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As part of a challenge study conducted during the pandemic, 34 healthy volunteers were deliberately infected with SARS-CoV-2 to assess the potential cognitive impacts of COVID-19. Everything about the experiment, from its timing to its design, was suspect and almost certainly unethical.

In the spirit of Halloween, let's indulge in bite-sized everything – the week’s best brain candy. Beginning with the culinary heresy of full-sized Halloween bars and ending with RNA finally getting the spotlight (move over, DNA). The FTC’s giving us a treat by targeting those “never-ending subscriptions.” Throw in some fast-food receipts and political dining drama, and we’ve got a reading list.

Beneath the charged debates on gender-affirming care, unsettling evidence suggests influential organizations are quietly shaping clinical guidelines for treating transgender youth. A recent British Medical Journal (BMJ) investigation raises concerns about pressuring guideline creators to align with broader advocacy aims. Such interventions jeopardize clinician judgment and pose risks to patients while leaving politicians fodder to question the underlying value of evidence-based guidelines.

As we journey backward through the portals of time, long before the birthing of modern scientific thought, it becomes increasingly difficult to locate women whose contributions were noteworthy. One exception was Margaret Lucas Cavendish, the flamboyant Duchess of Newcastle, whose work is finally being given a new look.

The mixture of celebrity and health information is becoming commonplace. Combatting misinformation is more difficult when amplified by large platforms. Adding to that the chaos of irresponsible media coverage, and you have a good formula for isolating experts.

Your binge of cat videos is now fueling the demand for a new breed of power for the ever-hungry data centers, keeping your streams and search results coming with reliable, carbon-free energy. Spoiler alert: the answer might just be nuclear.

Vinegar and baking soda are touted as a "green" method of cleaning all kinds of things. The problem is that if they're combined they will no longer clean anything. And they could possibly blow your head off. The reason is that the two react immediately with each other. Here's what's going on.

Meet “Francis,” a man who had not one, not two, but three ding-dongs. Online dating was somewhat challenging for him and public restrooms were a minefield where Hell's Angel Spike, and Bonecrusher the demonic Bouncer, weren't amused by his "technique." Medicine doesn’t quite know what to do with him either; triphallia is so rare, it’s barely classified. But Francis is happy to be a legend in his own right, living life (now death) with his unique trio.

In the U.S., six non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are most commonly used to manage pain and inflammation. While this drug class is widely relied upon, it is also associated with gastrointestinal and cardiovascular risks. However, not all NSAIDs are the same; here’s a look at their key similarities and differences.

In a world obsessed with likes, stars, ratings, and scores, do we truly understand how much they sway our decisions? When numbers step in, do we lose sight of what really matters? A new study sheds light on "quantification fixation," where numerical information dominates our choices, even when qualitative attributes hold equal importance.

Today, the GUARDIAN study is moving newborn screening to genomic sequencing, potentially detecting hundreds of conditions before symptoms even appear. But can this cutting-edge technology replace traditional newborn screening? And what are the implications for the child, parents, and healthcare systems?

In Memoriam, Dr. Bruce Ames: December 16, 1928 – October 5, 2024.

How do you explain one Zantac manufacturer kiboshing a favorable trend of defense verdicts and decisions – with a massive $2.2 billion settlement? The answer appears to lie with the whistleblower suit brought by Valisure, the private laboratory that instigated the personal injury litigation and product recall.

We used to think wildfires gave you a bit of warning — a smoky horizon, a few embers, maybe a news update telling you to stay alert. Not anymore. Enter the era of fast fires, where entire neighborhoods are incinerated before you can pack an overnight bag. A new study confirms that wildfires aren’t just burning more land, they’re burning through it faster. That's thanks to invasive grasses, climate change, and humans lighting the fuse.

This week, we are diving into the unanticipated outcomes of free medical education, gender testing in sports, "male flight" from college, and Sweden paying grandparents to babysit; it’s all here in the wild world of health, education, and social policy.

If hurricanes weren’t bringing enough misery, Florida’s warm, brackish waters are serving up flesh-eating bacteria. When storm surge meets seawater teeming with bacteria, disaster seems to breed more disaster.

When it comes to gender-affirming care for transgender youth, the conversation is often dominated by emotional stories and anecdotal evidence, leaving little room for objective data. Media coverage tends to focus on case reports designed to pull at the heartstrings on either side of the debate. But what happens when we step back from the headlines and focus on the hard numbers?

When it comes to race and ethnicity, we’ve long been juggling sociocultural constructs like they’re scientific gospel. A new study shows that lumping populations together often hides crucial health differences. However, split too finely, and you’ll end up with sample sizes that tell you nothing.

Regulators are supposed to abide by society's “bargain” with them: Civil servants are granted lifetime tenure and protected from political pressure and retaliation, and in return, they are supposed to make decisions based solely on the public interest. Often, they do not.

When it comes to washing your veggies, marketers have a solution that’s no better than water — but costs a whole lot more! Fruit and vegetable washes are cleaning your wallet faster than they’re scrubbing your produce, and science says ... stick to water for the win.

A case involving a trucker who, despite scrupulously avoiding drugs for his entire career, tried CBD oil for severe pain following an accident. The product was advertised as 0% THC, which would not cause a positive test for the drug. But it wasn't, and he failed a random drug test and was fired. This case is now being heard by the Supreme Court. Bad science lurks behind the entire incident.

Pasta has its own national day as Evan Funke tempts us with perfectly crafted sfoglia. Economists dive into whether hard work really gets you anywhere, at least financially. There is a closer look at port automation and the supply chain. Finally, is the antidote to Marie Kondo clutter? Is there a place for those “joy-sparking” knick-knacks?

When a child has a debilitating and fatal disease, a desperate parent might try anything, including risky experimental treatments or debunked therapies. Of course, no one expects their child to contract cancer from the treatment, but that is precisely what happened in one recently reported trial.

Few remember the ambitious goal of the American Heart Association: to slash cardiovascular disease by 20% by 2020. That didn’t quite happen. The fight against heart disease has stalled, leaving experts scratching their heads and waving the prevention flag harder than ever. We’re really good at achieving some metrics, like cholesterol numbers, but maybe not so great at solving the actual problem.

Recent headlines declared that the artificial sweeteners Xylitol and Erythritol could increase your risk of stroke and heart attack. Now that the media excitement has died down, let's take a closer look at the study behind the headlines. Does it really implicate these sugar substitutes as a threat to heart health? Not exactly.