Science 2.0

Hank Campbell

Hank Campbell

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. Revolutionizing the way scientists Communicate, Part…
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Did Science Just Create The Perfect Lullaby?

Did Science Just Create The Perfect Lullaby?

Getting kids to go to sleep has long been a challenge for some, and there are beliefs that it got more challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic.Spotify got science and music together (the parts that aren't already together, music is applied math) to create what they are calling the perfect lullaby. Maybe it will help.Swedish rappers Jaqueline “Mapei” Cummings and Jason “Timbuktu” are both parents of young children. After Jaqueline gave birth they went to the studio armed with the science of what sounds to use to create the most soothing lullaby according to sleep expert Helena Kubicek Boye. Then they released the work on Spotify Kids.

60 Years Ago Today Alan Shepard Became The First American In Space - Where Will We Be In 60 More Years?

60 Years Ago Today Alan Shepard Became The First American In Space - Where Will We Be In 60 More Years?

Today is May 5th, when modern Americans assuming this is the day of Mexican independence (it isn't) consume Mexican stuff like burritos and margaritas (those aren't Mexican) but what we should be celebrating is Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard going into space.On this day in 1961, 60 years ago, Alan Shepard let himself be strapped into a capsule sitting on top of a skyscraper of rocket fuel using parts all selected because they were the lowest bidder on a government contract - and set off for the unknown.Seriously, this was a risk only test pilots would happily have taken. If you look at the spec that NASA gave to all the corporations that actually put us into space, it reads like aspirational quotes more than engineering:

Latte Nonsense: No, Your Genes Do Not Tell You How Much Coffee To Drink

Latte Nonsense: No, Your Genes Do Not Tell You How Much Coffee To Drink

When 23andMe was in its most ridiculous phase of existence, the co-founder was telling FDA to talk to the hand while she assumed campaign donations to members of Congress would exempt them from being told to stop lying about their tests allowing consumers to “take steps toward mitigating serious diseases” like breast cancer.

New Social Distancing Guidelines For The Partially Vaccinated

New Social Distancing Guidelines For The Partially Vaccinated

The Six Foot Rule is only a rule in a 'rule of thumb' way; it's okay for an estimate but you use a real ruler to build a house. Analyses instead show that the most important things are a mix of masks and ventilation. What about outdoors where ventilation is terrific? The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 has now relaxed its guidelines and are in line with what the science says; namely that unless you're in a protest unmasked, you'll be fine. And the Biden administration wants to use that to promote vaccines as well.

Feel Heavy? There Are 10,000,000 Pounds Of Space Dust Falling On Us Each Year

Feel Heavy? There Are 10,000,000 Pounds Of Space Dust Falling On Us Each Year

About 23,000,000 years ago, something hit the giant Asteroid 4 Vesta(1) some 120,000,000 miles away and the impact sent huge rocks into space. In 2018, one such meteorite from that time hit Botswana.It was not unique. Over 30 percent of such Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenites (HED) meteorites that hit Earth year come from just the impact that formed the Antonia crater on Vesta. And then there is everything else happening outside our atmosphere piling on.

6-Foot Rule Does Little To Prevent COVID-19 Exposure

6-Foot Rule Does Little To Prevent COVID-19 Exposure

There were a lot of rules introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic that originated during late 2019 in Wuhan, China. Some were pretty Draconian. China welded the homes of people shut and destroyed 16,000 coronavirus samples at the world's largest coronavirus lab nearby.  Some were pointless, like everyone carrying Clorox wipes around.  Most were less intrusive and at least somewhat helpful; wear a mask, stay six feet apart.

Should The Biden Administration Ban Menthol Cigarettes To Protect Black Americans?

Should The Biden Administration Ban Menthol Cigarettes To Protect Black Americans?

Unidentified sources made their way into the Wall Street Journal a short while ago and by stating that the Biden administration was going to ban menthol cigarettes the article caused tobacco stocks to plummet.FDA has until the end of the month to do what the President wants, it was said.It's entirely believable but what is interesting is the new reason for the ban; the government has pivoted from claiming menthol cigarettes "target" people of color to instead claiming they are used by children.

This Malaria Preventing Mosquito Is Not A GMO But Is A Science Boost For Nature - Will Activists Want To Block It?

This Malaria Preventing Mosquito Is Not A GMO But Is A Science Boost For Nature - Will Activists Want To Block It?

Mosquitoes like Aedes aegypti don't have any value ecologically. If Thanos snapped them out of existence tomorrow there is nothing they do that won't immediately be taken up by 3,000 other mosquito species, not to mention 25,000 bee species when it comes to pollination.The only thing they are great at is killing people; by being a leading source of vector-borne dengue disease. Not far behind is Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, which carry malaria. Malaria kills nearly as many people each year as COVID-19 did in 2020 but there is no Warp Speed program to keep poor people in developing nations from dying. Environmental activists (overwhelmingly white and wealthy) instead spend $2 billion a year scaring people of color in other countries about science.

Uncanny Valley: A Webcam That Looks Like A Human Eye

Uncanny Valley: A Webcam That Looks Like A Human Eye

Are you being monitored all of the time? You certainly are, by both corporations and the government. It just may not be obvious in the U.S., whereas in London you are filmed by government 300 times each day, and that concerns privacy advocates.What if the spying were more obvious? Like a webcam that looks like human eye?

Humor Works Better Than Scorn At Fighting Science Denial

Humor Works Better Than Scorn At Fighting Science Denial

A few years ago, much of the academic science community finally turned on the anti-science progressives that dominated the coasts of the U.S. and who refused to vaccinate their children. Standing up to their political allies definitely turned the tide, even California Governor Gavin Newsom grudgingly conceded and signed a law banning the arbitrary vaccine exemptions for kids that had become common in places like San Francisco, where he'd been the mayor, and Los Angeles. Some schools there had vaccination rates under 30 percent.(1) Pretending the problem did not exist set California back, especially when coastal cities had more vaccine exemptions than the rest of the US combined, but scorn so long after it was common likely did not make much difference.

Can AI Help Slow Future Pandemics?

Can AI Help Slow Future Pandemics?

If you missed the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, wait a few years and catch the next one. One happened in 2012, and in 2003, and since it was only discovered as distinct from the common cold in the 1960s, they may have been happening forever.If it isn't coronavirus, it could be a new flu.