I shared dinner recently with a group including a smartly dressed soon-to-be law student. The conversation turned, as if often seems to do at dinner parties these days,  to the merits of organic food. She started complaining about some of her school friends. They were so much into the whole/ organic/local food thing that she [...]

One of my favorite early scientists, Robert Boyle, offers this charming list of goals for scientists, from the 1660s. The Prolongation of Life. The Recovery of Youth, or at least some of the Marks of it, as new Teeth, new Hair colour’d as in youth. The Art of Flying. The Art of Continuing long under [...]

A beautiful photo collection of people reading around the world.

OK — while debate continues over just how fast the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is dispersing, some thoughts on perspective. Compare the Deepwater spill to these figures, based on a number of sources and used in an exhibit by the Smithsonian. Deepwater is estimated to have released somewhere around 210 million gallons into [...]

Like this excellent post says: It’s time to get beyond debates about  “organic” vs “conventional” and move toward developing an agriculture that is better than either: highly productive while at the same time highly sustainable, good for our health and good for the planet, wisely using resources while getting food equitably to poor and rich.  [...]

Genetically modified canola spreads in Midwest.

Media chatter in the past few weeks spurred by the “Pepsigate” exodus from scienceblogs.com has focused attention on “science bloggers” – whatever those are. I guess I’m one of them. The problem is, there’s no such thing – at least not in the singular. Instead, “science blogger” is a conglomerate term used loosely to describe [...]

One of my favorite science-writer-type sites, KSJ Tracker, ran a good summary today of recent news reports that — gasp! — the long-term effects of the Gulf oil spill are not going to be as bad as most people feared. They were nice enough to mention my earlier posts (here and here). Thanks for the [...]

Will e-books kill printed books? Ummm. . . on brief reflection, no. On a little more reflection, hell no. In fact, e-books might save the printed book. Buried in Amazon’s release about skyrocketing Kindle book sales was the fact that while Amazon’s Kindle e-book sales were up, so were hardcover sales. More e-books and more [...]

Remember paper and ink? We used to read things on it. Not like you’re doing now, on your computer, or phone, or iPad, or whatever. For free. Well, in case you haven’t noticed, print’s pretty much over. The latest evidence, at least when it comes to books, is in this news release from Amazon.com saying [...]