Science Controversies
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 ...
Viewpoint: How wrong was Paul Ehrlich about population’s negative impact on growth? Just look at India
In 1968, a little-known ecologist named Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, which aimed to bring attention to the perceived ...
RFK, Jr. rewrites rules for CDC vaccine advisory panel to reinstate anti-vaccine activists, circumventing court ruling
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has approved changes to rules that govern an expert group ...
Shilajit Ayurvedic sex drive-boosting myth: Tar-like ooze extracted from Himalayan rocks doesn’t work
Shilajit is the latest supplement marketed online as a “natural testosterone booster”. Promoted by influencers, wellness brands and biohacking communities, ...
Will the MAHA movement save the GOP this fall — or help bury it? This man may be key
Tony Lyons knows how Republicans can win the midterm elections later this year. All they need to do, as he ...
Viewpoint: Challenging anti-fracking ‘scare tactics’ and disinformation
Ohio’s environmental groups are on a losing streak. They can’t seem to get anyone in the legislature to agree with ...
Trump demands access to Africa’s rare minerals as price to fund efforts to battle AIDs
Since its inception in 2003, PEPFAR [U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief] has helped provide anti-HIV medicine to more than 20 ...
STOMP—Scientists skeptical of RFK, Jr.’s dubious crusade on microplastics
The Trump administration is going after microplastics in drinking water. A new plan to study and regulate plastic pollution was announced ...
Viewpoint: Researchers claiming living near nuclear energy causes cancer botched their research
In December 2025, researchers led by Yazan Alwadi at Harvard’s T.H Chan School of Public Health published a paper in ...
Reviewing the evidence on the benefits and dangers of glyphosate
President Trump recently signed an Executive Order that expands U.S. production of glyphosate, a herbicide contained in commercial and domestic ...
Viewpoint: The religion of vaccine hesitancy
One of the biggest modern American medical stories has been the rise of vaccine hesitancy. From the decline in childhood ...
Viewpoint — RFK, Jr. vs. fluoride: The next big health brawl—science be damned
The EPA recently took its first step toward determining safe levels of fluoride in drinking water, publishing a "Preliminary Assessment ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.-founded Children’s Health Defense false claims long-dead belief that wireless radiation causes health problems
Dire warnings about the dangers of wireless technology have been around for as long as the technology itself, and they ...
What are the consequences of agriculture misinformation—and how to fight back
Is organic farming better than non-organic farming? Should farmers feed antibiotics and steroids to their animals? Such debates about food ...
AI with human feelings? Anthropic’s Claude edges closer
... A new study from Anthropic suggests models have digital representations of human emotions like happiness, sadness, joy, and fear, ...
Bulldozing science: As America slips, China is overtaking U.S. as superpower
The Trump administration has taken a bulldozer to science funding over the last year and change, wiping out more than 7,800 research ...
‘Tech bro hype’ vs. serious science: The inside story on Colossal’s attempt to create a real-life Jurassic Park
Can and should we resurrect animal species that have been extinct for thousands of years? Such weighty, existential questions were ...
Social media sharing: Americans are caught in a health and science ‘misinformation paradox’
The Harris Poll announced the results from a landmark survey, "Science Under Siege: The Battle Between Viral Misinformation and Shared ...
Viewpoint — ‘Miracle’ peptides: Regulatory greyzone and RFK, Jr. propaganda opens the U.S. to a perilous biohacking experiment
On February 27, 2026, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and announced that the FDA is preparing ...
