If you could get all of your vital nutrients and calories by drinking a single liquid concoction, would you do it? A new drink called Soylent purports to help you do just that. Sold as a mixture of powdered ingredients and oil (you just mix it with water), Soylent contains thirty five nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, and provides sufficient calories to be an all-in-one meal. Is this the food of …
Heuristics take flight!
Sitting in an airplane makes me feel more in touch with my own mortality. It’s hard not to feel vulnerable when I think about soaring through the air in a fragile metal tube at 600 miles per hour. Do you remember your last flight? The roaring engines, the seats shaking during take off and landing, and the unsettling feeling in your stomach as …
Risk Misconceptions
Last week, a man peed into the reservoir that housed some of the municipal water supply for Portland, Oregon. In response, the public health officials in Portland, Oregon dumped and flushed the 38 million gallon reservoir. The City Commissioner, Nick Fish, claimed he “didn’t have a choice”, since he doesn’t “have the luxury of slicing it too thin when there’s a potential …
Porn: a societal predilection
From Priapus’ plump phallus to Shiva’s singular sexuality, humans have a rich history of fascination with sex. In Classical Antiquity, the Greeks and Romans crafted innumerable erotic vases and sculptures. As you can see from the vase in the photo above, they were not especially prudish! The Japanese, Peruvians, Chinese, and numerous other cultures made erotic artwork, and the Indians produced a helpful sex guide called …
Science is hard
Much of my science education has done remarkably little to make me into a critically thinking scientist. I passed my college classes, typically getting decent grades. I dutifully memorized the stages of photosynthesis, the enzymes used during the Krebs Cycle, and how to balance equations of chemical reactions. Do I remember any of it now? Only a little bit. Did it make me a …
Simple uses of plant preferences
Like humans, plants have strong preferences when it comes to the company they keep. Plants try to fight off invaders they don’t get along with, and try to encourage their buddies to live nearby. Farmers have been taking advantage of these behaviors for thousands of years to enhance their yields and prevent pest infestations, creating a rich agricultural tradition. When we …
When humans are treated worse than animals
Main photo from Wagingnonviolence.org I posted previously on how animals used for research are treated differently than those that are eaten. Since then, I have been reading about the criminal justice system in the United States (check out books here and here). I was struck by how much our prisons use solitary confinement. Humans are social creatures, and social research animals are guaranteed the right to interact …
Food and disease: Are you what you eat?
Since the early 1900s, Americans have argued about whether “natural agriculture” produces food that is healthier than conventional agriculture. Conventional foods are grown with petroleum based fertilizers, and are typically processed with added preservatives, while “natural foods” are grown with organic inputs and are processed with as few preservatives as possible. In the 1970s, this argument launched into a national movement, …
The greatest risk factor
Throughout recorded human history, millions of people have died from infectious diseases like tuberculosis, mumps, and measles. In many parts of the world, they still do. Public health scientists aim to improve human health by identifying risk factors for disease and setting up systems to reduce those risks. To achieve this, they study everything from systemic problems like unclean air and …
Research animals and livestock: Why are their lives weighed differently?
When I decided to take classes that would allow me to conduct research on animals, I was prepared for some ethical struggles. I have raised and slaughtered chickens, but had no problems with it since I knew that I had given them good lives. However, I was concerned that research animal facilities would be like Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs …