Science News

Science Deniers Lose Another Round

5:16 pm EST September 2nd, 2011 | Environment, Science | 97 Comments

Fake climate science trumpeted by the right is quickly debunked and run out of town. Again.

 

Yet Another Study: No Link Between Vaccines & Autism

5:48 pm EST August 25th, 2011 | Science | 83 Comments

The anti-vaccination know-nothings lose another round:

The M.M.R. vaccine doesn’t cause autism, and the evidence is overwhelming that it doesn’t,” Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton, the chairwoman of the panel, assembled by the Institute of Medicine, said in an interview, referring to a combination vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella that has long been a focus of concern from some parents’ groups.

The panel did conclude, however, that there are risks to getting the chickenpox vaccine that can arise years after vaccination. People who have had the vaccine can develop pneumonia, meningitis or hepatitis years later if the virus used in the vaccine reawakens because an unrelated health problem, like cancer, has compromised their immune systems.

These same problems are far more likely in patients who are infected naturally at some point in their lives with chickenpox, since varicella zoster, the virus that causes chickenpox, can live dormant in nerve cells for decades. Shingles, a painful eruption of skin blisters that usually affects the aged, is generally caused by this Lazarus-like ability of varicella zoster.

Again, if you oppose vaccination, you are killing children.

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End Of The Space Shuttle

10:45 am EST July 21st, 2011 | Science | 3 Comments

We had a hell of a run. To infinity, and beyond.

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China High Speed Rail Leapfrogs America As Conservatives Constrain Our Innovation

4:32 pm EST June 22nd, 2011 | Science | 15 Comments

The Bush years were the beginning of America slipping behind the rest of the world, as our government rapidly increased its hands-off approach to national greatness projects. What we are dealing with now is the aftermath of that (and Democrats enabling it):

Just as building the interstate highway system in the United States a half-century ago made modern commerce more feasible on a national scale, China’s ambitious rail rollout is helping to integrate the economy of this sprawling, populous nation. In China’s case, it is doing so on a much faster construction timetable and at significantly higher travel speeds than anything envisioned by the United States in the 1950s.

Work crews of as many as 100,000 people per line have built about half of the 16,000-kilometer, or 10,000-mile, network in just six years, in many cases ahead of schedule, including the Beijing-to-Shanghai line, which was originally planned to open next year. The entire system is still on course to be completed by 2020.

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Gore Blasts Obama On Climate Change

11:10 am EST June 22nd, 2011 | Environment, Science | 15 Comments

He deserves it. The administration has again substituted timidity for common sense and boldness.

Former vice president and environmental advocate Al Gore sharply criticized President Obama’s “failed” approach to global warming Wednesday.

Gore was supportive of Obama’s action in the first six months of his administration, but the former Democratic presidential nominee said the administration has not made the case for action among the American people.

“President Obama has thus far failed to use the bully pulpit to make the case for bold action on climate change,” Gore wrote in a “Rolling Stone” article published online. “After successfully passing his green stimulus package, he did nothing to defend it when Congress decimated its funding.”

“Without presidential leadership that focuses intensely on making the public aware of the reality we face, nothing will change,” Gore added.

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A Black Hole Is Shooting Gamma Rays At Earth

3:01 pm EST June 16th, 2011 | Science | 10 Comments

ArmageddonI effing repeat: A black hole. Is shooting gamma rays. At earth.

Astronomers think they’ve nailed down the source of a mysterious blast of gamma rays that reached Earth in late March and continues, at reduced levels, even today. The culprit looks like a black hole, 3.8 billion light-years away, that swallowed and ripped apart a wandering star.

On March 28, NASA’s Swift satellite first noted the outburst of invisible radiation, a gamma ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe. Such blasts, thought to result from the explosion of massive stars, are regularly detected and usually die away within minutes. But this one continues today, and in its first two days, the intensity of the outburst measured in some wavelengths not visible to the naked eye as bright as a hundred billion suns, scientists report in Thursday’s edition of the journal Science. That makes it one of the most intense cosmic explosions ever witnessed by astronomers.

This is the part where Bruce Willis and/or Will Smith arranges a crack team of experts to prepare for the impending alien invasion.

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California Vaccination Rate Dropping, Will Kill Children

11:21 am EST June 3rd, 2011 | Science | Comments Off

Thanks again to Jenny McCarthy and the anti-science anti-vaccination crowd for the children that will soon die from this.

Vaccination rates among California’s kindergartners are below U.S. goals for 2020, according to a new federal report released Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that 95% of kindergartners should be vaccinated for nine diseases. But in California, only about 93% of kindergartners are inoculated for the ailments: polio; diphtheria; tetanus; pertussis, also known as whooping cough; measles; mumps; and rubella.

But more California kindergartners were inoculated for Hepatitis B and varicella, also known as chickenpox. For those diseases, more than 96% were inoculated.

Thanks to TVs Matt who gave me the heads up on this

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CBS’ Sharyl Attkisson Helps Kill Children With Poor Vaccine-Autism Reporting

4:11 pm EST April 5th, 2011 | Media, Science | Comments Off

Sharyl AttkissonSomebody stop these people. Respectful Insolence has the details but here’s a key graph:

Unfortunately, in TV news at least, the role of mainstream media propagandist for the anti-vaccine movement has been taken on with gusto by a CBS News correspondent named Sharyl Attkisson, and, oops, she did it again just this Thursday with an article entitled Vaccines and autism: a new scientific review, in which she pimps a truly horrible “review” of the evidence base regarding whether vaccines cause or predispose to autism.

Vaccines don’t cause autism. Every scientific study worth anything has disproven this. It’s not a real connection. Publishing this type of untrue data scares parents, and eventually leads to dead children.

STOP.

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Measles Outbreak In Minnesota, Thanks Anti-Vaccination Activists

2:03 pm EST March 22nd, 2011 | Science | 12 Comments

The handiwork of Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield rears its head again:

State health officials have confirmed six cases of juvenile measles this month in Hennepin County and caution more could be on the way in areas where parents have been reluctant to vaccinate their kids.

The Minnesota Department of Health confirmed the fifth and sixth cases on Friday. Three of the kids are from the Somali community, where some parents have been afraid to immunize their children over fears of the vaccine’s safety.

Health officials are racing to ease those fears and persuade parents to get their kids vaccinated.

These are diseases we beat with science, and now thanks to ignorance they’re back.

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Space Shuttle Discovery Ends Its Last Mission

1:19 pm EST March 9th, 2011 | Science | 7 Comments

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Sad to see, yet, proud of what we as a nation can accomplish.

The shuttle Discovery braved the hellish fire of re-entry for the last time Wednesday and glided back to Earth to close out the space plane’s 39th and final voyage, an emotion-charged milestone marking the beginning of the end for America’s shuttle program.

Dropping through a partly cloudy sky, the commander, Steven W. Lindsey, and Col. Eric A. Boe of the Air Force guided Discovery through a sweeping left overhead turn, lined up on Runway 15 and floated to a picture-perfect touchdown at 11:57 a.m. Eastern time to wrap up an extended 13-day space station assembly mission.

As it coasted to a stop under a brilliant noon sun, Discovery’s odometer stood at some 5,750 orbits covering nearly 150 million miles during 39 flights spanning a full year in space — a record unrivaled in the history of manned rockets.

“And Houston, Discovery, for the final time, wheels stopped,” Mr. Lindsey radioed flight controllers in Houston.

NASA: Still the best.

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