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Rightly or wrongly, the marketing campaign for organic food has worked.  People have demonstrated that they will overpay for organic food despite their being no difference in nutritional value, the same way they will pay for homeopathy or magic crystals.But the billions that the organic food industry now generates means there is ample opportunity for fraud - and that's just wrong. If you go into Whole Foods to spend your Whole Paycheck, you should at least be assured the country of origin is what they say it is.

An extremely hot, massive young galaxy cluster named ACT-CL J0102-4915 is the largest ever seen in the distant Universe, and has been has been nicknamed El Gordo — the "big" or "fat one" in Spanish. It consists of two separate galaxy sub-clusters colliding at several million miles per hour, and is so far away that its light has traveled for seven billion years to reach Earth.

Welcome to the world's slowest clock.The 'argon-argon clock' works by measuring the ratio of the amount of radioactive potassium in a sample of rock to the amount of its decay product, argon. As scientists already know the half-life of argon's radioactive decay - 1.25 billion years - it can be used to date rocks back to the time of the formation of the Earth, some 4.5 billion years ago. The older a rock is, the more potassium has decayed and the more argon is found in the rock.New research has been able to improve the calibration of the 'argon-argon clock' and that could mean up to a 1.2 per cent difference in a rock's age from the original calculation.

One of the most effective arguments for science solutions to agriculture issues is the misuse of pesticides.  It's one area where activists and scientists agree.Brown planthoppers are one of a rice farmer's worst fears. Considered a major scourge in rice-producing countries, planthoppers cause considerable damage by sucking sap from rice plants, causing them to wilt and die. They also transmit three viral diseases that stunt rice plants and prevent grain formation. The obvious solution of the past few decades has been to rely on pesticides but beneficial insects that prey on planthoppers are killed inadvertently when insecticides are misused or are used indiscriminately.

In the East Scotia Ridge deep beneath the Southern Ocean, hydrothermal vents including 'black smokers' reaching temperatures of up to 382 degrees Celsius have created a unique environment that lacks sunlight, but is rich in certain chemicals.It also has communities of species previously unknown to science on the seafloor.This hot, dark environment surrounding hydrothermal vents was explored using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and the researchers found new species of yeti crab, starfish, barnacles, sea anemones, and potentially an octopus.

Two recent studies are providing a foundation for a more complete understanding of distinct kidney cancer subtypes, which could pave the way for better treatments.In a study published in Cancer Cell led by Kyle Furge, Ph.D. and Aikseng Ooi, Ph.D. of Van Andel Research Institute, they provide a more complete understanding of the biology of Type 2 papillary renal cell carcinoma (PRCC2), an aggressive type of kidney cancer with no effective treatment, which lays the foundation for the development of effective treatment strategies.

The previous year has forced us to confront difficult science questions: Was processing patents Einstein’s real strength? Are there any other planets out there like Earth? Why is the universe composed of matter instead of antimatter? 2011 had a bumper crop of fascinating science and technology stories, so many that it’s impossible to call ten stories "the top” but the audience expects it.  So, courtesy of Ysabel Yates at Txchnologist, here are ten notable events from a long list, in no particular order and slightly edited.

A study in Cancer Discovery says mutations in the ATM gene may increase the hereditary risk for pancreatic cancer.Pancreatic cancer is one of the most morbid cancers, with less than 5 percent of those diagnosed with the disease surviving to five years. Approximately 10 percent of patients come from families with multiple cases of pancreatic cancer.Using next-generation sequencing, including whole genome and whole exome analyses, they identified ATM gene mutations in two kindreds with familial pancreatic cancer. When those initial findings were examined in a large series for patients, ATM mutations were present in four of 166 subjects with pancreatic cancer but were absent in 190 spousal control subsets. 

An international clinical trial shows that treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab ("Avastin") delays the disease and may also improve survival. The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine report that the drug halted the cancer's return for two months overall but for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six months and the findings also indicate a strong trend to improved overall survival, which is being analyzed until 2013. The seven-year study began in 2004 and enrolled 1,528 women with ovarian cancer at 263 centres, including 20 in Canada. Avastin was added to chemotherapy treatment and given intravenously every three weeks for 12 months.

In March 2011, a surgical team at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) performed the first full face transplantation (FFT) in the United States and went on to complete a total of three FFTs this year. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers evaluate FFT in the US and describe details of patient preparation, design and execution of the operation as well as unique immunosuppression protocol allowing for lowest long-term maintenance drug regimen. They also share details of the early functional outcomes and demonstrate FFT as a viable option in the treatment of severe facial deformities and injuries. 

Prejudice is just bigotry that arises from flawed ideology, right?  Not so, say the authors of a new paper.They contend prejudice stems from a deeper psychological need and it is associated with a particular way of thinking. People who aren't comfortable with ambiguity and want to make quick and firm decisions are also prone to making generalizations about others. People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. And, they argue, it's virtually impossible to change this basic way that people think.

Champagne, unlike other wines, undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle to trap carbon dioxide gas, which dissolves into the wine and forms the fabled bubbles in the bubbly. More than 600 different chemical compounds join carbon dioxide in champagne, each lending its own unique quality to the aroma and flavor of champagne. But even with all of that flavor, champagne would be just another white wine without those tiny bubbles. As the bubbles ascend the length of a glass in tiny trains, they drag along molecules of those 600 flavor and aroma substances. They literally explode out of the surface as the bubbles burst, tickling the nose and stimulating the senses.