Science Controversies
U.S. is becoming a vaccination backwater: Even Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Greece all recommend more shots
The U.S. childhood vaccination schedule has been dramatically reduced, purportedly because, as federal health officials argued, the now-discarded schedule recommended ...
Google and Meta on trial in social media addiction case
Annalee Schott used to live in rural Colorado where the farm, the barn, and the horses were her happy place. But ...
Trump-RFK Jr.’s FDA in science freefall: The leucovorin autism “cure” fiasco is one of many
The Food and Drug Administration is looking less and less like a regulator than a circus, with fresh, disconcerting episodes ...
RFK Jr.’s autism panel packed with bizarre collection of cranks and conspiracists
U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filled an autism committee with friends, associates, and former colleagues who believe that autism ...
GLP podcast: In defense of DDT—the pesticide that saved half a billion lives
The insecticide DDT has prevented roughly half a billion deaths. A relatively low-toxic chemistry widely used to control disease-vectoring mosquitoes ...
Trust in science is cratering in America. Is there a way to restore it?
Although public trust in science is a recent preoccupation for some, it has been a problem for decades in the United States. Republicans began ...
Politicizing science: RFK, Jr.’s FDA rejects review of Moderna’s effective seasonal mRNA flu vaccine
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to review Moderna’s seasonal influenza jab, mRNA-1010, as the shifting vaccine ...
Viewpoint—Vaccine rejectionists are trying to scare women that they are being used as ‘guinea pigs’
We thought we'd answer a question that came in response to our series, Fun Size Science, in which Unbiased Science's ...
‘Addiction machines’: Social media companies on trial, blamed for epidemic of suicides
The world's largest social media companies have been accused of creating "addiction machines" as a landmark trial began in California ...
Should you follow RFK, Jr.’s guidance to replace seed oils in your diet with beef tallow? Not if you want to stay healthier
“Make frying oil tallow again,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. And just like that, Steak ...
Plastic surgeons group rejects gender-transitioning plastic surgery for youth 18 or younger
In a watershed moment, on February 3, 2026, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) issued an official position statement ...
RFK, Jr. dilemma: American Medical Association leadership split over whether to ostracize HHS secretary or vainly try to educate him
A meeting ... between the head of the American Medical Association and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has prompted ...
The MAGA right’s weird obsession with the slur word ‘retard’
... [A] woman posted a photograph on social media of a purple hat she had knitted .... The cozy scene ...
Viewpoint: What happens if the AI bubble bursts? An anti-modernist skeptic makes his case
If some time in an entirely possible future they come to make a movie about “how the AI bubble burst”, ...
Viewpoint: The activist group “Beyond Plastics’ is a scam front but it guided policy at Biden’s EPA
A Firebreak FOIA reveals a cozy relationship between EPA officials and the Beyond Plastics Founder, Judith Enck. This investigation, based ...
Non-human animals and even bacteria are prone to spread misinformation
[In 2025], the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued a warning about the dangers of misinformation. Social media platforms are ...
Destructive peddlers of health misinformation: Social media influencers
Social media is awash with influencers vying for our attention so they can profit by selling their courses and hawking ...
Destructive peddlers of health misinformation: AI chatbots
A study published in the journal Urology examined the accuracy of ChatGPT in responding to questions about urology topics. They ...
Defeating death: ‘Vitalists’ seek to rebrand the longevity movement
[T]he Vitalist Bay Summit ... hosted various events to explore tools—from drug regulation to cryonics—that might be deployed in the ...
MAHA turns its ire towards what it claims are unsafe, industry-friendly EPA chemical rules
Last year, prominent activist Kelly Ryerson was so frustrated with the EPA ... that she and other MAHA supporters drew ...
Viewpoint: The D’Adamos family: Profile of wellness grifters
Despite years of scientific consensus debunking the "Blood Type Diet," the D’Adamo family has successfully transformed a biological myth into ...
Can you Europe turn the tide against climate disinformation?
Climate disinformation is no longer just an obstacle to progress on climate action; it has become a geopolitical and security ...
Spewing misinformation about cultivated meat, Arizona lawmaker wants to send science innovators to prison
The season of state-level attempts to ban cultivated meat has begun. [In January], policymakers in Virginia, South Dakota, and Arizona ...
Regenerative agriculture gets a star turn with “health guru” RFK, Jr. and the Trump Administration. What could go wrong? (Plenty)
Who would have thought the Trump administration would be championing “regenerative” farming — an approach long associated with progressive food ...
Viewpoint: The potential dark side of the elitist movement to make the ‘best babies’ possible
There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement ...
China leads Asia in its slow embrace of genetically modified crops
Asian countries are shifting their position on GMOs, though the pace and motives differ by country, said Nandini Roy Choudhury, ...
Dr. Google is being kicked to the curb. Welcome to AI. Will the diagnoses be any better?
For the past two decades, there’s been a clear first step for anyone who starts experiencing new medical symptoms: Look ...
