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Rutgers Study - Forcing DEI Programs On People Increases Hostility

If you have done nothing wrong, do you want to be treated like a criminal? That was always the...

Minnesota Trial Lawyers Want To Ban Neonics - Here Is Why That Is A Mistake

Minnesota is having a challenging year, so challenging they are approaching California as the wackiest...

The Toxic Masculinity Of Disney Movies

Once upon a time, stories were just stories. They were fantasies that took people to a new world...

AI And The Poetry Problem

Artificial Intelligence is artificial, but it is not intelligence. That could change some day but...

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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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Twitter As Harbinger Of The Second Dot Com Bubble

Twitter As Harbinger Of The Second Dot Com Bubble

Mar 01 2011 | comment(s)

Remember when there were two well-funded start-ups competing to sell you dog food over the Internet?  And AOL could buy Time-Warner?

The good old days of pretend Internet money may be back.  Despite having no revenue, Twitter is supposedly valued at $10 billion.   And Facebook is supposedly more valuable than Ford.
Cats Manipulate Women

Cats Manipulate Women

Feb 28 2011 | comment(s)

Okay, we all knew that cats manipulate women more than men but now science has confirmed it.   An article in Behavioural Processes says cats gravitate toward women and it isn't just because they are easier to bilk food from.  No, cats are even more devious than we previously believed.

You probably want to slap people who tell you they have pets when you ask if they have children - and, I confess, I have gotten dirty looks when people have asked me if I have pets and I tell them I instead have children, which are 'just like' pets - but the social bond that crazy cat lady has with her cats actually is like what people have with their children, say the researchers.
Group Selfishness In Our Genes Is Original Sin - Nobel Laureate Christian De Duve

Group Selfishness In Our Genes Is Original Sin - Nobel Laureate Christian De Duve

Feb 28 2011 | comment(s)

Evolution has no moral compass.  We all know that.  And it has no guiding hand.  For that reason, says Christian de Duve, professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain and Nobel laureate (Medicine or Physiology 1974), we may be doomed.

And to get his point across to all sides, he uses an Original Sin metaphor.   
ClimateGate Scientists Cleared Of Scientific Misconduct...Again

ClimateGate Scientists Cleared Of Scientific Misconduct...Again

Feb 26 2011 | comment(s)

One of the subtleties of the human condition is that if you like or support someone or something, you can understand the nuances of what words mean differently than if you do not.   If you are a fan of WikiLeaks, for example, the ends justify the means and how they obtain information is unimportant whereas if you are a fan of the climate researchers behind the so-called ClimateGate, the fact that the emails about them were stolen is most important.    And if those researchers are cleared of scientific misconduct you say they are cleared.
If Content Farms Die, Science 2.0 Will Win

If Content Farms Die, Science 2.0 Will Win

Feb 19 2011 | comment(s)

If a site like the Huffington Post takes a fair use snippet of your article here and then links to you, their snippet will rank higher in Google than your actual article in keywords related to your article.

A little crazy but okay, you might say, they earned that, right?   With content and quality.
Extremist Domination Even In The Science Nation

Extremist Domination Even In The Science Nation

Feb 18 2011 | comment(s)

We'd like to believe the political blogosphere, and certainly the political populace, has confrontational overtones science does not, but who are we kidding?   If you get on the wrong side of a science blogging mullah's pet position, they will whip the faithful into a militant frenzy that would make any cult leader proud.

It's the science way; science is about clarity and facts and that means going after someone if they are wrong (and sometimes just if they disagree but that is less common) - the downside to that is it means everyone thinks they can tee off on scientists, including if the critics know nothing at all.