is on the hook for the money, fails to deliver.

Supplement distributor USA LESS has been forced to recall all of its LEOPARD Miracle Honey, which touts itself as "an instant source of energy and enhancement of male vitality", from stores because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discovered why it works for male vitality.

It's not their bogus mixture of rainforest herbs such as Tongkat Ali root, Ginseng root, Carob and Cinnamon, it's the presence of actual Sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.

When we think of racial bias we usually think about differences when being stopped by the police or being watched more closely in a small deli, but there is another facet of it, an indirect bias by people who otherwise behave in ways that seem diverse and tolerant. In a recent preprint paper, the authors concluded that white liberal politicians and individuals engage in "competence downshift" when talking to minorities while conservatives don't. Liberals downplay their own verbal competence and use more emotional language. It's like mansplaining, except for people of color.

Survey results presented at the American College of Cardiology 2019 Annual Scientific Session led to a declaration that went well beyond the evidence - they said electronic cigarettes can lead to a dramatic increase in the odds of having a heart attack, coronary artery disease, and even depression, and used that to state, "These data are a real wake-up call and should prompt more action and awareness about the dangers of e-cigarettes." 

A liquid is traditionally defined as a material that adapts its shape to fit a container. Yet under certain conditions, cats seem to fit this definition.