Science 2.0

Hank Campbell

Hank Campbell

Hank Campbell is an American science writer, author of the bestselling book 'Science Left Behind', and the founder of Science 2.0®, the world's largest independent science communications site. His work has appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Chicago Tribune, and CNN.

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Neil Tyson On The Politics Of Science Denial

Neil Tyson On The Politics Of Science Denial

Spend any time in American science media and you may find some of them are pretty far out of the political mainstream; so far out, they may not even be friends with anyone who has not always voted the same way as them.So it's unsurprising that much of science media once perpetuated the claim that 'science votes Democrat.'  Humans are fallible and confirmation bias is sneaky. As was apocryphally attributed to New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael after the 1972 Presidential election and a Richard M. Nixon landslide victory, "I don't know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him." (1)

I'm Marvelous Now - Why I Stopped Being Awesome

I'm Marvelous Now - Why I Stopped Being Awesome

George Clooney used to copy my haircuts.People who knew me in the 1990s always marveled at my classic, parted-on-the-side, immaculately coiffed style. It was retro, just like the term "marvelous' is today. Prior to that, I had a classic Caesar no-part look. He showed up in the television show "E.R." sporting that and I dismissed it as coincidence but when he then jumped onto my "Mad Men without the goop" look, I became suspicious and switched again, to a slicked-back "1980s martial arts villain" look, before changing to what I have now; a random part, more California, less Northeast serious. When you are young, it is a struggle to be taken seriously in the physics and engineering world but I am older now, so it's all cowboy boots and casual.

When There Is A Penis Mystery, Just Blame Endocrine Disruptors

When There Is A Penis Mystery, Just Blame Endocrine Disruptors

No one knows why Hypospadias, a birth defect where the urethral opening is abnormally placed, became more common among Swedish boys in recent decades. Before 1990, it happened in 4.5 per 1,000 boys, and after that increased to 8 per 1,000 boys.Researchers looked at past attributed causes (in epidemiology, they find two curves that go the same direction and attribute causation), such as low-birth weight, being born a twin, or being born from in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive, but the curves did not match.Maybe it was less reported in 1973. No one can say. So they created a new cause out of thin air: endocrine disruptors.

Political Scientists Say Political Party Is Partly Biological

Political Scientists Say Political Party Is Partly Biological

Humans are all one species but we are not all the same. We're not even evolving the same, if you look at it on a surface level. Americans are taller on average than a hundred years ago and the Dutch are probably the tallest people on the planet. We're guiding evolution, believe everyone except biologists. Why doesn't that extend to social issues? What if pretty people married only pretty people? What if liberals married only pretty people? Would not conservatives die off in evolution because they got uglier and less able to mate?  

Improve Peer Review By Improving Reviewers - And Pay Them

Improve Peer Review By Improving Reviewers - And Pay Them

A 'kitemark' that identifies randomized-controlled trials reviewed by specially trained peer reviewers would improve public trust in the robustness of clinical trials, according to an opinion piece in the open access journal BMC Medicine. Jigisha Patel, BioMed Central's Medical Editor argues that peer review should be recognized as a professional skill in the clinical medical field. The article was openly peer reviewed and the reports published alongside, as is the case for all BMC Medicine articles.

Science Is 400 Percent Wrong On Environment, Says Progressive Think Tank

Science Is 400 Percent Wrong On Environment, Says Progressive Think Tank

It's not often that a paper in a climate change journal declares United States government scientists wrong about volumes of environmental work they have produced after four years of extensive analysis, but in Nature Climate Change, an economics article has done just that.It's commonplace to say we need to accept climate science in a climate science journal so this deviation from accepting climate studies is out of the norm. Why the change?

New Atheists Should Try To Develop A Sense Of Humor

New Atheists Should Try To Develop A Sense Of Humor

Your preference for whether you would rather spend your time with cloying religious fundamentalists or annoying atheists is solely a matter of taste. To people in the middle, they are two sides of the same coin.But there may be hope for New Atheism, according to a sociologist. They just need to lighten up a little. 

The Future Of Nuclear Energy May Be A Battery

The Future Of Nuclear Energy May Be A Battery

20 years ago, nuclear science died a horrible death at the hands of President Clinton and Senator John Kerry. It's science fiction fantasy to imagine now what nuclear science would be like if the last 40 years had been spent with American ingenuity and technological prowess tackling the issue, rather than it becoming a political football to placate anti-science activists before finally being killed off.Its legacy haunts us today. With nuclear energy blockaded well before that, and modern hydraulic fracturing not yet created, America had to rely more on coal. Environmental groups never accept any blame for the U.S. rise in CO2 emissions, but it rests squarely on them as much as it does on automobiles. 

A College Education Does Not Make You Successful

A College Education Does Not Make You Successful

In the early 1990s, American politicians saw a statistic that showed people with a college education earned more money than people without one. In politician thinking, they figured they would create a lot of sympathetic future voters by declaring a college education a 'right'. Student loans became unlimited and tuition soon followed. The strategy worked, sort of. The beneficiaries of all that money are politically so far out of the American mainstream as to be almost unrecognizable, while a lot of disgruntled students have found that when everyone gets a degree, it is no longer special, and now they need a PhD or an MBA.

Is Tumor Metastasis Prevention On The Horizon?

Is Tumor Metastasis Prevention On The Horizon?

Cancer is the blanket term for over a hundred diseases where abnormal cells divide and invade tissues through blood and lymph systems. The extra cells are often detected in the form of a tumor that people notice as their first symptom, and those can be benign or malignant.

Making Smarter Smart Homes

Making Smarter Smart Homes

The 21st century will be the century of the 'smart home', where your home and your portable technology all interact seamlessly with one another.