Search results

Knowing our genetic structure is just the tip of understanding what makes us.
A public health victory in the time of COVID
The trees are talking to one another
For some, the gift of blood is more of a saleable commodity

Hillel was an ancient Jewish Talmudic scholar becoming the President of the Sanhedrin, the ancient Jewish “Supreme Court.” He was asked one day to teach a possible convert all of the Torah while the applicant stood on one leg. You can find what he said in the footnote [1]. My purpose in mentioning the story is only to introduce the idea that we can learn much from standing on one leg.

It’s summertime when we fire up our grills and move the cooking outdoors. Whether you use charcoal, propane, or wood as your fuel, scientists have linked the high-temperature cooking of meats to the formation of potential human carcinogens. This may cause some to pause and ask, “Are charred meats safe to eat?” While the long-term effects of consuming grilled meats remain debatable, some methods will help lower potential cancer-related compounds and improve the flavor and juiciness of your burnt offerings.

Food producers and manufacturers, both large and small, want to increase their products' appeal to today’s discerning consumer. One way to market is at the point-of-sale, providing trusted and attractive labels that speak to the buyer’s health, environmental, moral, and social concerns. Who controls food certification labels, what do they mean, and do they deliver as promised?

On episode 8 of the Science Dispatch Podcast, we examine recent claims about the efficacy of Paxlovid. Is the COVID-19 drug as effective as experts thought it'd be? We then debunk an Epoch Times story alleging that the weedkiller glyphosate is lurking in every corner, just waiting to poison you and your children.

Do you remember doing the limbo as a kid? The idea was to see how low you could bend your body to get under a stick that got increasingly close to the floor. Today’s regulatory process is the modern version of the limbo. The problem is that science can’t even measure how low they want the limbo stick to go.

It's tough not to run across an article linking – by association – air pollution with adverse health effects. Over time scientists have focused more of their research on one component of our air: PM2.5. A new study has identified some of the smallest particles within PM2.5 in our central nervous system.

As divisive as we are, I think we can all agree that our institutions and corporations are not held accountable for their actions. To my right are those concerned with the CDC, WHO, and social media censorship; to my left are those who want to hold the Bigs, tobacco, or food, and federal and state policy accountable. Governmental agencies are hard to pin down because the bureaucracy means everyone and no one is to be held responsible. Because they are legal “individuals,” corporations can have their feet held to the fire by lawsuits. But thanks to a rivalry between Delaware and Texas over who is the most “corporate friendly,” we have corporate’s “Get Out of Jail” free card – the Texas two-step.

Once upon a time, novel conceits of humanoid creation were strictly relegated to the world of fantasy or the imagination. Frankenstein’s monster resided peacefully alongside Mr. Hyde and the Headless Horseman in the pages of storybooks, and the Golem remained buried in Talmudic lore. If there was any moralizing, it was – don’t go there. No longer. Last month the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy devoted an entire issue to the ethics and philosophy of head transplants.
What does this recent symposium tell us about our moral and ethical compass?

While for COVID, as with all diseases, an ounce of prevention, the vaccination, is worth a pound of cure, Paxlovid, there are other treatments. The website, Information is Beautiful, designs infographics – in this case, for the many therapies helpful and not. The size of the circle is an indication of media attention.

News organizations have recently been down on Paxlovid, while it has become the standard of care. Some claim Pfizer's Covid drug "has lost its luster" because of "failures" in two clinical trials. Now, a third trial looks like it could deliver another black mark: the drug doesn't improve symptoms in low-risk patients with Covid. Is this criticism valid? Let's look a little deeper.

In several respects, the latest draft of EPA’s formaldehyde IRIS toxicological review is an improvement over an earlier version I reviewed as an EPA advisor in 2017.  Unfortunately, other aspects of EPA’s current draft suffer from a lack of judgment and adherence to EPA’s guidelines and is a missed opportunity to work with outside parties, such as our European colleagues.  The overall impression of EPA’s current draft is that formaldehyde is toxic at levels below what is often found indoors or in outdoor air. 

Some thoughts on the "debate" between Drs. Jeff Singer and Ardianne Fugh-Berman. Such as it was. The video is now available. Have a strong stomach.

Death seems like it would be a pretty discrete data point with little ambiguity. After all, you either are or are not dead. But as it does so often, the meaning of death in health research is more complex than that simple binary choice. A new study of death and dying in Denmark provides food for thought about how best to use that discrete endpoint to better understand the care we provide.

The activist group Slow Food recently published a listicle warning consumers about the dangers of pesticides. Let's see if their top-10 list stands up to scrutiny.

There's been a lot of news, some of it fear-mongering, about Pfizer's Covid drug Paxlovid. Some people are having their symptoms return after completing the five-day course. Does that mean there is something wrong with the drug, or it's simply a property of the virus? Drs. Henry Miller and Josh Bloom try to provide an answer in Issues & Insights.

What meditation can teach us about listening to others?
It is time to BBQ – a chemistry lesson you can eat
Does science uncover new “truths” or continue to enslave the “already exploited?”
AARP’s conflicted interests

A new mathematical exercise suggests that if we stop eating beef and simply substitute beans, we can reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75%. The math is good. But the assumptions? Not so much.

Vaccination protocols have been set by age, but age-specific efficacies are not well established. Age is by far the most important determinant of mortality rate; the probability of death increases exponentially with age for major causes of death, including COVID. Here we examine relationships between mortality rates, age, and vaccination coverage for the original series and booster shots as they changed during the pandemic.[1]

In episode 7 of the Science Dispatch Podcast, we review New York University's experiment to offer students free medical school, the goal being to push doctors into under-served communities and understaffed specialties. We then tackle a popular nutrition myth: the dementia-fighting benefits of blueberries.

“Modern food production, be it field cultivations of crops or the capture of wild marine species, is a peculiar hybrid dependent on two different kinds of energy. The first and most obvious is the Sun. But we also need the now indispensable input of fossil fuels and the electricity produced and generated by humans.”

Two thousand people a week are dying from (almost entirely) illegal street drugs. While at the same time prescriptions for legal pain medications have been cut by half in the past decade. The FDA’s solution? Postage-paid envelopes for people to return the extra pills they don't have. It's almost funny. Just don't laugh until it hurts.

A trailer for the American Council on Science and Health's Big Fears Little Risks documentary

The U.S. National Organic Program (NOP) was established in 1990 as part of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). The mission of AMS is to administer programs that “create domestic and international marketing opportunities for U.S. producers of food, fiber, and ‘specialty crops.’” Organic is one such specialty crop. Many U.S. consumers swear by organic foods but are unaware of the history, principles, and regulations behind the NOP.  Read on if you dare to know more.

Fox News claims Americans are obese primarily because they eat too many carbs. The science behind this idea is still not compelling.