Would knowing more about one's genetic makeup help select the best type of diet for weight loss? Apparently not, since researchers found that information about a person's DNA doesn't help when choosing between low-fat and low-carb diets.
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We want American scientists to know as quickly as possible when an unusual case of the sniffles occurs in Africa or Asia. From there, we could be able to model the likelihood of the disease spreading beyond its origin. Such a strategy could help prevent Ebola from making a return visit to the United States.
A newly-developed genomic technology has solved part of an age-old mystery: What killed millions of humans 500 years ago in southern Mexico during the "huey cocoliztli" ? This work shows that one of the players in the epidemic was the bacteria Salmonella.
You probably haven't had an earache or ear infection since you were a child, but adults are not immune to infections in the middle ear, especially after they've been exposed to the flu.
Here's a case of a 13-year-old boy who pierced his skull with a 6-inch screw after an accidental fall. With unintentional injury the fourth-leading cause of death, here's how best to avoid a negative outcome.
Disparities in physicians, based on gender, make the news when women appear better than men. This study runs counter to the popular narrative – and it's just as flawed as the other studies. Why didn't it make bigger headlines?
The only honest people are journalists. Such self-serving naïveté appears to be the creed at the website Undark. It's an outlet that claims, apparently with a straight face, to be interested only in "true journalistic coverage of the sciences."
Recently the incidence of syphilis has been increasing in newborn babies and pregnant women, and the United States Preventive Services Task Force has reaffirmed guidelines emphasizing the importance of pregnant women being screened for the disease. It's relatively easy to cure syphilis with antibiotic treatment, and caught early it would prevent devastating effects on both babies and moms.
Theranos had been staying afloat on the waves of Elizabeth's Holmes' smoke-and-mirrors act. But what its famed CEO lacked was evidence to support the technology upon which the would-be, blood-test innovator was founded. Unfortunately for Holmes – some, like the SEC – call that fraud. And that's something even Holmes couldn't talk her way out of.
ACSH President Hank Campbell sat on a Q&A panel for an anti-agriculture film called "Poisoning Paradise," knowing they were going to yell about corporate conspiracies. And he thinks everyone who cares about science should. Not for the activists who want farmers extinct, but for the people who walk out when they see how environmentalists behave. Because those people can be reached.
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes that his FDA should be in the business of getting smokers to transition away from cigarettes, to something less harmful like e-cigarettes or other products. That's similar to the policy taken by the UK's National Health Service, and it's precisely in line with ACSH's policy stance of harm reduction.
Starting this summer, the Dubai Health Authority will sequence the DNA of all three million city residents. The hope is that the information, stored in a database, will result in identifying changes in the genes and proteins that can lead to conquering genetic diseases, 220 of which are prevalent in the United Arab Emirates.
William Shubb, Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, has put a halt to the champagne wishes and caviar dreams of California trial lawyers, a U.N. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Working Group participant, and organic industry front groups hoping to profit from a bizarre determination on glyphosate by IARC that weirdly bucked the science consensus.
We've been discussing the uselessness of healthy people taking vitamin/mineral supplements for lo, these many years. But if you don't believe us, just see what some doctors from Harvard are advising their colleagues about who really needs vitamins, and when.
We were pleased to see that we're getting picked up by various media outlets, and in those across the political spectrum.
This uniquely American tendency to assign racism where none exists has struck again in yet another bizarre way. And it's absurd to try to make the case that we are racist toward Chinese food, when the number of Chinese restaurants triples those of U.S. cultural icons such as McDonald's and Starbucks.
CDC data shows that for the past few weeks, of sick people who went to the hospital and got tested about 26% of specimens were positive for influenza. Now in Week 7 of 2018, it has dropped to 25%. Finally, we appear to have turned the corner on this awful flu season.
While BPA hysteria has been going on for many years, for just as long we've been writing that the chemical is safe. As it turns out, we've been right all along (while, as usual, the Joe Mercolas and NRDCs of the world were not).
A team of scholars at Iowa State Univ. presented research validating what the scientific community has long suspected: Some anti-GMO groups are (1) either sending information to Russian propaganda sites to assist in their efforts to undermine American agricultural dominance or, (2) they're acting as "useful idiots" by promoting concern about America's food supply.
Sometimes, even we are surprised by some of the new anti-vaccine ideas that make the rounds. But this one, which was hatched on Twitter, maybe the nuttiest one to date. Thankfully, the pro-science community on this social media site won't let the person who started this imbecilic idea to get away with anything.
A recent JAMA paper which concluded that opioid drugs are ineffective for long-term pain relief is flawed, perhaps intentionally so. American Council advisor Richard "Red" Lawhern explains.
Recently on vacation abroad I was exposed to a conspiracy tale that went something like this: "I read this thing on Google that says corporations control science." As a result, one thing really stuck out: Americans are a whole lot more scientific than their counterparts in Europe.
The curator of Unseen Oceans, a new exhibit at New York's American Museum of Natural History, explained that one of the primary reasons oceanic discovery is accelerating is because of significant advances in technology – like robotics, satellite monitoring, miniaturization and high-definition imaging.
Just the thought makes some cringe. But the truth is that recaptured, treated wastewater is safe to drink. However, as compared to tap and bottled water, how does it taste? Researchers from the University of California, Riverside set to find out, and the results of their study were not what they expected.
A recent article highlighted the animals responsible for human deaths in the United States. It is time they are exposed for the natural born killers they can be.
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