You’ve tried diets, and the gym, and cleanses and meditation and acupuncture. The pounds landed– and stayed. Why are they still welded to your hips? The question baffles scientists and health professionals around the world, […]
To recap: The obesity epidemic began roughly 1978, rapidly accelerated until 1997, then leveled off. When it began, about 32% of the population was overweight, another 13% were obese, and a scant 1% were extremely […]
In our search for obesity triggers, hormones and chemicals that mimic hormones deserve attention: BPAs Birth-control hormones Something that affected children starting around 1960 and triggered at puberty Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a clear, hard plastic […]
Yes. Either. Both. But perhaps more on the foe side. Briefly, naturally-occurring antibiotics have been around for a long time, but the modern antibiotic era really started in 1928 when the researcher Fleming accidentally discovered […]
One possible contributor to the obesity epidemic is… corn. Corn, and things derived from corn, and things related to things derived from corn. Things such as: High fructose corn syrup. Artificial sweeteners. Increased fat consumption. […]
So following up on last year’s post about the population’s mysterious and abrupt weight gain beginning in 1978, plus or minus a year or two, and leveling off in 1997, plus or minus a year […]
Forget the “green hills of Earth.” Once upon a very long time ago, the hills on our planet– and many others– may have been purple. Or, more precisely, violet. It has to do with the […]
We rely more and more on electronic devices to manage our daily lives, everything from refrigerators to cell phones, automobiles to sewage plants. What if all those devices stopped working… simultaneously? Couldn’t happen, you say? […]
How many times have you heard, “The best things in life aren’t things”? What if I told you that things aren’t even things at all? According to NASA, “things” as we know them constitute only […]
With the invention of the automobile the travelling public lost a valuable safety feature– the common sense of the horse pulling the carriage. If the driver fell asleep or tried to drive off the road, […]
People, animals, plants– all begin with a single fertilized cell that divides, and divides, and divides again. These undifferentiated “stem” cells are identical to each other, and in human beings each cell possesses the capability […]
Real estate bubbles. Dot-com bubbles. And now— bubbles in the universe? Well, yes. In the Milky Way, anyway. It appears that a few million years ago—the mere blink of an eye in celestial time—our little […]
The “obesity epidemic” came upon us suddenly. It began roughly 1978, rapidly accelerated until 1997, then leveled off. When it began, about 32% of the population was overweight, another 13% were obese, and a scant […]
Years ago, I remember reading about people who engraved poetry on the head of a pin, or on a grain of rice. That level of miniaturization pales in comparison with nanobots, however— machines that function […]
And the ocean– how big is that? Pretty big, as it turns out. Not big compared to the universe, or even our galaxy, but compared to what you see out your window? Pretty big. There […]
Many years ago I asked my brother, an astronomer, this question. I expected to hear “millions” or even “billions”. A big number, surely, but just remotely possible to comprehend. He shrugged somewhat apologetically and admitted […]
In just the last century and a half, mankind has harnessed two transformative energy sources, electricity and petroleum. Envision the world as it existed before that. Without electricity, information moved no faster than a horse could travel. […]
“You’ll never hear the bullet that kills you.” True. And by the same token, you’ll never see the disease that ends your life. Tiny and pervasive, the viruses and bacteria and fungi that invisibly permeate the […]
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