Science Journalism

The field of nanotechnology was originally launched from a lecture given by the late Richard P. Feynman at the California Institute of Technology in 1960. Here is a link to the appropriate transcribed talk in formal publication from CalTech-  http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/1976/1/1960Bottom.pdf The gist of the talk was an interdisciplinary approach to building molecular machines in ways other than (but not exclusive to) organic or inorganic syntheses. Feynman correctly reasoned that 1960s technology could build those types of machines.  At that time, his talk was viewed as the ‘ingenious’ Feynman lecture—a brilliant idea that was theoretically possible but impractical in terms of cost.  Not meaning to disparage the Nobel laureate by any means, he is mostly remembered for his brilliant contributions to Quantum Electrodynamics, his book of lectures for University physics students, and his brilliant analysis of the Shuttle Challenger disaster. His genius is often imita...

   Dear Lord,   The present era of loss needs much compassion from those who can muster the will and foresight to apply their skills. Given the disproportionate amount of death in the world, it strikes me as odd that our world has as yet to honor those who are compassionate towards inordinate suffering. Instead of an Academy Award ceremony for thespians, we need to find within ourselves to award ‘Good Samaritans.’  My strong belief, we need a new kind of hero. It is no coincidence nor small wonder, that in times of sorrow, our forefathers gathered around campfires to give pearls of wisdom in the form of stories to assuage our fears. By filling our desires for warmth, protection, and love, we learned to love as well. We need those kinds of heroes to inspire a love of our neighbor, our friends, and our enemies, too.   We spend much of our adult lives attempting to instill good values to our children and grandchildren. Give us all the needed compassion that bro...

The world may be entering a new phase in the battle with COVID. We - you and me, should not be completely shocked by what has transpired since the last president (#45) left office. In my rather angry tone, the world will be lucky if the USA escapes another war. The former president (#45) gave much of the world a blackened, bloodied eye. His base should view the current COVID crisis as time to repent and strike a new path. (I am dead serious...) I would count all of us fortunate if we do avoid any major conflagrations overseas.  I was watching the news this Sunday morning, and the largest democracy in the world is in chaos. It is not the USA -- it is India. India adopted democracy much later than the USA--- nearly 125 years later than the USA. The COVID crisis, in India, should concern all of us. Reports from their hospitals sound nearly apocalyptic.  India's democracy was gained from the struggles of Mahatama Ghandi, Nehru, and their followers with the UK [in the 20th century]...

COMMENTARY & BOOK REVIEW: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence -- Reckoning and Judgement by Brian Cantwell Smith MIT Press 157pages  2019 I bought the book at the brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble, in Fresno California. [The bookstore appeared well-stocked but the store was far emptier than  expected.] Introduction-- My Understanding of Artificial Intelligence When someone hears terms "artificial intelligence" in local parlance, it is often in a derogatory manner. Artificial intelligence (AI) owes its bad reputation to poorly executed tv and movie scripts where talking computers of a prior era could think for themselves. They could do everything but perform mathematical addition, correctly. These so-called, self-aware computers violated a major axiom of artificial intelligence: the computers acted like people and less like machines. Machines can not be self-aware and will not be human-like.  However, the exceptions to poorly executed mainstream human-like machines...

Antibiotics were discovered in the twentieth century just prior to the start of WWII. Fortunately, the discovery of penicillin allowed Allied forces to leapfrog successfully from battle to battle without suffering significant losses. Post-WWII medicine ultimately rose to pinnacles of success by nearly eliminating bacterial infections. The reasons for their eventual diminishing potency is due to a multi-faceted resistance that follow the laws of evolution. One of the truly misunderstood aspects of anti-biotic resistance is the role of human-mediated evolution. Evolution for all of its misunderstandings will never change-- it is up to the individual to change their behavior to avert complete disasters that await us from total anti-biotic resistance. So, the first lesson? What is evolution... Evolution What does it mean? Evolution isn't just a theory--it is fact. The misnomer of facts as theories is sloppy thinking. Firstly, how do we change perceptions of facts versus theories?  Roug...

The earth's stewardship is the foundation that our progeny will judge us. Our stewardship will determine how the climate affects large swaths of the earth's population. The earth's climate, in recent years, has undergone changes that many experts could not have foreseen.  However, certain experts have recognized the implied issues behind a climate change for number of decades. At the birth of the environmental movement, think tanks like the The Club of Rome analyzed energy consumption and trends. Their pronouncements were published in a book, The Limits to Growth. The dire consequences predicted circa 1976 were delayed.  However, ecological challenges were exacerbated by the rampant disregard of ec stem changes iOne The arctic will have shipping lanes for all of the year--the winters in the Northern Hemisphere of the Americas subject the people of the USA to 'a polar vortex.' The extraordinary amount of extra ice and cold have brutalized parts of the USA. What is un...

