Alex Berezow
Viewpoint: Scientific ignorance fuels skepticism of crop biotechnology
This one question is an effective test of scientific ignorance ...
Artificial vs natural? Ocean Spray sued for using synthetic flavor in its cranberry juice
Ocean Spray, the company that makes several popular cranberry juice drinks, is battling a class-action lawsuit brought by two plaintiffs ...
America’s risk paradox: Flu killed 80,000 people this year, but we’re more worried about GMOs
We had a really bad flu season this year. The CDC just announced that about 80,000 Americans were killed .... H3N2 ...
Viewpoint: 7-year food fraud scheme exposes flawed oversight of organic farming
Three farmers in Nebraska just plead guilty to a food fraud scheme in which they were selling conventionally grown corn and soybeans ...
Simple urine test for anxiety, depression around the corner
Depression and anxiety are not always easy to detect. … Besides being time consuming and inconvenient, diagnostic criteria are rather ...
Record-high yields suggest climate change no threat to coffee production
For roughly the last two years, the media has been warning us that climate change is threatening the world's supply ...
Famous chemist Bruce Ames a chemical ‘industry apologist,’ anti-GMO group claims
[The] Ames test .... is literally textbook science that is taught to students all over the world. .... It was ...
Viewpoint: UC-San Francisco is the ‘academic home of the anti-GMO movement’
Being anti-GMO is the biotech equivalent of being anti-vaccine. The scientific literature overwhelmingly and definitively has concluded that GMOs are safe ...
All-veggie ‘Impossible burger’ targeted by PETA’s cancer claims
Imagine sinking your teeth into a nice, juicy hamburger. Then, imagine being told that the hamburger isn't made from beef ...
No link between increased pesticide use and childhood cancer, study suggests
Like the word "chemical," the word "pesticide" has been hijacked and then unfairly demonized. Scientists use the word pesticide to refer to ...
Viewpoint: Popular science news website promotes pesticide conspiracy theory
Two weeks ago, we reported on a bizarre decision by the online news arm of the journal Science: The outlet had reprinted ...
Viewpoint: Why was pro-GMO professor David Zaruk fired?
David Zaruk is an expert in European Union regulations and risk communication. He writes a blog, titled The Risk-Monger, which largely ...
Betty Crocker: ‘GMOs are safe—we wouldn’t use them if we thought otherwise’
There's a lot of money to be made in kowtowing to the latest dietary fads and unsubstantiated health scares. ...
Does an extra glass of wine take 30 minutes off your life? That’s ‘outlandish’
A few weeks ago, the media ran wild with an outlandish claim that an extra glass of wine will take ...
Viewpoint: Why is the Guardian publishing anti-GMO activist Carey Gillam’s glyphosate lies?
Carey Gillam is an anti-GMO activist who once wrote for Reuters, but no longer does. An e-mail obtained from a FOIA ...
Viewpoint: Organic Consumers Association promotes conspiracy theory blaming farm pesticides for school shootings
A crackpot named E. G. Vallianatos has written a blog post that links pesticides to school shootings. He says, "[Pesticides] may have ...
Viewpoint: China’s push to export its traditional medicine threatens to pump up ‘pseudoscience’
[T]raditional Chinese medicine is thoroughly institutionalized: Every major city has a traditional medicine hospital and university. A special government department exists ...
Viewpoint: California’s looming coffee cancer warning shows how judges and lawyers can subvert science
A judge in California is going to determine whether or not coffee causes cancer. Think about that. We live in ...
Beepocalypse myth busting: Honey bees, not wild species, key for crop pollination—and they’re doing fine
Like GMOs and vaccines, misinformation is rife on the topic of bees. Fearmongers warn of a coming "Beepocalypse." The media ...
Veterans’ suicide attempts linked to gene expression
Though they only compose 8.5% of the U.S. population, veterans make up 18% of all suicides. Complicating matters is that ...
Viewpoint: No, we are not facing an imminent global food shortage
The Quartz article [“The world could run out of food two decades earlier than thought”] leaned heavily upon the testimony ...
Collapsing bubbles may have given rise to life
The origin of life is a profound mystery. Once life arose, natural selection and evolution took over, but the question ...
Homeless ‘tent cities’ ripe for infectious disease outbreaks
[The] luxury of modern life is due to the strong defense provided by the "pillars" of our public health system. According ...
‘Designer babies’ just around the corner? More scare than science
As CRISPR technology advances, old fears about 'designer babies' resurface. But we are a long way from being able to ...
New pathway for spread of antibiotic resistance: ‘Membrane blebbing’
Unlike animals, bacteria can readily share genetic information with other bacteria, even those of entirely different species. [...] For decades, ...
Ethanol injections cure skin cancer in hamsters, offering hope for cheap treatments
[C]heap, uncomplicated, portable, and preferably non-surgical treatments that do not require electricity are needed [to treat cancer in developing countries] ...
What’s behind EU’s skepticism of Bayer-Monsanto merger?
[Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto] may not go through. Multiple media outlets have reported that European Union regulators are skeptical of ...
Ebola ‘family tree’ suggests virus becomes more deadly as it evolves
From 2013 to 2016, western Africa faced an enormous outbreak of Ebola in which 28,616 people fell ill and 11,310 ...