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Building New Materials With Light
ckwu writes "Since the 1970s, physicists have used laser beams to trap and study small objects, from cells down to individual atoms. Now, electrical engineers at the University of Southern California have developed a simple optical system that assembles hundreds of nanoparticles into two-dimensional structures using a single laser beam and a silicon photonic crystal. This compact optical trap fits on a small chip and could eventually help researchers make materials for new types of sensors, optical devices, and chemical filters."
This is simply poor moderation. Yes, he's wrong. But he's not wrong about everything. He's absolutely right about the framing done by the media. It's done on every issue and something everyone should keep in mind when choosing sources and deciding what to believe.
But even if he was completely wrong, it is better to let the ideas he's sharing come to light. Someone else searching for "Alaska glacier growing" could be lead here as a result. They'd read his post, then the one under it, and hopefully come away more knowledegable.
Now that won't happen because you're voting on the position instead of actually moderating. We're all stupider and worse off because you think "-1" means "I disagree."
Now, an argument could be made that the parent was offtopic. But that's not how it was moderated. And I'll bet dollars to donuts the same mod who downmodded the parent upmodded the sibling.
tl;dr: Good job, mod. You're part of the problem.