 Once again the medicinal chemists make headway in treating COVID. Pfizer is said to have an oral treatment drug in Phase I clinical trials. The lead molecule was initially found in 2003. [Lead molecules are those drug candidates that showed promise in the laboratory setting.] Pfizer was said to have discovered it for the SARS outbreak almost twenty years ago. The present candidate molecule is said to attach (form an irreversible bond) to COVID enzymes responsible for reproduction in the host. It effectively shuts down the virus. Indirectly quoting from Chemical and Engineering News, scientists expect the COVID virus to stick around. How long? It is unknown. When a sizable number of the population refuses to ‘mask up,’ we could face an extended amount of time fighting the virus.  According to the article from Chemical and Engineering News, Charlotte Allerton from Pfizer’s medicine  design,   ‘“For the foreseeable future, we will expect to see continued outbreaks from...

Jesus Christ said you will find me among the dispossessed and outcasts of society. For anyone who has spent anytime with a homeless person—at times, you would be very hard pressed to see the ‘face of Christ.’ These are people—plain, ordinary people. Mother Teresa of Calcutta spent decades among the poor in India. It has been said she, at times, would fall into despair over the fact that she was overwhelmed.  I, presently, live in an area with a lot of poor and indigent people. When I say my heart bleeds—it is no lie. There are so many times when I can’t do a thing. At those times there is quite a bit of despair, and you realize these people may be mentally ill or unstable.  It has been awhile since a law was passed that gave the right to a mentally ill person to refuse their medications— it is in my estimation absolutely wrong. While being overwhelmed with prescriptions is cruel—there are some medications that would leave many people catatonic. These souls would essentially sl...

 Methane (natural gas) is found on Mars. The unusual aspect of it— there’s no scientific consensus for reasons for its presence. The first hint of methane came in 1976– the Viking landers detected methane’s presence during the landing of the spacecraft. At that time, however, NASA mission specialists couldn’t pin down origins. There was little fanfare made of its presence— was it an instrument error or earthly contamination? Many scientists now believe Martian methane is based on Martian seasonal cycles. [I first learned of Martian methane by reading the seminal book on the technique of mass spectrometry—its primary author is a pioneer in the field mass spectrometry, Fred McLafferty Ph.D. Professor McLafferty went on record by posting the NASA data from the Viking mission in his book. He stated the peaks from the instrumental read-out were from Methane—but stopped short of declaring the presence of Martian methane from the Red Planet. It was a dicey call in my opinion but sparked t...

 Sometime in the early-to-mid twentieth century there existed a Movie Studio named 20th Century Fox. It produced many hit movies. Some fifty years later, a billionaire bought the corporation and turned it into what many see as a folksy and all too chummy media conglomerate known as Fox News, Sports, and etc, etc, etc.  It has a lot of appeal. The anchors appear approachable and rather polished. They seem so approachable that some would believe they could double as family members. That last sentence is the crux of the problem. These individuals really shouldn’t interject their ‘so-called personal opinions’ into public narrative. Most would not want to be anyone else's family. I sound cruel but it is the truth. While most people are genuinely good (and don't get me wrong, many of the anchors and employees at Fox are good people). However, there is a corporate agenda that seems to cater to those in power -- especially the conservatives.  It is unprofessional and people (good...

Many of us pin our hopes on future events that are out of our control. Oftentimes, the events we can't control never had a chance in any other universe --even in those universes we could imagine.  What am I driving at? The world has changed quite a bit since the start of the world pandemic -- the freedoms that seemed immutable at the start of 2020 may never return. Travel to other countries may be predicated on proof of immunization-- and worse yet, not all vaccines are created equal. The present Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being held back until enough data can address the issue of potential blood clots. The clotting, for the most part, occurs in women of child bearing age. Pharmaceutical companies are slowly positioning themselves with newer COVID drugs and vaccines -- in the hopes that life can return to something resembling normalcy. The pharmaceutical giants hope to not lose their profitable edge by having their scientists throw the kitchen sink at the problem. In a previo...

I was listening to the Bald Scientist Podcast  and I was struck with a virtual epiphany moment. Professor Pagan is a researcher and instructor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, USA. He was interviewing a notable science communicator from Mumbai, India. The science journalist, Ms. Clarinda Cerejo, spoke passionately on the subject of bias in the media. The corrected terminology that she used was -- filter bubble . [A filter bubble is defined as that virtual space that people inadvertently fall into as they rely on ONE SOURCE or a FALSE SOURCE for their working knowledge -- it could be everyday knowledge of the world or specialized knowledge. Their views of the world become filtered by false information.] Ms. Cerejo is a trailblazer in the field of science journalism. She led the listeners on a tour de force explanation on how to escape toxic science. It begins with understanding toxic science is information that masquerades as the truth. It needs to be called out as a...

