Science Controversies
Dystopian future? Should the wealthy be able to use AI to hardwire physical or cognitive advantages into their genomes
It is quite possible that the most immediate threat AI poses to humanity is not that its superhuman intelligence will ...
Male Gen Zers’ rejection of reason: ‘Science can slide into conspiracy-tinged mazes rooted in misinformation’
After 30 years as a researcher, science communicator and university science teacher, I’ve been unsettled by what appears to be ...
‘Gene-edited sheep’ are a hot commodity on the black market
The way the federal agents swarmed Jack Schubarth’s ranch in Montana on a late-spring day in 2021, it seemed they ...
Determining your ‘biological age’: Helpful information or longevity scam
You get older every day. But how old are your cells and organs, really? ... Biological age and chronological age ...
“Y” do women outlive men?
Women tend to live longer than men. There are traditional explanations: Men smoke more. They drink more. They tend to ...
Public health without Washington: The growing backlash against Trump and RFK Jr.’s war on evidence-based medicine
The past few weeks have been bruising for public health. First, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ...
GLP podcast: Tylenol maker refuted link to autism. Daily Caller’s fabricated health scare, exposed
Late last month, Daily Caller published a bombshell report claiming that Johnson & Johnson, the former manufacturer of Tylenol (acetaminophen), ...
What’s the difference between human intelligence and AI? Not very much
The term artificial intelligence renders the sense that what computers do is either inferior to or at least apart from ...
Can magic mushrooms slow aging?
A groundbreaking study in Nature’s npj Aging Journal (July 2025), just made waves by showing that psilocybin, the psychedelic compound ...
Are there such things as ‘ancestral bloodlines’? Not when you examine the DNA
Human history is rife with contentions about the purity (and superiority) of the bloodlines of one group over another and ...
What critical drugs are next on RFK, Jr.’s hitlist?
For years, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against a number of medications and therapeutics claiming without scientific consensus or ...
The super wealthy are convinced (at least very hopeful) that they can defy death
It’s easy to roll our eyes at people like Xi and Putin who wish for immortality, and to dismiss their ...
Anti-vaccination advocates romanticize over a safe pre-shot past that never existed
The past does contain its share of treasures, and it can be hard to accept that a world so rife ...
Trump’s wacky science: He’s now blaming mothers for autism
The Trump administration’s targeting of women’s behavior as the basis for autism evokes the disgraceful mid-20th-century era of so-called refrigerator mothers, ...
GLP podcast: Media keeps hyping the youth cancer ‘epidemic.’ Problem? It’s a myth
Buoyed by sensationalist reporters eager to write alarming headlines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly hyped a dramatic "epidemic" of ...
Viewpoint: Trump’s big bet: Vaccine skepticism and Tylenol scare will cast as a defender of MAGA parents
The vaccine skepticism espoused by Trump and Kennedy is out of step with the views of many Americans and carries political risks, ...
Viewpoint: The MAHA movement’s wrongheaded war on glyphosate is part of a misplaced broader attack on modern agriculture
The MAHA movement’s war on glyphosate is part of a broader war on modern farming — not only herbicides and ...
Viewpoint: Starbuck’s synthetic pumpkin spice: The drink RFK, Jr. should ban if wants to protect our health
In 2003, the Human Genome Project was completed and both Tesla and LinkedIn were founded. Those were all interesting but ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr. needs an update on Biology 101. Let’s start
The only requirement for assuming the position of US Secretary for Health and Human Services is being picked by the ...
The history of vaccine hesitancy, from smallpox to COVID-19
Vaccine policy made national headlines last week when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine guidance committee met and ...
Viewpoint: Trump and RFK, Jr. are wrong: ‘Our study of 2.5 million children shows acetaminophen not linked to autism’
United States President Donald Trump recently claimed that using the common painkiller acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and by the ...
A therapeutic psychedelic without the hallucinatory trip? With the help of AI, it’s in the works
While there's growing evidence that psychedelic drugs can effectively treat severe mental health conditions, especially in cases where traditional treatments have failed, they ...
Human carelessness and climate change are killing millions of animals. Gene editing could save them. Should we use it?
It wasn’t our intention that humanity would become the planet’s greatest evolutionary force; yet the fact that we are confronts us ...
The first human trial of nutrient-rich gene-edited tomatoes is underway in England
The Quadram Institute in Norwich is recruiting 76 people with low vitamin D to take part in the ViTaL-D Study, ...
RFK, Jr.’s claim that food additives cause ADHD is more scare-mongering than science
Robert F. Kennedy Jr has spent years railing against food additives, framing them as part of a broader threat to public health ...
What’s the genetic secret to living past 110?
There's no escaping the unrelenting passage of time, but supercentenarians who live to see their 110th birthday have a peculiar ...
Viewpoint: The promise and challenges facing India’s turn toward gene-edited rice
In a notable milestone for India’s agri-biotechnology sector, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) announced the development of two ...
