Agro-what? You may have heard of homeopathy, but how does it apply to crop production? Advocates of agro-homeopathy attest to the modality’s ability to influence the biological processes of plants to affect growth and control plagues and diseases. Could this be the future of agriculture?

Like a Frankenstein monster on steroids, the science-fiction film has mutated into “sci-fi” over the past quarter-century, juiced up with special effects, behemoth budgets, gore and gloom. It was in a Hollywood galaxy long ago and far away that thoughtful, speculative movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner were launched. With the genre [...]

Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil well, with the  USGS announcement of 12-19,000 barrels of oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico and beyond each day, the endless media coverage has focused more on BP circus acts to shed responsibility, and more preposterous ways to plug the pipe; relegating both the public and [...]

  The film Avatar, now on DVD, has sparked a lot of conversation about its animation. The film implemented 3D into the film, forcing audiences everywhere to pay at least twelve dollars to wear sunglasses in order to experience the true nature of the film. But as other films attempt to follow the success of Avatar [...]

Dr. Devi is a holistic practitioner residing in the countryside of Northern Malaysia. He and his wife cooked up a delicious meal during my visit to their home last October, and I had a chance to talk with him as part of my independent volunteer trip. A woman I’d been helping out asked me to [...]

There is a major catastrophe developing off the Gulf Coast in the form of a runaway oil spill.  According to an Associated Press article, an explosion last week on the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig operated by BP, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, has continued to leak oil into the Gulf without any success in containment.  [...]

So far, 2010 has been marked by huge devastation and loss of life as a result of several large earthquakes.  So I began to wonder, is this normal, or is it portentous of larger catastrophes to come?  As a consummate conspiracy theorist, my first search was to see if there was a link between the seemingly [...]

There once was a time when buying your food was as simple as walking into your local market and choosing what kind of food you wanted. That time was, believe it or not, less than twenty years ago. Today, it’s necessary to pick out not just the kind of food, but the way it was [...]

To most of us, the nightly admonition to “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” is an anachronism.  The present generation of Americans has been so unexposed to the bedbug scourge that many Americans aren’t even sure what bedbugs are.  Several New Yorkers, however, have already made their unpleasant acquaintance. And despite much finger pointing [...]

Finally, your car and our water heater have something in common: this week the federal government set tougher standards on both vehicle and water heater efficiencies.

The interminable clash between industrial growth and conservation of natural resources has found its newest battle between the shipping industry and the Great Barrier Reef. According to an msnbc article, over the weekend of August 3rd the Shen Neng 1, a ship carrying coal to China, struck the Douglas Shoals off of Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia. The ship was traveling at full speed [...]

  Last week, more than 500 renewable energy projects received approval for feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentives from the Ontario Power Authority. Designed to encourage faster adoption of clean energy solutions across the province, these feed-in-tariff arrangements permit owners to sell some of their excess power back to utility companies, allowing them to actually generate revenue from [...]

Green economists are fond of pointing out that there is really no such thing as waste or garbage.  In nature there is no waste as everything produced by one biological process is put to use by another.  Human garbage dumps are merely piles of wasted resources that we haven’t figured out what to do with [...]

  Ever wanted an artificial limb or organ? They’re fairly expensive, but if you answered yes, you should hope you have good health insurance. Repo Men (in theaters now) approaches the subject of artificial transplantation by creating a dystopian world where a single private company, The Union, controls the market of artificial survival. The inability [...]

Back in 2002, the Discovery Channel produced and aired, “Planet Earth.” It broke new ground as it offered glimpses of the planet’s most rare and complex eco-systems and animals via HD.   Discovery captured never-before documented birds from Borneo, breaching Great White Shark seal attacks and made finding and observing critically endangered species seem easy.  People [...]

In the aftermath of a huge natural disaster, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, disaster-relief workers have labored to rescue and aid as many people as possible. However, in several cases they are just not able to get there in time. The searching process requires them to comb the country piece by piece searching [...]

Those of you with a Facebook account may be noticing another viral trend on the site this week.  Some of your friends are going to disappear and be replaced by a scarlet letter. No, not that scarlet letter. They are going to be switching their profile pictures with a red A on a black field [...]

By Natalie Berkowitz As an inveterate fan of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, anything slightly disturbing about body tissues becomes an immediate must read.  Hence, research surrounding the advent of stem cell grown replacement bones is fascinating and perfect fodder for a bar-b-que dinner.  Considering the controversial nature of stem [...]