Much has been made about the recent Huawei ban by the Trump administration. It is mostly the headlines that are making their way to people with very little in the form of the reasons behind them. Because of the size of Huawei, the ban's consequences come from different news sources. For example, you may hear "Huawei Android phones banned", or "Huawei 5G banned in the US", or "Huawei Matepro laptop banned". As a reader what are you to think? First, the ban is not against Huawei products. It...

Generic medication can be a life-saver for a lot of people who cannot afford to purchase their brand-name counterpart. In a recent article, we talked about the cost of medication in the US in comparison to other developed countries. We wanted to follow that up with a recent episode of Fresh Air. In this episode, they spoke to journalist Katherine Eban about her new book, Bottle of Lies. In the book, Eban illustrates the many safety failures we have suffered at the hands of corporate greed and federal...

Yesterday we reported how the industrial processing of foods impacts our desire to overeat certain foods. We showcased a recent study that demonstrated what we had long-suspected, junk-food, or ultra-processed food, causes us to gain inches. We recently discovered another study which has found a link between depression and constipation. The study found that when mice had low levels of serotonin, they also experienced constipation (and depression). In the study, the researchers gave these mice 5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), a naturally-occurring amino acid that promotes serotonin. After ingesting 5-HTP slow...

It's true! It really depends on where you mother lives and/or what her nationality may be. In the US, Mother's day is celebrated on the Second Sunday in May (today). And if you lived in the other 126 countries that also celebrate Mother's day on the Second Sunday, well... Happy Mother's day to you too. But what if you lived in Norway? Well, then we are way off. In Norway they celebrate Mother's day on Second Sunday of February. How about our neighbor to the south, Mexico. Like...

Viruses form a shell around themselves called a capsid. This shell, or capsid, protects the viruses genetic material, or RNA, from intruders. The most interesting part about the capsids is how they are formed. Like all DNA or RNA molecules, they include instructions for their replication. Ribosomes take the instructions stored in the DNA or RNA to build more of those same molecules. But viruses have a limited amount of storage, which means the instructions held in their RNA cannot have complex assembly steps. Instead, they have a...

In the late 90s, another President was under Investigation, Bill Clinton. The genesis of the Mueller Report was the Starr Report. The Starr report was known as the Independent Counsel Report. Unlike the Special Counsel Report from Mueller, the Independent Counsel Report had much more latitude and fewer restrictions in their investigation. In fact, it was thanks to this wide-ranging and lengthy (4 years) investigation that politicians decided to limit the scope of any future such investigations and the Independent Counsel Investigation turned into the Special Counsel Investigation....

Communication is a tricky skill. Humans begin to communicate even before they are born. A baby will communicate to the mother if she's uncomfortable with a kick or punch. Once the child is born, they'll communicate through sounds (mostly crying), and their actions (sleep). As mother and child grow closer, their communication also becomes more effective. Crying becomes more nuanced. Crying grows from "what does this kid want?" to "She's hungry" or "She's sleepy", etc. As we get older, we lose this effectiveness. This is partly because we...

What does astronomical mean? That word is part of our vernacular yet I feel we don't give it the due it deserves. If you look at the definition from the Oxford dictionary you will find: 1. Relating to astronomy. ‘astronomical observations’ 2. informal (of an amount) extremely large. ‘he wanted an astronomical fee’ But what is extremely large? Really, really large :) Just kidding of course, but I think these terms do not illustrate the proper meaning of the word. To provide context of how astronomical our known...

We have all played with dirt and sand. Most of us can recall the first time we played with dirt and world of possibilities it opened. Suddenly we could "build" castles, highways, cities... But if you are like me, those possibilities quickly came to a halt when water evaporated and the soil or sand became dry and lost its shape. So you can image my thoughts when I saw a video claiming he'd "Engineered" dirt to support the weight of a car. Really? How can this be? What...

The news of the first-ever image of a black hole swept the world yesterday. Einstein's equations and our general understanding of physics had predicted these phenomena in space, but we had never actually seen one. Artists had done a great job at illustrating these "black holes" in the universe, but yesterday's image was visual proof they existed. Even with our advanced understanding of physics, black holes have always inspired awe. After all, how can something so massive be so small (relatively speaking) and so large at the same...