Since the dawn of time [citation needed], mathematicians have been fascinated with what prime numbers are, how many there are (see below), tests for primality, and crucially, finding a pattern in which numbers are prime and which aren’t. So far, the answer to that one has eluded us.I don’t think it’s too much of an overstatement to say that prime numbers are the building blocks of numbers. They’re the atoms of maths. They are the beginning of all number theory...Open Season: Prime Numbers (Part 1) By Katie Steckles Aperiodical.com

Commercial genetically modified crops are commonly optimized to be resistant to glyphosate, which most people know as Roundup. Glyphosate inhibits plant growth by blocking an enzyme known as EPSP synthase, which is involved in as much as 35% of a plant’s mass. The Monsanto GMO technique, for example, involved inserting genes derived from bacteria that infect plants into a crop’s genome to boost EPSP-synthase production.  They quite cleverly used nature to make crops pesticide-resistant, so farmers can wipe out weeds from the fields without damaging their crops, which means better yields, more food at cheaper prices and a lower environmental footprint, including global warming emissions.

During the days of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, the military decided to try a science approach to working with the residents there.Unfortunately, they picked an American anthropology field that is at war with itself over whether or not it wants to be scientific or advocacy-based. It was the wrong solution at the wrong time - as Israeli leaders have long told American presidents when being patronized, the Middle East is not the Middle West.

Battleships are so World War II. And while aircraft carriers have ruled since then, naval air power relying on them is primarily effective against targets that are decades behind. So while Raytheon is developing a missile killer to knock out China's DF-21D "carrier killer" cruise missile, DARPA is looking for ideas to replace aircraft carriers themselves, before they are obsolete.

In the ongoing culture war, where various groups jockey over studies to create some confirmation bias for their readers, some of the silliest claims have been that there may be brain differences between 'conservative' and 'liberal' people.Never mind that this would have to mean Americans have evolved to be a separate species, engendering all kinds of supernatural epigenetic and logical backflips, the reason it casts doubt is that all those studies claiming to be science used fMRI and/or surveys of college students to bastardize biology. 

Alex Wild at Myrmecos has shared a picture from visiting scholar

We see it happen all of the time - a paper is produced saying something is either bad or is a Miracle Vegetable of The Week, it gets worldwide mainstream media attention, and then a bunch of other people jump on to do more studies. Then people jump in to do studies debunking them. Rinse, repeatIf you have witnessed the hysteria regarding BPA, for example, you have seen we are in the piling on stage, while white rice has overcome the 'it is not as healthy as brown rice' stage and is gaining ground in neutral science.

Heinz Endowments, a charitable arm of Heinz separate from its consumer foods business, has relieved Caren Glotfelty of managing its Environment Program, which is a significant part of the endowment's overall grants. Her last day will be Thursday.In recent years, Heinz Endowments had given a great deal of its money to environmental groups opposed to natural gas extraction. Then more recently, it joined a consortium with major drilling companies like Shell and Chevron to create stricter energy industry standards, which annoyed environmental groups.

Federal Court of Canada has issued a default judgment against Doug Van Verdegem, and Bar V Farms Ltd. of Strathmore, Alberta, for patent infringement pertaining to the Roundup Ready gene in canola.The court determined that Van Verdegem violated the terms and conditions of the contract he signed with Monsanto Canada by deliberately and knowingly planting, growing, harvesting and selling Roundup Ready canola without paying for the technology - an unfair competitive advantage.

Until last week, I worked at a food truck downtown. We sold grilled cheese and milkshakes. One of the unusual things about this particular food service job was that the owner used customer comments and pictures on social media—especially Twitter and Instagram—to monitor his workers. Grilled cheese: gamified.And it was explicitly framed as a game for workers. Members of whichever 'crew' got the most positive feedback on social media each month would win a $25 iTunes gift card. But compliments are hard to track online. Even if a customer thinks she is paying a compliment online, she might not be. Like if you enjoyed your sandwich enough to Instagram it, but the color of the grilled bread wasn't exactly right, we’d hear about it.