IF you find plastic/metal/code Artificial Intelligence somewhat daunting (think of the AI inside your cellular phone that translates what you say into text), then fasten your seatbelt before reading this report: https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html. Scientists “at at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of bi...

THERE seems to me to be four big factors suddenly at interplay with regard to food these days. First, however, it’s important to place this post within context: People all over the world are suddenly experiencing pre-war instability and uncertainness. Those who lived through WWII (and they are a rapidly dwindling minority) often say our contemporary world “feels” just like pre-World War II but “on steroids.” In the meantime, the world’s population continues a 45-degree growth curv...

I don’t usually post about topics that might simply though mention raise people’s hackles and guards. Still, it’s an interesting exercise, I believe, to wonder if domesticated animals and even possibly plants, raised to be killed (okay, “harvested” if that protects the sensibilities) and eaten know that they are being raised for such? Silly idea, or a very unpleasant thought to think about? I might have thought so, too, until I read about Hanabiko “Koko” the sign-language “tal...

I have to admit that people, especially children, have a fascination with dragons, be they more or less dinosaurian, bird-like or unicornian. I’ve always wondered from where this seemingly genetic-based “belief” in them comes. Until recently. For over 50 years now investigation has been ongoing into the nature of Quetzalcoatlus, a late Cretaceous winged behemoth with a likely 40-foot wingspan. With its wings “folded,” should humans have been present and not eaten trying to mount the...