SciFood Blog

Americans trust Fauci over RFK Jr. and career scientists over Trump officials RFK Jr. has tried hard to villainize Fauci. Americans still trust Fauci more.

Some good news - I wonder how this splits down party lines

arstechnica.com/health/2026/...

How moss helped convict grave robbers of a Chicago cemetery Burr Oak Cemetery is the final resting place of Emmett Till and blues singer Willie Dixon, among others.

The tell tale moss!

arstechnica.com/science/2026...

It's because the only food they can afford are high calorie ultra processed foods. So lots of calories but missing many essential nutrients (and low fibre which makes you hungry again sooner)

More than 220m children will be obese by 2040 without drastic action, report warns World Obesity Federation says half a billion children will be overweight and calls on governments to act to create healthier environments

I worry about humans when we can't even feed our children properly, not to mention corporations who are profiting off people not feeding their children properly

www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

What we can learn from scientific analysis of Renaissance recipes Multispectral imaging, proteomics, historical texts yield new insights into 16th-century medical manuals.

Books were really the internet of the renaissance

arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Helminths Exposed: Inside the Sometimes Gross World of Food Borne Parasites In 1865, Otto von Bismarck, the conqueror of France, the architect of German unification, Germany's first Chancellor and the steely-eyed hard man of realpolitik challenged a scientist to a duel. This wasn't an early case of nerd hazing. Rudolf Virchow, apart from his scientific career, was also the leader of the Progressive Party and one of Bismarck's most vocal opponents…

If you dare, take a peak into the gross world of food borne helminth parasites in my latest blog post

Servants make things so much easier 🙂

That's hilarious. I like the bit where he says the kids thought their pet carp disappeared with Xmas magic but they eventually worked out out 🙂

Yep me too

Ok, so it's an ease of prepping and eating thing. I remember seeing something about Murray cod, I think, where you have to keep them in a bucket of fresh water for a few hours to get all the bad flavours out of them.

Yeah that's what they say in Australia too

Pigs are the biggest garbage eaters I know but everyone loves bacon

Having looked it up it sounds delicious. Looks like I've been lied to all my life. Everyone in Australia says carp tastes terrible!

That's the type of fishing I would enjoy :)

Nope?

Australians scorn this fish once adored by monks and kings Carp is a prized table fish in Europe but despised in Australia. How did we get here?

I honestly didn't know you could eat carp.

theconversation.com/australians-...

Honey from Australian wildflowers has potent power to kill bacteria The next jar of Australian honey you buy may just be doing more good than you realise.

Australian honey is good for what ails ya

theconversation.com/honey-from-a...

Hyperion author Dan Simmons dies from stroke at 77 I went into Hyperion blind, decades ago, knowing almost nothing about it. I was never the same.

I love Hyperion (and the other books as a kid). At the time had no idea that the whole thing was fusing The Canterbury Tales and science fiction. Just loved the stories.

arstechnica.com/culture/2026...

But you're right. The context is that we didn't actually think monkeys did this at all which undermined the drunk monkey theory. Turns out they might after all so the theory is back on.

Not sure I need evolution to explain why I like a drink every now and then 🙂

Following monkeys or eating rotten fruit? 🙂

Ethanol ingestion via frugivory in wild chimpanzees Natural daily consumption of dietary alcohol by chimpanzees suggests human attraction to alcohol may come from our ancestral diet.

Called the "drunk monkey" theory it suggests our proclivity for alcohol goes back to our simian ancestors.

It relies on monkeys actually eating rotten fruit

So in this study one group of monkeys followed another group of monkeys to see how boozed up they got 🙂

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Could a vaccine prevent dementia? Shingles shot data only getting stronger. Latest data hints that benefits seen so far could be underestimates.

I predict many middle-aged anti-vaxxers will soon be softening their stance on vaccines

arstechnica.com/health/2026/...

Shhhh!!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

Yeah I like them too, and wine 🙂

I know, I was bit surprised that it wasn't included. Might have been awkward if it won 🙂 I know that if I said marmite was better than vegemite they'd strip my citizenship and send me to an immigration camp!

It's gone on my list of treat wines. When I'm feeling rich I treat myself to one of them. Hopefully I feel rich soon 🙂

It wasn't that bad, I was exaggerating a bit about the beatings. I was a nerd so they were right 🙂

It's that old quote from Tolkien's essay on fantasy: a prisoner doesn't only have to talk and think about prison (or something like that)

Myth, monsters and making sense of a disenchanted world: why everyone is reading fantasy I have made the leap from literary fiction to fantasy – for those who think it’s mere wish-fulfilment, here’s why we need that thing with the dragons

All the things that got me called a nerd and beaten up as a child are now mainstream! A little annoying to be honest.

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

Wow that is some great art work! I was going to say I'll track down a bottle but the 2022 vintage is $195 dollars in Australia. Might need to save up for a special occasion 🙂