Newsletter GLP Human
Do our brains predict how we think? Psychedelics may help answer that question
“Everything became imbued with a sense of vitality and life and vividness. If I picked up a pebble from the ...
GLP Podcast: When science isn’t about evidence; Bayer pulling Roundup off retail shelves; Kenya approves GMO cassava
A researcher who challenged the consensus on obesity was blasted in the media by her colleagues. Is this an example ...
‘Minimizing the probability of adverse outcomes’ is driving the ever-changing, sometimes conflicting recommendations on mask wearing
There is increasing confusion, and even consternation, over what seem to be disparate policies, recommendations, and mandates emerging in response ...
Why the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to surprise us
As people in the US grapple with a return to masking to stay ahead of the delta and lambda variants ...
Viewpoint: Creationism overruns archaeology? Promotion of indigenous origin stories challenges scientific consensus
In April, one of us—Elizabeth Weiss—gave a talk, titled Has Creationism Crept Back into Archaeology?, at the 86th Annual Meeting of ...
GLP podcast: Greenpeace v Golden Rice; Vaccine side effects—myth or reality? Objective truth under fire
The Philippines has finally approved Golden Rice, and Greenpeace is doing everything in its power to reverse the decision. A ...
Skin cancer and screening: The good and the bad of ‘overdiagnosis’
About a decade ago, when he was a first-year dermatology resident, Adewole Adamson learned that “exploding” rates of melanoma were ...
Hulu’s Rosemary’s Baby redux ‘False Positive’ bungles the science and stretches credulity
I looked forward to Hulu’s original horror film False Positive, pitched as a modern-day Rosemary’s Baby. It premiered at the Tribeca ...
Our prowess in sports has deep roots in evolution
The coming Olympics will showcase some of the most extraordinary human feats of strength, speed, and agility. As an archaeologist ...
High on prehistoric life: When did humans begin experimenting with mind-altering drugs and alcohol?
Humans constantly alter the world. We fire fields, turn forests into farms, and breed plants and animals. But humans don’t ...
Podcast: The COVID genetic sequencing revolution; Ban human gene editing? Brainless slime redefines cognition
For all the ills it brought, the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped revolutionize genetic sequencing. Human gene editing is fraught ...
How endangered great apes provide a crucial window into human evolution — and why we should help preserve these species
When I was a kid, every trip to the zoo featured a visit to the orangutan habitat. I was fascinated ...
You don’t have to be a COVID vaccine rejectionist to want to fully understand the nonspecific effects (NSE) of vaccines
The world’s attention is presently focused on the mRNA vaccines, which may turn out to be the most revolutionary vaccines ...
Epstein-Barr virus link? Tantalizing clues suggest EBV potentially triggers COVID long-haul symptoms
COVID-19 has already broken all the rules. Since when does a virus make people lose their sense of taste and ...
Extreme heat and evolution: We adapted to handle a vast range of temperatures but current conditions are pushing limits
Heat waves are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, not the more photogenic windstorms and floods. Hotter ...
GLP Podcast: Animal gene editing moves ahead in Russia; Biotech eliminates flavorless produce; Edible cholera vaccine coming soon?
Russia wants to produce allergen-free milk using animal gene editing. How much progress have they made? If you're bored with ...
‘Grizzled level-headedness’: As we age, we have fewer but more satisfying social contacts and are emotionally happier
When we are young, our skills tend to improve with age and experience. But once we are well into adulthood, ...
How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and anti-vaxxers misrepresent the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to scare people about COVID shot ‘dangers’
Convincing a parent that vaccines won't harm their children can be a near-possible task these days. As pediatric infectious disease ...
GLP Podcast: ‘It’s banned in Europe’ fallacy, debunked; Conversation’s bad glyphosate article; Fighting pregnancy stress
If a pesticide is banned in Europe, does that make it dangerous? Nope. Typically an excellent source of science commentary, ...
Is Prevagen the ‘silver bullet’ supplement to treat Alzheimer’s disease? Distinguishing hope from hype in the battle against cognitive decline
The avalanche of TV ads for Prevagen that coincided with my reaching Medicare age has inspired me to investigate what’s ...
How did Taiwan go from fortress impregnable to Asia’s COVID hotspot?
In September 2020, I arrived in Taiwan on a flight from New York. I had read much about the border ...
Bereitschaftspotential effect: Brain-to-computer interfaces are all the rage, but legal issues about how and why we act complicate risks
As I’ve written recently, a spate of devices enabling people with quadriplegia to move their extremities have been approved by ...
Saving our soil: 4 new microbial technologies that keep soil healthy and us fed
Soil microbes are hard to see and understand, yet we know that they have a significant impact on plant health, ...
Pregnant women’s brains show troubling signs of stress – but feeling strong social support can break those patterns
Even before the pandemic, there was plenty for expectant mothers to worry about. Pregnant women must withstand a barrage of ...
What our embattled world looks like through the ‘eyes’ of SARS-CoV-2
I’m tired of writing about COVID from a geneticist’s point of view, so I thought I’d let a virus speak ...
Rafting events: How did animals disperse around the world to seed evolution? Here is one possible scenario
Humans evolved in Africa, along with chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. But primates themselves appear to have evolved elsewhere – likely ...
Viewpoint: What’s the future of individualized medicine when you factor in ‘racial’ and genetic differences?
COVID-19 has put race-based health disparities on full display, but such inequities extend far deeper than the current pandemic. An ...
