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Tobacchanalia
A new genetically-modified tobacco plant has been tinkered with so it produces cocaine in its leaves.
A good start, but let's figure out how to make it produce ethanol and then we've really got ourselves a party.
Capital Crime
The most recent bad scientific paper to go viral was this doozy, where the authors threw some capital T's all over a chart instead of calculating actual error bars.
They did some other dumb stuff too, but the capital T's took the cake. So ridiculous, but at the same time, not inconceivable that they may have pulled it off.
...Not As I Do
On the topic of bad papers, the President of little ol’ Stanford University is under investigation for scientific misconduct concerning image manipulation in publications from his time as a research scientist.
Anyone who did biological science in the 2000s knows this type of image manipulation was going on - it was too easy and the chances of getting caught was basically zero.
More modern technologies have a tendency to make these past decisions seem even poorer than they were back then. Image manipulation is going to be a topic of interest for a while yet, given its long trail of published evidence.
Need Better Sunscreen
We're all familiar with some existential threats to humanity whether they be fast (nuclear war) or slow (climate change). But our modern lifestyle, economy and, frankly, almost all of civilization is built upon electricity. Your car, your house, your food supply, your water supply, almost everything needed to survive is predicated on electrical devices operating.
And yet, we have historical evidence of solar storms so fierce they could fry all the electrical devices facing the sun. And that would include everything stored on them - all your photos, bank accounts, deeds, everything. Gone.
The odds of it happening in our lifetimes are probably not great, but it almost certainly will happen eventually. And as humanity becomes ever more reliant on technology for all things, what will this spell if and when such a solar hellstorm does reoccur?
It may be time to start to think about building more resiliency into our most important technologically-based systems.
Good Stuff
For those out there who believe the FDA doesn’t approve shit, you are now definitively wrong. The first ever stool transplant has been approved by the agency to help with recovery from C. difficile.
Fecal transplants have been used in America for some time -the FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine, so doctors can use unapproved treatments. However, companies cannot market said unapproved treatments, so they do not have much commercial value.
If you thought pharmaceutical salespeople hawking crappy medicines was a problem before, look out!
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