Science Controversies
Microplastics as a blueprint for health scares: How the “panic pipeline” of activists and academics partners with tort lawyers to manufacture chemical crises
We’ve seen this fear-to-filing pipeline repeatedly in other contested controversies — most recently involving Tylenol and food additives — where ...
Eerily human-like embryo models are being crafted from stem cells in laboratories, raising ethical concerns
Researchers are racing to engineer highly realistic human embryo models using stem cells in the lab. Some of the newest ...
If you’ve identified as transgender or nonbinary in Kansas, you’ve just lost your ID and driver’s license
The number of bills directly targeting and undermining the existing legal rights of transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S ...
Anti-aging peptide therapies don’t work despite touts by RFK, Jr., Jennifer Anison and Gwenyth Paltrow—and millions of their followers
Droves of wellness enthusiasts, biohackers, social-media influencers, and celebrities are injecting experimental “anti-aging” peptides in the hopes of boosting energy, ...
As measles cases soar in South Carolina, RFK, Jr.’s disciples lobby to gut vaccine mandates
As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy ...
How to spot fake science news
How to choose your news video describes tips to choose news and separate face from opinion. Our Evaluate news information ...
Viewpoint: Wellness pseudoscience activists are rewriting U.S. health policy
For decades, wellness misinformation lived in a space that was evidence-adjacent and problematic, but containable: the “outspoken minority” spreading lies ...
‘They are an essential part of a healthy diet’: Debunking MAHA’s rejection of seed oils
For years now, seed oils have been cast as the quiet villain of modern eating. Scroll through social media, and ...
Longevity cure? Don’t waste your money on NAD anti-aging supplements. They don’t work
Recent studies on aging have latched onto a “player” in longevity that had hitherto received little attention: nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, ...
The Casey Means file: For MAHA, ‘her lack of clinical grounding isn’t a bug, it’s a feature’
Here’s what [Casey Mean] said, in rotating order, regardless of the question: root causes. Real food. Informed consent. Have a ...
Viewpoint: America’s reproductive health safety net is fraying as political wars escalate
In late October, Maine Family Planning announced three rural clinics in northern Maine would close by month’s end. These primary ...
Is the longevity treatment boom over-hyped?
At Biograph, a longevity clinic with locations in New York City and San Francisco, an assessment day can last up to ...
RFK, Jr.’s aversion to legislation raises the question: Will his revolution endure?
Over the course of his year in the Cabinet, Kennedy has racked up major wins for his Make America Healthy ...
Teaching AI to have a soul
As the resident philosopher of the tech company Anthropic, [Amanda] Askell spends her days learning Claude’s reasoning patterns and talking to the ...
Is there a way to stop climate disinformation? Spain has a plan
Propagandists flood our feeds with climate denial, conspiracy theories, and outrage to divide the public, inflame geopolitical tensions and destroy trust in ...
Viewpoint: Opposing expanding nuclear energy production—Here’s what left-wing junk science looks like
If you want to know why progress on nuclear energy was so halting during the Biden years, despite the administration’s ...
Trump-MAHA coalition near a breaking point?
Donald Trump issued an executive order [on February 18, 2026] to boost production of glyphosate, a widely used pesticide that’s ...
Tuskegee redux: RFK, Jr.’s unapproved, unethical vaccine experiment in Guinea-Bissau
[T]he grant request, marked as unsolicited, proposed a randomized controlled trial in the impoverished West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. The ...
Operation Stork Speed: RFK, Jr. targets baby formulas
When Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. summoned infant-formula executives to Washington last spring, he arrived with ...
‘Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t?’
Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t? It’s one of the most enduring questions in the study ...
Vaccines turbocharge cancer? Misinformation meme explodes online
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, claims that vaccines can cause severe disease have been widespread on social media, ...
Viewpoint—First year scorecard: ‘The damage HHS secretary Kennedy has done to science and public health is appalling’
It is beyond comprehension that the Senate confirmed [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] to oversee America’s health. The risks are so ...
Viewpoint: When it comes to chemicals in medicine and agriculture, ‘natural’ is often less safe than synthetic
Almost nothing in your life is natural. And that’s a good thing. Take a look around—your smartphone, your fridge, your ...
Tracking U.S. vaccine policy—Mid-February 2026
Between federal lawsuits, sweeping schedule changes, and states mobilizing their own legal challenges, the last few weeks have been a ...
49ers injury conspiracy theory: Power-station radiation isn’t to blame, but anti-technology hysteria reigns
As a San Francisco 49ers fan since I was a child, it was painful to watch the Seattle Seahawks run ...
9 top RFK, Jr. science controversies
From sweeping changes to vaccination protocols to scientifically dubious assertions about a host of childhood maladies, here are some of ...
Viewpoint — Parts per billion, panic per bite: Healthy Florida First food hysteria and the war on modern agriculture
The Make America Healthy Again coalition is at it again. An increasingly organized alliance of anti-vaccine activists, environmental litigators, and ...
