Science Controversies
Viewpoint: Who is RFK, Jr.’s newly-appointed CDC senior counselor, Sara Brenner — Vaccine skeptic and self-proclaimed “MAHA mom”
When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public ...
How Trump gutted Ebola research
As the world struggles to contain the rapidly growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, a ...
Viewpoint: Can mRNA research survive the Trump administration?
In December 2020, mRNA vaccines leapt into the limelight as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, millions of ...
Viewpoint: Greenpeace and poison: How environmental advocacy groups rely on compliant (and often ignorant) journalists to spread disinformation and spark litigation
Here we go again. Greenpeace released a report last week entitled Our Poisoned Land claiming 102 individual pesticides have been used across ...
RFK, Jr.’s delusion: Anti-depressants are not harder to quit than heroin—but that does not mean tapering off is easy
There is a legitimate clinical problem at the center of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s initiative to help Americans ...
Viewpoint: Is Trump ‘vice-signaling’ to gain the support of vape users?
In December of 2019, Mitch Zeller, who at the time ran the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, got an urgent phone call from ...
Viewpoint: Scientists recently revised downward the likelihood of catastrophic global warming. Reassured? You shouldn’t be.
Even if global warming does not exceed two degrees, it could lead to more serious consequences than expected. This is ...
Can ‘Social Stress Indicators’ help contain social media misfluencers?
Misleading information online is often treated as a technical glitch, something that better algorithms or stricter moderation can fix. But research points ...
Viewpoint: There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee—including many substances that can cause cancer. Why isn’t it banned?
We live in a complex chemical landscape in which risks are notoriously difficult to evaluate. It can be pretty hairy ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s FDA is on a screaming downward path—and why it may never recover
Whether you liked [Marty] Makary or not ..., the purge or whatever this was is not somehow going to miraculously ...
Viewpoint: Why the EPA mismeasures cancer risk of chemicals and what should be done to fix it
Every administration says it prioritizes getting the science right, and our current Administration has emphasized using “gold-standard science” as the ...
‘It’s not super useful’: As wariness about AI grows, Trump proposes rollback of healthcare safeguards
Paul Boyer, a psychotherapist for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, is experiencing the AI revolution firsthand. He’s a little underwhelmed ...
Facts & Fallacies Podcast: Nicotine vaping—public health miracle, or risk to children? Professor Cliff Douglas
E-cigarettes burst onto the scene nearly 20 years, disrupting the cigarette industry and leaving anti-smoking advocates uncertain about how to ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s ‘sadistic’ solution to autism, depression, and other ills looks a lot like prison camp
... [Robert F. Kennedy] has a long history of talking about people on SSRIs in dehumanizing, often racist language that ...
Colossal Bio grows chicks in 3D-printed artificial eggs. Breakthrough or copycat technology?
The baby chicks were shifting and starting to pip—or trying to hatch. But not from an egg. Instead, these chickens ...
Viewpoint— “A safe space to chat, flirt, and be intimate without sex”: Are new AI companies exploiting vulnerable asexuals?
Kor “got really addicted” to their NSFW role-playing AI chatbot last year. The 35-year-old artist from the Midwest recalls a ...
Vagus nerve wellness grift: How to build a billion dollar business. Are you listening, Kelly Ripa?
“There are billions of web impressions and social media posts on the vagus nerve,” said Dr. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon ...
Gutting the National Science Board: How the Trump-RFK, Jr. crusade is erasing the separation of science and state
“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump,” read 22 emails sent from the White House Presidential Personnel Office on Friday afternoon, April ...
‘Turbo cancer’ or mRNA cancer cure? Strategies to counter misinformation
Scientists are making rapid progress toward a long-awaited goal that could help to reshape cancer care: mRNA cancer vaccines with the potential ...
Here come the biohackers’ Enhanced Games—The Olympics for athletes doping up on steroids, hormones and peptides. What’s wrong with that?
This past week, in a city built on risk and reward, billionaire biohacker Christian Angermayer went about his wellness routine ...
‘Realistic and durable’: EPA proposes loosening restrictions on some PFAS ‘forever chemicals.’
The Trump administration ... moved to partially roll back drinking water protections from toxic “forever chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ...
The Orange Bowl without oranges: Can CRISPR save Florida citrus?
The famous Orange Bowl may still host an annual New Year’s Day football game after 91 years in celebration of ...
Chiropractors may no longer be modern-day snake oil salesmen, but the benefits of their therapy are limited–at best
Roughly 11 percent of American adults saw a chiropractor in 2022, mainly for pain management. Chiropractic care is offered by ...
Meat sits atop the U.S.-RFK, Jr. food pyramid. How healthy is the carnivore diet?
Meat is king, according to the U.S. government. The new dietary guidelines encourage people to consume red meat regularly, and ...
Viewpoint: NAD is the wellness grifters latest evidence-lite longevity fad. At least the mice are impressed.
NAD has been discussed in the wellness world for years. In 2019, Jennifer Aniston mentioned it in an interview with ...
Facts & Fallacies Podcast: Limit free speech to blunt social media misinfo?
Information, much of it false, spreads at lightning speed in today’s digital age. The problem is more troubling than it ...
Social media’s health advice red flags
Researchers ... looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only ...
