Science Controversies
‘The dire wolf isn’t back’: A Colossal failure or the cutting-edge of conservation? Maybe both
When Colossal unveiled its interpretation of the dire wolf in April, the news made international headlines. Enthusiastic profiles in Time ...
Viewpoint: Chemophobia infects the Washington Post: A case study of a reporter snookered by science-denying environmentalists
In the latest Washington Post scare story on the dangers of plastics, with the innocent title: These kitchen items may be ...
Viewpoint: ‘Kennedy has overstayed his welcome’ — RFK, Jr.’s litigation-driven health policies creating cracks in MAGA-MAHA coalition
While the political marriage between MAHA and MAGA has strangely remained intact, adherents of President Trump’s agenda are beginning to notice that ...
Cassandras map the ‘inevitable’ AI doomsday
Right in the heart of Berkeley is the home of a group of modern-day Cassandras who rummage under the hood ...
Viewpoint: ‘Science is always evolving’ is a dangerous excuse to reject it
As popular mistrust of expert opinion grows, we increasingly encounter the following skeptical argument about science: Historically, even well-established theories ...
Politicization of Health & Science: Year in Review
Ideology-driven misinformation is a grave and growing threat to science and society. False claims spread faster than facts; confusion has ...
AI doomerism is so passé. Or is it?
It’s a weird time to be an AI doomer. This small but influential community of researchers, scientists, and policy experts ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s ‘useful idiots’: His 6-point plant that undermines U.S. health policy rolls along
It seems like ancient history now, but it was really only three months ago that I first wrote a post ...
Viewpoint: Wrecking havoc on American health—RFK, Jr.’s grim first year legacy
In the 11 months since he was confirmed as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has wreaked steady havoc on ...
Glyphosate’s climate dividend: Weedkiller reduces greenhouse pollution equal to taking 21.8 million cars off the road each year
This paper estimates the annual global carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions from the manufacture, distribution and farm level use of ...
Europe pursues three different regulatory paths in efforts to open the gates to agricultural gene editing
The landscape of agricultural innovation in Europe is undergoing its most significant transformation in decades. New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)—including highly ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s cronies offered global vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit $1 million to debate the safety of vaccines. He said no. Why? They’re disingenuous and nuts
Several years ago, people representing RFK Jr., who at the time was head of the anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense, ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s Denmark vaccine schedule delusion—Why it would be a health disaster in the U.S.
It’s official. CNN confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services was planning to announce an overhaul of the ...
Viewpoint: Crazy left meets crazy right—The tort machine created by activist environmentalists to target aspartame, Gardasil, and glyphosate is now turning its sights on vaccines and other MAHA pet grieves
Anti-vaxxers have found a powerful new weapon: the plaintiffs’ bar. Armed with repurposed federal claims and fueled by political momentum, ...
CRISPR chicken: Could gene editing be the key to cheaper poultry?
Chicken is one of the world’s most affordable and widely consumed proteins, yet its price remains surprisingly sensitive to feed ...
Viewpoint: ‘Increasingly futile’—Why debating MAHA influencers with science and reason doesn’t work
... Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, the New Jersey-based family medicine physician and medical social media influencer better known as Dr. Mike, appeared ...
Okay, but not nearly enough: EU’s loosened restrictions on CRISPR and other gene-edited crops help, but it’s still a wasteful long-haul for approvals
The first part of the EU’s Biotech Act has been published. The act, which is mainly focused on health, also ...
AI hype takes a hit—For most businesses, the revolutionary tool falls short
Some disillusionment was inevitable. When OpenAI released a free web app called ChatGPT in late 2022, it changed the course of an ...
GLP podcast: Evolutionary mismatch. Is civilization wrecking our health?
There's a dangerous mismatch between our biology and the tech-saturated world we inhabit—and it might be killing us. That's the ...
Viewpoint: Killing children, RFK, Jr.-CDC-Trump administration’s plan to roll back hepatitis birth dosing will skyrocket cases and lead to preventable diseases
On December 14, 1999, a previously healthy infant was admitted to a Michigan hospital with diarrhea and jaundice. Within hours, ...
Hype adjustment: Probiotic supplements don’t help much to improve your gut function and overall health, and are a waste of money
There are microbes living in medicine cabinets across the U.S., next to the aspirin and the Band-Aids. And people want ...
New U.S. cancer policy head falsely believes COVID vaccines ‘turbocharge’ cancer and horse dewormer ivermectin is a miracle drug
An epidemiologist who has speculated about whether there is a connection between Covid-19 vaccines and “turbo cancer” in young people, ...
‘Like an atom bomb’: Under RFK Jr.’s broken leadership, handpicked vaccine skeptic tapped to oversee the FDA’s drug office
On [December 3, 2005], Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg was tapped as acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation ...
Viewpoint: The U.S. has entered a dark period in public health, thank you Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
We expect [medical] breakthroughs to occur on a regular basis, and 2025 delivered; successful trials of gene therapies for diseases ...
Viewpoint: In trying to link aluminum in vaccines to autism, RFK, Jr. unsurprisingly again bungles the science
RFK Jr is a liar. Full stop. He has been for decades — it’s what has led to his profitable ...
Might CRISPR gene editing in medicine open up a can of ‘unintended consequences’ worms? RNA advances could address that threat
The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved the first-ever clinical trial that uses CRISPR-Cas13 RNA editing. Its aim ...
Evolutionary quirk or survival instict? Why are we ticklish?
Only humans and our close relatives are known to engage in tickling behaviour, suggesting that it may have evolved in ...
