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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.

Pain patient advocates recently made their case to the FDA during agency listening sessions, arguing that the federal government has launched an unjustified crusade against prescription opioids. Rather than reduce overdose deaths or drug abuse, the nationwide crackdown on painkillers has only left millions of patients to suffer without recourse. Are regulators finally waking up to this reality?

Join me and Lars Larson as we dive into the real story behind the monkeypox outbreak, WHO’s political maneuvers, and why the media's take on the situation might be leaving out some crucial details.

Roughly 20% of medical schools now offer an accelerated pathway, meant to reduce student debt and somehow fix the primary care crisis. A new study shows we can fast-track doctor-making without sacrificing too many brain cells. Still, if you think this will solve America’s healthcare woes, I have a bridge you might be interested in purchasing.

Litigation over regulations will become chaotic, and because uncertainty is anathema to investment in innovation, it will become harder for entrepreneurs and start-ups to disrupt markets.

There is an age-old belief that more information will save us from our (or more commonly, "their") collective stupidity. We think more information will free us from our intellectual echo chambers. Enter a new study that asks: "What if we’re just blissfully ignorant of our own ignorance?" Spoiler alert: it turns out that even when we have all the facts, we still trust our gut over good sense.

Yes, there is something called a "salmon sperm facial." It may sound like kinky porn, but there's real science amid the self-indulgent, infantile humor. You can learn about DNA synthesis and how to fight wrinkles ... all in one article!

With nearly a third of former NFL players believing they have brain damage and many battling suicidal thoughts, it's clear the game is exacting a deadly toll. Despite helmet improvements, football remains a dangerous collision sport.

Global warming, a topic that’s simultaneously about science and politics. The media loves to spin a nice, tidy solution: stop burning fossil fuels, cut CO2, and voilà — problem solved! Except, there’s a little more to it. From methane to black carbon, volcanic eruptions, and even the occasional El Niño throwing a tantrum, the planet’s warming is more like a complicated web of interconnected threads than a one-size-fits-all catastrophe. The story of global warming isn’t just about switching off your gas stove. It's about figuring out which of these greenhouse villains we should actually be worried about, and which ones deserve a slap on the wrist.

California, which labels everything from coffee to sunshine as dangerous, has finally done something sensible. It has passed a law banning those cryptic “Sell By” dates on food. You know, the ones that make you wonder if you're about to enjoy a perfectly good yogurt or endure a gastrointestinal gladiator match? Apparently, we can handle knowing when our food might go bad.

This week's reading - Michael Jordan's court battle with NASCAR because apparently racing isn't just about speed. Big Nanny tries to ruin ice cream with claims of "ultra-processed" doom, yet it's a scientific miracle. In nature news, flowers use static cling better than your laundry. Finally, drones are being sent to clean up Everest because climbers apparently leave more than footprints.

The “who is me,” “where I’m from,” and “how I will enfold” are largely the provenance of our genetic ingredients, packaged in two 23-chromosome sets bequeathed to us by each of our parental units. Like our underwear, we like to keep that stuff private. But now, some 14 million people might have the secrets of their “me-ness” – their DNA – revealed to the highest bidder. The uses? Unknown.