Many years ago I worked in the herbicide industry. I didn’t want to stay more than a year at ‘the company’ — however my wife, at the time, wanted me to stay longer. [An important object lesson: avoid anything that causes ambivalence when working in the sciences. Work in the sciences can be rewarding, allowing a good, living wage. If you are not happy with the job, find one that makes you happy. At that juncture of my fledgling science career, I wanted to teach chemistry and not be in the lab all day. However, processes of herbicide creation borrowed a lot from the medicinal chemistry creation of the past. It was an education I will never lose.] However to my benefit,  I learned the steps behind the creation of standard pharmaceuticals (circa 1986). As I labored to advance the corporate philosophy of creating herbicides that could out-perform standard pesticides of the mid-1980s, my mind wandered at times. I learned about a concept called QSAR— it was pioneered in part by scientist ...

Life, as we understand it, is complicated. One organism depends upon another. Bees need pollen. Plants must be pollinated to produce their fruit. Bacteria, in our gut, need to stay healthy with diets appropriate to our health. Moreover, bodies employ internal viruses and bacteria to maintain good health. Life on earth is closely inter-related.  However, viruses and bacteria have reputations as harmful to the lives of people, animals, and many living organisms. Viruses are known to make most people sick with colds. While the COVID-19 virus looks similar to the cold or the flu virus, at times the symptoms of the new virus can be deadly. At times, some of us appear indifferent or deny our culpability in the spread of the pandemic by not wearing a mask or refusing to be vaccinated. In many ways, this twisted nightmare where so many fail to believe or to trust science may become our ‘swan song.’ Earlier in the 20th century, technology and science enabled so many to leave behind the shac...

I do my best to keep up with the news by watching MSNBC-- I have many reasons for watching it rather than CNN or FOX-News. However my primary reason: I agree with much of what I hear. CNN is good source. However, FOX-News seems to dumb-down its viewers.  Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago I was listening to Rachel Maddow at her appointed time of 9pm EDT. She said something quite plain but profound-- there are other ways to treat COVID-19 infections. Prevention through vaccination may not be the only route. It struck me as strange-- so many unlucky souls have passed on but there are a lucky  few who have been given "mystery" treatments after infection. The former president (#45) happened to be one of them.  While I am unsure what the treatment cocktail consisted for the former president, I ran across an interesting post at the American Chemical Society-- an antibacterial that seems to be effective against COVID-19 (a virus). Anti-bacterials are normally ineffective against viru...

In late December of 2019, the world was forewarned that viral outbreaks took place in Wuhan, China earlier in 2019. While no one would believe that in 2021 millions would have lost their lives to this virus, it is ironic that the primary reasons are political. The USA, led by staunch Nationalists masquerading as Conservatives, could not respond to the world crisis. The USA, since the end of WWII, was known as the peacekeeper, the shimmering light on that glorious hill of democracy, the hope that was embodied at Ellis Island in New York harbor, and the defender of the defenseless. [The notions of America as the world leader came crashing in 2016.] It had elected a clownish person as president—he was elected as a result of  interferences in the US electoral processes by Vladimir Putin and the Russian KGB. For those who did vote for #45, much of what was true was they wanted change. They believed this conman who was utilized by Foreign Operatives to advance agendas that were counter t...

I live in Fresno—downtown Fresno to be more precise. It isn’t the safest area nor the prettiest area of Fresno. I live in an area near a stadium, Chukchansi stadium. Fresno is home to minor league baseball. While the significance of minor league baseball is that it brings an income base to the city.  Fresno, if anything, is in the heart of the agricultural boom-area of California. It is a shameful sight, however, the heart of the San Joaquin valley has a rather poor infrastructure. If anything, Fresno and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley host the most productive agricultural land anywhere in the world. However, downtown Fresno looks decrepit and somewhat slummy.   Truly, it isn’t the best area of Fresno—there are worse areas. Parts of Fresno host gangs that prey on the poor and the disadvantaged. The gangs are known to peddle drugs and similar mayhem. I do my utmost to stay as far from them as I can. However, their presence is a constant reminder why Black Lives Matter to me...

The first post is an Introduction-- I am the son of  European immigrants. I count myself as lucky to reside in the USA because life could be far worse.  Plagues (or pandemics) seemingly occur one time per century. A prior plague (or pandemic, if you will) was the Great Flu of 1917-1921. That pandemic occurred after WWI -- it is judged to be a result of poorly sanitized, rotting corpses, or the poisoned flesh from the Great War. No one (at that time) knew what potential harm would follow as decomposing tissue was subject to earthen microbes in the place of routine burials.  [The Great Flu wiped so many souls from earthly life, my suspicious nature started to ponder if  occurrences like this happened because (we humans) can't stand the sight of other more affluent souls.]  While my father 'weathered the storm' more than 100 years ago, his mother (my fraternal grandmother) lived barely past the era. She succumbed to complications from the pandemic and abject povert...