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Halloween Horror Science: Are Chickens That Learn A Bigger Threat To Us Than AI?

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) vegetarian advocacy group ...

Ignore Critics, Gen Z, We Weren't Smarter In 1984

It's commonplace for older generations to criticize the young. In my early career, an older fellow...

Taking The Book Of The Dead To Heart

In ancient Egypt, the heart was the key to a happy afterlife. It lived on after death, they believed...

American CO2 Is Below War War II Levels But We Keep Emissions High In Poor Countries

In politics, one way to make your belief in alternative energy seem feasible is to make its competitors...

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Hank CampbellRSS Feed of this column.

I founded Science 2.0® in 2006 and since then it has become the world's largest independent science communications site, with over 300,000,000 direct readers and reach approaching one billion. Read More »

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What can bio-based lubricants mean to you?

What can bio-based lubricants mean to you?

Mar 01 2008 | comment(s)

When you saw 'bio-based lubricants' you thought it was just a way to appeal to that girl wearing a Greenpeace shirt at the bar around 2AM, right? Not so, perv. Aside from being non-petroleum based, bio lubricants are good. Maybe too good, as this article cum PR piece for WISE Solutions notes. Namely, they can cause machines to over-perform. But that's a good problem to have. Sure, the article coos a little too affectionately about these lubricants to be on the level but the idea merits some consideration. I like the bio-based idea but it hasn't worked well so far.
Old Media Still Spooked By User Generated Content

Old Media Still Spooked By User Generated Content

Feb 29 2008 | comment(s)

Old media news groups that have put up news websites have had inconsistent success due to factors like the costs of moderation and the inconsistent quality of their user-generated content (UGC). As a result, readers are not all that excited about it.

You know what that means, right? Yes, we eat their lunch.

In a New Media & Society article(1), Neil Thurman of City University London states that despite a full-court press by old media to embrace Web 2.0 concepts, their own restrictions have caused readers to participate less than they would like. So some of them are considering it a failure.

The most important technology video you will see today

The most important technology video you will see today

Feb 28 2008 | comment(s)

I am not sure why Cali Lewis wore a tight t-shirt to discuss Chinese breast-massaging robots, but I bet there was a good reason. So let's chalk it up to another miracle of science.
What Is A Science Blog?

What Is A Science Blog?

Feb 28 2008 | comment(s)

Because we are basically clueless about what's happening in the blogosphere, I only learned about this flare up because a gentleman from PLoS who writes for scienceblogs mentioned us in his response. I had a small quibble with his statement
Scientificblogging.com is another blogging community. They have a different model. Almost all of it is commentary on the freshest papers. This is fine, but is unlikely to draw much of an audience. Popular magazines, like Wired, are trying to do the same.

but only because he used a prism that was not very accurate.

Think writing here is tough?

Think writing here is tough?

Feb 27 2008 | comment(s)

Think writing here is tough? Gawker Media fired someone they only hired a few months ago. Fired? From blogging? I'd rather work for free, thanks.