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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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Advocacy groups like Greenpeace and the Union of Concerned Scientists have already declared war on poor people and kids with their militant, anti-science hysteria against Golden Rice but actual scientists continue to work toward the common good.

There is more good news for kids on another front. A cow has been cloned and genetically engineered with a modification of its gene for producing beta-lactoglobulin, a protein which isn't in human milk and causes allergies in 2-3% of children. Potential benefit: a "hypoallergenic" milk that doesn't taste terrible, thanks to biology and scary 21st century science that freaks out progressive cranks.
The anti-GMO contingent may be anti-science, and they may be overwhelmingly progressive, but what they are not - and it is refreshing - is hypocritical when it comes to criticizing their own side of the aisle. Outside America, anyway.
Here is a head scratcher; when confronted about the vague, conflicting language in Proposition 37 - even the real name, the California Right to Know Genetically Modified Food Act, is weird and disjointed - Attorney James Wheaton, who made his fortune in nuisance lawsuits under the Proposition 65 labeling act he championed, told the Sacramento Bee's Dan Moran he put so little thought into the verbage of Proposition 37 that he he hadn't given any thought to whether he might litigate over the new measure, if it passes.
It used to be you had to rely on human science journalists to get concepts properly framed for you and enjoy the shot of dopamine confirmation bias provides.  It still happens, just a lot less. Popular Science just went on an anti-religion rant - and you know it is bad when your own subscribers ask you to stop trolling them - and Scientific American has long been basically an unregistered PAC. But people are jaded by that approach and it is a big part of the reason why science has basically disappeared from mainstream media companies even though the science audience has grown substantially. 
The American College Of Obstetricians And Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued new guidelines to endorse IUDs and implants as first-line birth control options for teens. Despite widespread availability of condoms and birth control for women at very low cost (31-year-old Georgetown law students disagree, of course, they think the government should pay for it so they can instead spend $50,000 a year becoming lawyers), over 80 percent of teen pregnancies are unintended, they note, and so something more permanent should be used.
Are you in favor of solar power?  Good luck getting any large scale installations to go up.  While energy activists want to get rid of fossil fuels and support solar power, environmental activists block solar plants with lawsuits. And then there is the union left, who block solar projects for environmental reasons too - unless the company agrees to use union labor even in a right-to-work state, then their concern about the environment disappears.