Science Literacy Project Daily Digest
Viewpoint— “A safe space to chat, flirt, and be intimate without sex”: Are new AI companies exploiting vulnerable asexuals?
Kor “got really addicted” to their NSFW role-playing AI chatbot last year. The 35-year-old artist from the Midwest recalls a ...
Vagus nerve wellness grift: How to build a billion dollar business. Are you listening, Kelly Ripa?
“There are billions of web impressions and social media posts on the vagus nerve,” said Dr. Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon ...
Hantavirus revives COVID-era conspiracies and distrust in public health
Since the first cases of hantavirus on the MV Hondius cruise ship were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) ...
Seed oil panic: RFK Jr. and influencers made linoleic acid a dietary villain and heart risk. Evidence points the other way — replacing them with animal fat is.
The seed oil panic has achieved full institutional legitimacy. ... The January 2026 dietary guidelines — which discarded 421 pages of scientific ...
Here come the biohackers’ Enhanced Games—The Olympics for athletes doping up on steroids, hormones and peptides. What’s wrong with that?
This past week, in a city built on risk and reward, billionaire biohacker Christian Angermayer went about his wellness routine ...
Fake Ebola cure promoters already cashing in as disinformation videos flood social media
The WHO’s emergency declaration cited eight confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases, and 80 suspected deaths from the rare Bundibugyo strain, ...
‘Realistic and durable’: EPA proposes loosening restrictions on some PFAS ‘forever chemicals.’
The Trump administration ... moved to partially roll back drinking water protections from toxic “forever chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ...
Is surrogacy modern-day slavery? What to know about Florida Republican effort to pass severe restrictions.
Attorney General James Uthmeier, inserting himself into what had been a standard surrogacy case, is arguing that surrogacy is unconstitutional. The case ...
‘Implausible’: Top climate scientists reject worst-case scenario—soaring temperatures and fast-rising sea levels
For more than a decade, as scientists tried to evaluate just how much the planet might warm by the end ...
UK gene-editing milestone: Livestock barley that increases ruminant value and reduces methane emissions is first-approved CRISPR crop
The UK has issued the first regulatory approval for a gene-edited crop under its new rules for precision breeding. The ...
Chiropractors may no longer be modern-day snake oil salesmen, but the benefits of their therapy are limited–at best
Roughly 11 percent of American adults saw a chiropractor in 2022, mainly for pain management. Chiropractic care is offered by ...
Meat sits atop the U.S.-RFK, Jr. food pyramid. How healthy is the carnivore diet?
Meat is king, according to the U.S. government. The new dietary guidelines encourage people to consume red meat regularly, and ...
Sharp rise in number of parents refusing newborn vitamin K shots, putting babies at 81-fold higher risk of severe bleeding
In the hours after birth, newborns are typically given a shot of vitamin K, which they are naturally deficient of ...
Viewpoint: Doctors can fight health misinformation — if hospitals let them
Health misinformation is a public health problem. According to KFF, more than half of U.S. adults say they get health ...
Viewpoint: No, sugar doesn’t ‘feed’ cancer — common cancer myths, debunked
From avoiding sugar completely to fearing microwaves and mammograms, cancer is surrounded by myths that continue to create panic and ...
Social media’s health advice red flags
Researchers ... looked at the social media profiles of 6,828 health and wellness influencers with at least 100,000 followers. Only ...
Viewpoint—‘Technology is pulling us apart’: Environmental, political, and economic
It could be the relentless news agenda, but the news has been relentless throughout my 11 years as editor-in-chief of ...
Viewpoint: Indian PM wants farmers to switch to 50% organic. It would take at least 10 years, likely won’t work, and isn’t more sustainable
... Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided it was time to ask Indians to brace themselves for price shocks and other ...
West-originated vaccine disinformation sparks murders of health care workers across Africa
Late last year, rumors spread through the villages of Tshopo, a northeastern Congolese province covered in tropical forests, that a ...
Brain remains influenced by false information about health, reveals cognitive science
Research shows that false health information continues to influence people’s choices even after official corrections. The mechanism involves how the ...
Newest hantavirus conspiracy: Online disinformation turns outbreak into latest ivermectin grift
Conspiracy theorists, wellness influencers, and grifters have already started promoting wild claims about the hantavirus outbreak that began aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship on ...
Viewpoint — Alternative medicine and the placebo effect: Selling a reassuring illusion of health
For many people who can afford it, it is not their doctor, but an acupuncturist or massage therapist who will ...
Viewpoint: ‘Crisis of public trust’: Autism support community shocked RFK continues to peddle false claims about the danger of vaccines
Misinformation from top health officials in the Trump administration has created a “crisis of public trust” – and Congress should ...
Defying death: The immortality movement goes mainstream
Michael Peel ... [I]n this series, we’re exploring the origins of the longevity movement and how it’s migrating from the ...
Viewpoint: Anti-vax fake ‘turbo cancer’ claims threaten cancer treatment breakthroughs
Since the early 2000s, there have been over 120 promising clinical trials testing the use of mRNA vaccines to treat multiple cancer ...
Viewpoint — Digital gods and human extinction: Will we be the first species ever to design our own descendants?
[Sam] Altman said...in a 2016 interview with The New Yorker. “We need to level up humans,” he declares, “because our descendants will ...
How criminals are using AI to target social media users and steal their money and confidential data
When ChatGPT was released to the public in late 2022, it opened people’s eyes to how easily generative AI could ...
