Genetic Literacy Project
RFK, Jr. and the Trump administration’s political purge of scientists echoes the darkest days of the McCarthy period
Something sinister and yet vaguely familiar has been happening in American public health policy. This week’s federal court decision reversing ...
Viewpoint—After the vaccine policy wrecking ball: Taking stock one year after RFK, Jr. abandoned science
This past month, my kids’ small-town school has been in crisis mode. Budget shortfalls, emergency meetings, parents scrambling to understand ...
Viewpoint: RFK, Jr.’s unethical plan to run a Tuskegee-like syphilis experiment in West Africa to ‘prove’ hepatitis B vaccines cause neurological damage
Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, which ran from 1932 to ...
Viewpoint: The extremist right degraded the public conversation after its massive infiltration of the internet and social media. AI is their next target
How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers ...
Viewpoint: Check on scare “science”—Claims about the human health dangers of microplastics are collapsing
Since the rise of MAHA in US policy, journalists have been starting to question the findings of activist scientists, and ...
Viewpoint: International Association for Research on Cancer and U.S. tort industry extortion racket revs up after release of IARC’s misleading cancer hysteria claims
[A World Health Organization scientific body], the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), published Monograph 140, releasing its initial ...
Don’t take over-the-counter fish oil supplements for your heart, joints or depression, science says
Fish oil, also known as omega-3, is among the most popular dietary supplements. It’s often promoted to protect the heart, boost ...
Viewpoint: What do organic, agroecology and regenerative agriculture have in common? They don’t work and aren’t sustainable
A farmer drastically reduces fertilizer applications, trusting soil biology to provide the needed nutrients. A crop consultant recommends a 10-species ...
Microplastics as a blueprint for health scares: How the “panic pipeline” of activists and academics partners with tort lawyers to manufacture chemical crises
We’ve seen this fear-to-filing pipeline repeatedly in other contested controversies — most recently involving Tylenol and food additives — where ...
Nine deadly vaccine myths that RFK, Jr. and MAHA promote
In consulting rooms across America, physicians face a challenge that no medical school prepared them for. A parent arrives with ...
Sleeping for centuries: Unpacking the mystery of the survival of animals
What can plants or animals do when faced with harsh conditions? Two options for survival seem most obvious: move elsewhere ...
Understanding the evolution of individuality—Fruit flies may have an answer
As a Ph.D. student, I wanted to understand the evolution of individual differences in fruit fly behavior – the building ...
‘Consensus science’ is under attack
A growing distrust of expertise is reshaping the terrain of science in the United States. Since the pandemic, the partisan ...
Bamboo shoots are the next ‘superfood’? Don’t believe the hype, it’s not based on science
According to the New York Post, our research team has discovered a much-overlooked “superfood”: bamboo shoots. Before you rush out ...
Viewpoint: Wellness pseudoscience activists are rewriting U.S. health policy
For decades, wellness misinformation lived in a space that was evidence-adjacent and problematic, but containable: the “outspoken minority” spreading lies ...
Viewpoint: America’s reproductive health safety net is fraying as political wars escalate
In late October, Maine Family Planning announced three rural clinics in northern Maine would close by month’s end. These primary ...
The Casey Means file: For MAHA, ‘her lack of clinical grounding isn’t a bug, it’s a feature’
Here’s what [Casey Mean] said, in rotating order, regardless of the question: root causes. Real food. Informed consent. Have a ...
RFK, Jr.’s CDC: Dozens of databases not reporting illnesses and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases
On January 27, 2026, researchers from Vanderbilt University, the University of North Carolina, and Harvard Medical School published a study in the Annals ...
Viewpoint: Opposing expanding nuclear energy production—Here’s what left-wing junk science looks like
If you want to know why progress on nuclear energy was so halting during the Biden years, despite the administration’s ...
‘Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t?’
Why do humans have language and other animals apparently don’t? It’s one of the most enduring questions in the study ...
Viewpoint: Casey Means is poised to become next U.S. surgeon general. That could prove disastrous for farmers
President Trump entered his second term with the backing of the American farmer, but his administration’s agriculture and trade policies ...
Viewpoint: When it comes to chemicals in medicine and agriculture, ‘natural’ is often less safe than synthetic
Almost nothing in your life is natural. And that’s a good thing. Take a look around—your smartphone, your fridge, your ...
Tracking U.S. vaccine policy—Mid-February 2026
Between federal lawsuits, sweeping schedule changes, and states mobilizing their own legal challenges, the last few weeks have been a ...
49ers injury conspiracy theory: Power-station radiation isn’t to blame, but anti-technology hysteria reigns
As a San Francisco 49ers fan since I was a child, it was painful to watch the Seattle Seahawks run ...
Viewpoint — Parts per billion, panic per bite: Healthy Florida First food hysteria and the war on modern agriculture
The Make America Healthy Again coalition is at it again. An increasingly organized alliance of anti-vaccine activists, environmental litigators, and ...
GLP spaces on X: Florida’s anti-glyphosate hysteria, dissected
Panic erupted in Florida earlier this month after surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo held a press conference launching the state's ...
FDA Moderna mRNA review flip-flop: A sledgehammer to vaccine—and a gift to anti-vaccine activists
The FDA’s sudden thaw with Moderna doesn’t put an mRNA flu shot on the doorstep of pharmacies; it pushes the ...
Viewpoint: As gun laws weaken, deaths rise sharply
The numbers upend a familiar narrative. While stronger gun laws are linked to fewer firearm deaths overall, the real story ...
