Category: Science

The Sound Of Settled Science

A changing view on SFAs and dairy:

Almost all national dietary guidelines recommend a reduction in [saturated fats] as a key intervention to reduce incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease (CVD). This has been translated into advice to reduce the intake of the major sources of SFAs, that is, dairy produce, meat products, and eggs. However, recent meta-analyses of both observational studies and randomized controlled trials not only have raised doubts about the scientific substantiation for this advice but have actually undermined it. It has become clear that there is a need for a completely different approach, with advice that is based on foods rather than on nutrients.

Via

The Sound Of Settled Screening

Genetic Literacy Project;

But screening for cancers themselves don’t seem to be helping patients make smart decisions, according to Melissa Beck at the Wall Street Journal. Expanding screenings seems to be picking up on more and more tiny, slow growing cancers rather than aggressive ones. As in the colon cancer screenings studies, the most virulent cancers still escape the expanded screening profiles. “We’re not finding enough of the really lethal cancers, and we’re finding too many of the slow-moving ones that probably don’t need to be found,” says Laura Esserman, a breast-cancer surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.

“Organic” Is The Latin Word For “Grown In Pig Shit”

A Meta-Analysis of the Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops

On average, GM technology adoption has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%, increased crop yields by 22%, and increased farmer profits by 68%. Yield gains and pesticide reductions are larger for insect-resistant crops than for herbicide-tolerant crops. Yield and profit gains are higher in developing countries than in developed countries.

Hoping It’s Nothing


Background here.
Ugh.


Latest unconfirmed reports – One pilot found with minor injuries, the other missing deceased.
Update: LA Times reporting.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Judith Curry;

Nicholas Lewis and I have just published a study in Climate Dynamics that shows the best estimate for transient climate response is 1.33 degrees Celsius with a likely range of 1.05-1.80 degrees Celsius. Using an observation-based energy-balance approach, our calculations used the same data for the effects on the Earth’s energy balance of changes in greenhouse gases, aerosols and other drivers of climate change given by the IPCC’s latest report.
We also estimated what the long-term warming from a doubling of carbon-dioxide concentrations would be, once the deep ocean had warmed up. Our estimates of sensitivity, both over a 70-year time-frame and long term, are far lower than the average values of sensitivity determined from global climate models that are used for warming projections. Also our ranges are narrower, with far lower upper limits than reported by the IPCC’s latest report. Even our upper limits lie below the average values of climate models.
Our paper is not an outlier.

“The reality is that honeybee populations are not declining. “

WSJ;

Why the fuss over bees? Is the U.S. in the midst of a bee-pocalypse? The science says no. Bee populations in the U.S. and Europe remain at healthy levels for reproduction and the critical pollination of food crops and trees. But during much of the past decade we have seen higher-than-average overwinter bee-colony losses in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as cases of bees abruptly abandoning their hives, a phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder.”
Citing this disorder, antipesticide activists and some voluble beekeepers want to ban the most widely used pesticides in modern agriculture–neonicotinoids (“neonics” for short)–that account for 20% of pesticide sales world-wide. This would have disastrous effects on modern farming and food prices.

h/t Kevin B

“Organic” Is The Latin Word For “Grown In Pig Shit”

Turns out Gaia is a genetic engineer;

Until recently, it was thought that plant breeding programs selected the superior forms (termed alleles in genetic parlance) of existing genes. Breeders selected for the form or allele of the gene that, for example, encoded a more efficient protein, expressed the gene at a higher (or lower) level, etc. Selection by the breeder was not at the gene level but rather at a level easily observed by the breeder. This could be greater yield, enhanced disease or insect resistance, sweeter fruit, larger berry, earlier maturity, etc. Then it was thought that all members of a particular plant family (corn, soybean, wheat, blue berry, orange, etc.) contained the same genes; they simply differed in the forms of those genes existing in a particular family.
It turns out that this is all wrong.
[…]
…pieces of DNA that naturally move around in the genome and insert at random into the genome- actually pick up pieces of old genes and put these pieces together to make brand new genes. This is not a rare event. For example in corn a particular transposable element termed a Helitron has synthesized (estimated conservatively) ~11,000 new coding regions. Since the total number of genes in corn is around 40,000 the number of coding regions coming from Helitrons is quite significant.
Note that these newly evolved chimeric genes-arising naturally from transposable elements — bear striking similarities to chimeric genes synthesized by scientists and inserted into plant genomes. The major difference is that the chimeric genes arising in nature via transposable elements occur unsuspectingly. We don’t know when they arise or where, we don’t know what the final product is. We don’t spend millions of dollars monitoring them for safety and hence we don’t know whether they might encode an allergenic protein or otherwise be dangerous. But because eating our typical food plants has a long history of being safe we don’t worry about it.

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