Reducing air pollution is a universally acknowledged goal, heralded for its potential to improve public health and environmental quality. However, amidst the enthusiasm for cleaner air, a critical question emerges: How effective have our efforts truly been?
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Picture this: a farm where the phrase "the other white meat" takes on a whole new meaning. It’s where farmers swap their pitchforks for snake tongs and hooks, where the scales are tipped in favor of protein, and fewer greenhouse gases are released.
Naloxone and Naltrexone sound alike, look alike chemically, and are both used to counter the misuse of opioids. But pharmacologically, they're strikingly different. This is why the two drugs are used for different purposes. Confused? Let's clear things up.
As long as we don't run out of chemicals, we will never run out of chemical scares. Most are unfounded, especially the current one – that the use of methylene chloride to decaffeinate coffee will somehow harm you. The numbers say otherwise. There is nothing to worry about here.
Americans seem to have quite a positive view of dietary supplements. According to a 2023 survey, 74% of U.S. adults take vitamins, prebiotics and the like.
The business of supplements is booming, and with all the hype around them, it’s easy to forget what they actually are: substances that can powerfully affect the body and your health, yet aren’t regulated like drugs are. They’re regulated more like food.
Loud noises and ... trace minerals? Let's break down a new study examining an important contributor to age-related hearing loss. Spoiler alert: stocking up on zinc supplements is not the solution.
The Bible of science – the body of peer-reviewed literature – is increasingly filled with dubious and even fraudulent research. Most academics openly recognize the threat this poses to scientific progress, though viable solutions to academic fraud are sorely lacking. How do we address this critical problem?
We can create a public health infrastructure that is more resilient to outbreaks of viral illnesses by better understanding the nature of virus infections and how to address vaccine hesitancy.
A company called ZBiotic wants you to believe that its product – a microorganism that makes the enzyme that metabolizes acetaldehyde – will help prevent a hangover. Should we believe this?
We spend 85% of our time indoors, and air conditioning can provide relief when and where we need it. Nevertheless, regulatory agencies continue to press for tighter outdoor emission controls. Their mantra is that lives can be shortened by long-term (years) exposure, no matter how trivial. This is the linear, no-threshold hypothesis currently promulgated by EPA.
Medical schools emphasizing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) as criteria for admissions is a prescription for disaster.
Discovering the truth about the impact of ultra-processed foods on our brains can be like navigating a maze of conflicting information. In a recent article published by The Wall Street Journal, the spotlight was once again cast on this controversial topic.
Picture this: a digital watchdog, prowling through heaps of patient data, poised to raise the alarm at the slightest sign of trouble. Enter a guardian angel, in the guise of algorithms designed to forewarn medical staff of impending crises. But is it truly a beacon of salvation or a mirage in the desert of clinical uncertainty?
“Should you pack Lunchables for Your Kid’s School Lunch?” asks a piece in the April 9th edition of Consumer Reports. The article claims that these lunch kits contain lead and other contaminants, and may harm children’s health. Do parents need to worry?
In a recent conversation with John Batchelor (CBS "Eye on the World"), we explored the resurgence of measles amidst a wave of vaccine hesitancy sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Walpole, Massachusetts the circus is always in town. This is because Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. opened his national presidential campaign headquarters there in 2023. RFK, Jr. may blame some of his erratic behavior, mostly regarding science and medicine, on his brain-eating worm, but I don't buy it. He was saying crazy s### well before Wormgate. Here's some of it.
In 2012, there was a bizarre case of "face-chewing" that was attributed to two Florida men allegedly smoking drugs called "bath salts." Twelve years later some drug-addled (Floridian) lunatic took a big chunk out of a deputy's head, at an annual music and art festival held to provide a "captivating journey into a world of electrifying music, immersive art, and spiritual rejuvenation." Read on and you'll find an entertaining chemistry-based article that you really can sink your teeth into.
It's impossible not to notice the exponential rise in people, posting on social media, plunging into ice-filled bathtubs or extremely cold waters. It's not because they are masochistic, but rather because of the supposed “benefits” that the practice supposedly offers.
The guidelines on what we should eat - science speaks but politics reign,
Procedural tricks, the lobbyist's way.
New York's subways crime, AI scan not so intelligent
A Roman pandemic teaches in hindsight.
Two cases now before the Supreme Court threaten to narrow or even eviscerate traditional judicial deference to agency expertise. Soon, we may see this deference afforded under the decades-old Chevron doctrine dismantled entirely - even regarding technical or scientific determinations. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, for one, isn’t pleased.
On April 30, 2024, the EPA banned many uses of methylene chloride, a chemical widely used as a paint stripper and in industrial applications, based on an “unreasonable risk to human health.” This presents a total reversal of their earlier conclusions that methylene chloride did not pose an unreasonable risk. How did EPA use the same data to reach two opposing conclusions?
Infectious disease experts predict another coronavirus pandemic in the future, so we need to be prepared. That will require both basic research to devise improved vaccines, including "universal" ones that will provide immunity against new variants, and cooperation from vaccine manufacturers.
It’s final exam time, which means all manner of study hacks are making their semi-annual resurgence amongst students across the country. Among those hacks are nootropics – substances ostensibly increasing cognitive function. What’s behind these brain-boosting products?
We’ve witnessed the opioid addiction crisis suffering through its mismanagement. Now, we face another scourge of addiction – again resulting in untimely deaths of young people while bankrupting and overtaking their emotional lives. This debacle is caused by social media, with recompense and responsibility avoided, and guardrails are yet to be widely implemented.
In an invisible dance, micro- and nanoplastics move about ubiquitously, yet unnoticed. These minuscule particles bob and weave into every corner of our existence. Yet, their impact on our respiratory health is unclear. How do these particles navigate the pathways of our respiratory tree, and what does this mean for our well-being?
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