Science Controversies
Digital junk food: Social media algorithms designed to highlight controversy not science
Imagine that you have a very social friend — Rickie — who throws a potluck dinner every year. He asks ...
Viewpoint: ‘Science-as-Satan’ unites the MAHA—MAGA movements. Is a breakup in the works?
The MAHA agenda had a bit of a wake-up call following the EPA’s approval of the herbicide dicamba. I think ...
Boy Kibble: Muscle-building protein maxxing is the latest male health delusion
Protein popcorn. Protein water. Even protein coffee. Across grocery stores and social media feeds, marketers are pushing protein — especially ...
Wellness influencer nonsense: No, nicotine does not boost cognition and productivity, but it can damage your health
If you spend any time on social media, you may have noticed a curious trend: wellness influencers singing the praises ...
MAHA’s special protein-focused formula for skin care: Beef tallow and salmon sperm. How could they be wrong?
From moisturizers made with beef tallow to salmon sperm facials, consumers have become more interested in animal-based skin care products ...
Viewpoint — ‘Completely unethical’: RFK, Jr.’s medical ignorance deprives melanoma cancer-sufferers of a life-saving therapy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t like our criticism of the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of Replimune’s life-saving drug for metastatic melanoma ...
Viewpoint: Truce between MAHA and mainstream science? Its embrace of ‘quackery’ and pseudoscience makes that impossible
One of the truly remarkable—and depressing—things that I’ve observed since the longtime antivax activist who is now our Secretary of ...
Why ‘support supplements’ for GLP-1 users are mostly a waste of money
Weight-loss injections have rapidly moved from specialist clinics to social media feeds and high-street pharmacies. Known as GLP-1 medications, they ...
Viewpoint — Politicization of public health: What’s the impact of the White House strategy on children
Vaccine mandates are being lifted across the United States and American children are suffering the consequences. In , U.S. healthcare ...
Vaccine skepticism is a growing global problem
Vaccination is one of the most successful global health interventions in history, eradicating or eliminating some of the deadliest diseases ...
Fish oil supplements for brain injuries probably don’t work
A first-of-its-kind study led by the Medical University of South Carolina raises questions about the value of fish oil supplements ...
Food labels, decoded: What they really mean
Here I am at Costco, getting far too many things for my family of four. As I try to navigate ...
Reality check: Why we can’t trust anything online — and no one knows how to fix it
A zero digital footprint used to signal authenticity. Now, it can signal the opposite. The absence of a trail no ...
Viewpoint: How do you sell evidence-based health and science in a world where facts don’t matter?
[B]efore whatever this period is, the idea that public resistance to science was essentially a knowledge problem — that more information “fixed” ...
Congressional Republicans pushing false claims that over-the-counter birth control pills are unsafe
Imagine that you're pregnant, a few weeks in, and you decide you want an abortion. You walk into a retail ...
Gurus of woo: 9 health influencer superstars
Some work full time as scientists and physicians .... Others have no relevant credentials to speak of, and frequently disseminate ...
Viewpoint — AI doomsday projections: Will social media save us or make the panic worse?
The effort to seed content about the dangers of AI across the internet comes as the technology’s growing influence has ...
Despite disease surges, poll shows Kennedy-driven disinformation has left most Americans skeptical of vaccines
Results from the March poll of 3,851 U.S. adults conducted by Public First show that a plurality of Americans question ...
Does free will exist? Why you may have no choice but to read this article
The concept of free will seems straightforward, but it doesn’t have a universally accepted definition. One intuitive notion is that ...
Woo truce? The science and health establishment divided on how to deal with MAHA and RFK, Jr.
The Trump administration’s celebration of its new meat- and milk-centric dietary guidelines was held in an auditorium decorated with colorful ...
Europe is on the cusp of approving gene editing of crops. Many other countries may follow soon.
After three decades of waging war on crop biotechnology, European politicians are about to change course. In late April or ...
Fluoride lowers intelligence? First-ever widescale water supply study debunks Kennedy’s scare claim
Tests of intelligence and brain function showed the same results whether or not people drank fluoridated water growing up, a ...
GLP podcast: Miracle drug? Tech bros inflate depression-fighting effects of psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT
The greater the media hype around psychedelics, the more skeptical you should be. A perfect example of why this skepticism ...
Fearing MAHA, Trump administration slows approval of safer types of PFAS and other critical chemicals
The Environmental Protection Agency is sitting on dozens of approvals for uses of “forever chemicals” at the direction of Administrator Lee Zeldin, ...
‘Appeal to nature’ and other dietary myths that seem appealing but could damage your health
... A systematic review that examined 64 studies concluded that “online nutrition-related information is often inaccurate and of low quality”. ...
Release of CDC study concluding Covid vaccines dramatically cut hospitalizations blocked by RFK. Jr.
The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report [scheduled for ...
Bixonimania: The fake disease scam that AI swallowed whole
Bixonimania didn’t exist before 15 March 2024, when two blog posts about it appeared on the website Medium. Then, on ...
