In 1950, farmers praised the news that small amounts of antibiotics would help their livestock put on more weight, faster. Ironically, that same year, different scientists published some early evidence of antibacterial resistance. At Scientific American's new food blog, Maureen Ogle writes about the history of antibiotic use in agriculture. Her story provides some great context to recent headlines, helping us better understand why our society originally made the decisions that led to our current struggle against antibiotic resistance.
Why did we start using antibiotics in animal feed?
The stubborn old belief that certain weather precedes earthquakes
The idea that a particular kind of weather — hot, still, and heavy — arrives just before an earthquake is old and stubborn. One geologist has called earthquake weather one of the… READ THE REST
A chemist invented a fake Frenchman to justify capital L for liters
The International System of Units capitalizes a unit's symbol only when the unit is named for a person, which leaves the liter with a lowercase l that is easy to… READ THE REST
Britain's £36 million peanut farm harvested less than it planted
In 1946, with Britain still on wartime rationing and short of cooking fat, Clement Attlee's government approved a plan to plant peanuts across 3 million acres of Tanganyika, a stretch… READ THE REST
Microsoft Office Pro 2021 is down to $29.97, plus free training
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Make ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools work better for you with this $30 prompt tool
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Go from idea to an optimized prompt in seconds with this lifetime subscription to Prompting Systems,… READ THE REST
Make an old PC feel new again with this $10 Windows 11 Pro deal
Disclosure: Boing Boing earns a commission on purchases made through links in this post. TL;DR: Give your PC a major productivity boost with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, now just… READ THE REST
