It seems there is a specific gene variant – an “allele” – that regulates sensory pleasure and pain reduction; and the more of it found in a population, the happier that population tends to be. Researchers from Bulgaria and Hong Kong discovered that Ghana, Mexico and Nigeria all had populations with a high incidence of …
This blog has discussed the huge problem of meeting the growing world demand for beef. The global demand for meat is expected to increase by more than two-thirds in the next 40 years, with huge effects on the whole environment – everywhere. It sounds disagreeable, but Mark J. Post, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, …
Continue reading ‘More on the threat posed by beef farming’ »
There are more than seven billion humans on the Earth, and to feed them we’ve taken 40% of the planet’s total land mass and turned it into cornfields to produce feed for beef cattle. Unfortunately, the world population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion by 2050, and possibly 11 billion by the end of …
Continue reading ‘Potentially good news about feeding the world: vertical farms’ »
Scientists have discovered bacteria that are resistant to all known antibiotics. First identified in China, the potentially lethal ‘superbug’, which is resistant to what is known as the ‘antibiotic of last resort’ – colisten – has now been found in the UK. The director of Antibiotic Research UK, Dr David Brown, warned that it is …
Normal people believe in the strangest things. About half of US adults endorse at least one conspiracy theory. Belief in paranormal or supernatural phenomena is widespread, and superstition and magical thinking are nearly universal.Surprisingly large numbers of people also hold beliefs that a psychiatrist would class as delusional. In 2011, psychologist Peter Halligan at Cardiff University assessed how common such beliefs …
