Greeks protesting in Athens. Photo: Alexandros Hahalis.   Prologue   I have argued for decades that Western civilization has been an invisible worldwide blessing. Democracy, science-based decisions, courts and laws, widespread schooling and respect for the natural world are good things that make civilization possible.    I am pleased and proud that my Hellenic ancestors’ science, technology, philosophy, and culture sparked these blessings all over the world, especially to Western European societies, helping their metamorphosis from feudalism to enlightened democracies.   Historical decline of the West   I noticed, however, that these Western societies, including that of America, have been shedding their Greek origins and reverting to their tyrannical roots.    The industrialization of the nineteenth century was the first blow against the science and humanism Western societies discovered in the Greek-inspired Renaissance of the fifteenth century. T...

Glyphosate / Roundup. Photo: Evaggelos Vallianatos. A billion-dollar molecule   I have been a member of a British-American forum discussing chemicals and the environment, primarily the effects of the giant-selling weed killer going under the name of glyphosate or roundup. Glyphosate is the so-called active ingredient of roundup. Monsanto came up with the glyphosate / roundup billion-dollar molecule decades ago.   Stephanie Seneff, a senior MIT computer scientist, is a member of this small forum. I noticed her remarks from Hawaii or Massachusetts on a variety of issues and glyphosate in particular. I kept wondering why would a computer geek on artificial intelligence be so involved with the world’s largest-selling herbicide.   The deleterious legacy of glyphosate / roundup   Seneff answered my curiosity in her book,  Toxic Legacy: How the Weedkiller Glyphosate Is Destroying Our Health and the Environment (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2021) .    She said sh...