Genetic Literacy Project
Viewpoint: Wellness movement activists reposition nicotine from a killer addictive drug into a cure-all for brain ills
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and ...
The kooky logic behind the raft of spurious cancer claims from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health
It would shock you to know that Costco, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health methodology, caused 120,687 ...
Viewpoint: Food cults: Online ‘nutrition communities’ can pose unique dangers
Nutrition advice used to tell us what to eat. Social media increasingly tells us who we are based on what ...
‘They misunderstand science’: Research attempting to tie autism to changes in the gut microbiome comes under fire
Obesity, liver disease, diabetes, and cancer are all chronic diseases that inflict misery across millions of patients. Imagine if bacteria ...
Viewpoint: Even lousy scientific articles can shield authors when they hype dubious health claims and products
Peer review in reputable journals gives scientific claims an authority that commercial speech rarely enjoys. But what happens when scientists ...
Viewpoint: Chipotle-inspired lesson: 10,000 sick customers suggest that processed foods can be safer than fresh ones
The Environmental Working Group recently compared ultra-processed foods across major fast-food chains and found one conspicuous exception: Chipotle. That makes ...
The exploding controversy over AI’s built-in survival drive
In controlled safety tests described earlier this year, researchers asked AI models to solve a series of simple math problems ...
Viewpoint: SCOTUS poised to address First Amendment tension between mandatory vaccines, children’s health and religious freedom
A mother in New York State who claims to oppose vaccines because of her Catholic faith lost an emergency appeal ...
Viewpoint: Activist environmental NGOs are turning from public funding to activist billionaires to support their campaigns. It won’t end well.
Environmental-Health Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are going through a difficult period with the decline in public funding, the increase in scrutiny ...
‘We are dangerously addicted to antidepressants’: Should we heed RFK Jr.’s sobering warning?
Drugs for treating depression are among the most prescribed category of medications in the U.S. – 1 in 6 American adults ...
Viewpoint: Why do online health lies outlive the evidence that debunks them? Read “Everyone Else Is Lying to You”
Medical misinformation has a peculiar advantage: it can outlive the evidence that disproves it, especially when yesterday’s contrarians become today’s ...
Investigative group ProPublica finds links between ectopic pregnancy deaths and abortion bans
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent ...
Viewpoint: The fake controversy over whether combining childhood vaccines is dangerous— a debate science resolved 25 years ago
For inexplicable reasons, the vaccine spacing debate has popped up yet again, courtesy of President Trump's executive order revisiting childhood ...
19%: Plunging support for Trump-RFK, Jr. measles vaccine safety oversight
Two new polls reveal cracks in both US and global trust in medicine, with one showing erosion in Americans’ belief ...
Viewpoint: Why medical and health nonsense spreads so casually on pop culture media
I landed on a show hosted by two women. I’ve heard people talk about it, so I gave it a ...
Viewpoint: Study links childhood vaccination to autism!!! Here’s how anti-vaxxers twist evidence to corrupt science
A viral post on X claims the “largest vaccinated vs. unvaccinated birth cohort study ever” found vaccinated children far sicker ...
How much of a problem is AI’s water use?
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. “Protect our water,” “Water for people not AI,” “Don’t mess with our ...
Viewpoint: How to ecologically damage America’s forests: Ban glyphosate
A recent Mother Jones’ investigation ran under the headline “We Are Bombarding America’s Forests With Roundup.” The authors claim that ...
From Malaysia to the world: A pioneering science communicator reimagines global science communication for a digital age
By 2024, I was exhausted. For more than a decade, I had carried The Petri Dish through the realities of ...
AI is helping develop new vaccines
In the early 2000s, immunologist Bali Pulendran started his lab at Emory University to explore the mechanisms underlying vaccine-mediated immunity ...
Viewpoint: What’s the likely impact when the EPA loosens rules limiting methane pollution from oil and gas wells?
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The Trump administration is poised to loosen environmental restrictions on oil and gas wells ...
Viewpoint: Trump-RFK Jr. report on “Gender Ideology & Left-wing Ideology’ targets LGBTQ community—and science
A new study from the Trump administration is sending alarm bells through pro-democracy groups for its potential to fuel a ...
A meaty problem: How to make cell-grown protein taste like steak, chicken, and seafood
Lab-grown, or cultivated, meat options are already a reality in select restaurants worldwide. For example, the omakase restaurant Robin in ...
Viewpoint: Childhood deaths in dispute: Why the CDC vs Pennsylvania conflict over measles vaccines matters
If you’ve been following the dispute between Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy ...
Viewpoint: Bad science—Five bogus Trump administration claims about vaccines and autism
[On August 10, 2026], the president signed an unprecedented executive order declaring the administration’s intention to massively overhaul the vaccine ...
Viewpoint: Emotion-driven stories of doctors allegedly ignoring patient concerns are driving vaccine hesitancy
As long as there have been vaccines, there have been people who doubted their science and safety. Back in 19th-century ...
Fibermaxxing: Latest Instagram diet craze raises hope that a fiber-rich diet can improve health
This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine. In the world of dietary trends, proteinmaxxing is taking a back seat ...
“Hit the brakes”: Anthropic warns the race to superintelligence could spawn internet-seizing AI swarms—and empower authoritarians. Here’s how to stop it.
I have worked on AI for the last twelve years because I believe it could dramatically raise the quality of ...
