Plenty of bad papers are accepted as true because the academic who wrote it is famous. On the flip side, many good papers are never written out of the fear that it could cost an academic his job. So, how about we just eliminate real names and publish papers under fake ones instead? That's the fundamental idea behind a new journal, not-so-subtly called The Journal of Controversial Ideas, set to launch next year. This idea is so good, I wish I'd thought of it first.
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What a medical doctor sees in social media posts can tell an entirely different picture than the one intended to be told. As the saying goes "the devil is in the details."
The deadliest occupational group for men was "construction and extraction," with a suicide rate of 53.2 per 100,000 in 2015. For women, the deadliest group was "arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media," with a suicide rate of 15.6 per 100,000.
The October DEA National Drug Assessment, which claimed that opioid analgesic pills were doing most of the killing was pure BS. Now there is even more evidence of this, courtesy of New Hampshire. Only 9% of OD deaths were from pills, the rest for heroin and fentanyl. More lies put to rest.
Only about 37% of American adults bothered to get a flu shot this past flu season. That's actually a decrease from the previous season, when about 43% got one. Partially as a result, 80,000 Americans died from the flu. On the flip side, we did buy more organic food than ever before.
One sure way to damage your wine business is to overdose the soil on chemicals. Yet that's what growers must do if they rely on copper sulfate, a heavy metal that accumulates in soil – and is certified by organic marketing groups.
Imagine if Dr. Oz -- who peddles all sorts of pseudoscientific, nonsensical miracle cures on his daytime TV show -- proposed an environmental policy. That's the Green New Deal.
While we await a more comprehensive report, the preliminary findings imply nothing of consequence was discovered during the examination that would impede the president doing his job now, or in the foreseeable future.
Scientists from Mexico have discovered a very clever way of getting rid of HPV, the most common of all sexually transmitted infections. It's done using a simple chemical and a laser -- and there's no harm to normal cells. This method could represent a big advance in eradicating the virus and reducing HPV-related cancers, especially cervical cancer.
The editorial board of the New York Times came out in favor of revising FDA regulations of cosmetic products. This is a reasonable suggestion since such a review has not taken place since 1938. But sound science, especially toxicology, is essential for any change in regulations to be meaningful. Unfortunately, on the science itself, the newspaper's proposal misses the mark.
One wonders how the anti-GMO movement could oppose something like this. But given its hostility to Golden Rice, which has been genetically modified to contain a vitamin A precursor to prevent blindness, it usually finds a way.
Kolodny, the self-appointed (but thoroughly unqualified) opioid czar, repeatedly uses the made-up phrase "heroin pills." It's an apparent attempt to demonize opioids like oxycodone. In a way, he's succeeded. To fill the void left by the oxycodone shortage, the Southwestern U.S. is being flooded by "real" heroin pills called "Mexican Oxy." But the pills aren't actually heroin; they're fentanyl copies of oxycodone, which kill when consumed. Nice going, once again.
Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, have some 'splaining to do. It would seem as if the company is using some unsavory marketing tactics to boost sales of its product. How so? For starters, the company has informed us that Tylenol is not an opioid. Who knew? What's the reason behind this odd claim? Better keep reading.
From hospital inpatient “wealth screenings” for potential donors, to digital "geofencing" cell phones in emergency rooms, the erosion of patient privacy is real. Guess who's the latest to have access to your intimate data (e.g. pregnancy status, ovulation cycle, blood pressure) without your consent?
A recent study, purporting to show that “toxic” chemicals from some types of dental floss are ending up in the flossers' bloodstream, does not actually provide evidence for the claim. So don’t give up flossing!
With brutal temperatures now plaguing millions of Americans, especially in the midwest and northeast, it's as good a time as any to debunk myths connected to cold-related injuries.
It is very tempting to purposefully mislabel a product if you can make extra money and get away with it. But, using isotope analysis, chemists have devised a way to discriminate conventional and organic milk.
A new study on this form of diabetes, which is developed during pregnancy, puts forth the idea that simply watching what pregnant women eat and how much they exercise is sufficient prevention. However, it's important to note that doing one without the other is problematic.
Our ability to forget provides a survival advantage – while assuaging suffering in the process.
Coffee is touted as a prevention remedy or for countless (and unrelated) diseases and conditions. One that isn't on that list is asthma. So, is coffee useful for asthmatics? Scientifically it should be. But you would need to drink a ghastly amount of it. (And at no extra charge we include the always-popular "Chemistry Lesson From Hell.")
We've been recently reminded of one of the most significant false-positives in U.S. history, the erroneous notification to Hawaii's citizens about the "imminent attack" of ballistic missiles. When it comes to medical care, while false positives also have harmful effects on patients and practitioners, the advances in artificial intelligence may be worsening the practice of patient care.
A new paper shares a different -- and perhaps, a better way -- of describing the outcome of care. It's more than alive or dead; it's about how much better patients are living their lives.
The new behavioralists are trying to figure out how to best reward physicians for good outcomes. We may call it "pay for performance," but it seems an awful lot like all those studies of rats pressing levers to get a reward or avoid being shocked.
Many of us get up two or more times per night to urinate. A study by Rand Europe tries to put a societal cost to this symptom. This is, in part, how drugs are priced and brought to market in the United Kingdom.
It's a new era for winemaking. Long the domain of craftsmen and connoisseurs, scientists worldwide are utilizing new technologies and combining forces to create better vino. In fact, Washington State University has an entire program dedicated to the science of wine.
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