The flu season is upon us. But what is it that makes an infectious disease seasonal at all?
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The knee is an incredibly complicated structure, which is why "knee pain" can be rather challenging to address. New research examines the physical distribution of knee pain and finds three common patterns.
What if malaria, which affects hundreds of millions worldwide annually, could be sniffed out before it began delivering its debilitating, flu-like effects? Well, that is what's literally happening, with researchers utilizing dogs' keen sense of smell in a recent study to determine malaria's presence in humans.
As the saying goes, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." We know that's true because statisticians themselves just said so. A jaw-dropping study reveals that nearly 1 in 4 of them report being asked to remove or alter data to better support a hypothesis. That is called scientific fraud.
Sometimes, a cute stray animal at your doorstep is carrying something you don't want to cuddle up to.
Academia is in meltdown. A new Gallup survey shows that only 48% of U.S. adults have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in academia. That's down from 57% in 2015. And it's not just due to partisanship. Maybe this wouldn't happen if academics were held accountable for their behavior.
For those who have trouble seeing, are gradually losing their eyesight or are already blind, this technological innovation can help dramatically improve lives daily. It can tell you what's right in front of you – by whispering in your ear – even when you cannot read or see it. Amazing.
As if hospitals aren't bad enough, a really dangerous bug called Clostridium difficile is all over the place. And this bug, more commonly known as (C. diff), is not so easy to kill. Researchers looked at what happens when you wash contaminated sheets. The expression "it call comes out in the wash" does not apply.
Researchers in New Hampshire, citing a trend of warmer winters over the last decade, found that 70 percent of moose calves that were monitored between 2014-16 had died. For nearly all of them, the cause of death was attributed to the dramatic rise in winter ticks, which feast on the calves' blood.
The U.S. will soon have to change its clock again. It's a useless junk-science, government policy that has lasted 52 years too long. Here are the admittedly minor health effect risks. It's still annoying.
Your mouth is a repository of bacteria. And if you don't clean it out on a regular basis, that bacteria can enter the bloodstream. A host of health problems are associated with gum neglect, heart disease and high blood pressure among them.
GMOs. Nuclear power. Self-driving cars. Why all the fearmongering? Because doing so produces an awful lot of money. Telling people that technology is bad generates roughly $30 million every single year. Meanwhile, UCS really ought to consider renaming itself.
Depression and anxiety are not always easy to detect. Symptoms can range from worry to chronic indecision. Thus, an easily detectable biomarker for would be preferable, and Chinese scientists believe they have found one using a urine test.
Our northern neighbor is considering public payment for nearly all pharmaceutical costs. The model makes its assumptions known, its cost and benefit analysis clear, and provides a blend of new taxes to support the plan. If it was not for some academic hand-waving over special needs and interests it might actually be feasible.
How can you identify a scientifically ignorant person? Ask him if he's concerned about the health effects of GMOs. If the answer is yes, you've identified somebody who probably couldn't pass an 8th grade science test. Too harsh? Not according to the latest Pew poll.
One would think that in a world where facts can be easily verified, it shouldn't become so polarized. But a new paper in the European Journal for Philosophy of Science argues that polarization is the natural outcome when groups of people disagree. In fact, the authors document a major example of polarization within the scientific community itself.
A key challenge in building electric aircraft involves how much energy can be stored in a given amount of weight of the onboard energy source. Although the best batteries store about 40 times less energy per unit of weight than jet fuel, a greater share of their energy is available to drive motion. Here's more on why batteries are, relatively speaking, heavy for aviation.
Melinta is only one of several companies experiencing the pain of antibiotic development. The company lost 85% of its market cap over the past year. Yet, the company just received European approval to market Vabomere, a combination of one antibiotic, meropenem, and one beta-lactamase inhibitor vaborbactam. This is becoming a repetitive pattern of success breeding failure in the antibiotic space. Dr. David Shlaes explains.
When science and money mix, science suffers. The pressure to publish and get grant money has corrupted researchers, who must "publish or perish" and get grants. This unholy alliance between the popular media and scholarly publications spawned the never-ending flow of sensationalistic results, especially those pertaining to human health effects.
Have you started your Christmas and/or holiday shopping? If you're like us, you're putting it off to the last minute – because you're too busy with other things. Here at ACSH, we've been busy telling the world about science. Here's where we've appeared recently.
Whether one is sick or well, the end of life tends to have its own unique story and reaction. There can be sudden deaths of less surprise to us than the final act of an unrelenting terminal disease. But why are we almost always a bit surprised to learn of someone's death?
Synthetic biology is like genetic engineering on steroids. Using cutting-edge computational design, synthetic biology aims to design novel biological molecules -- or even entire metabolic systems. Here's a plan to use this new technology to develop a world-changing treatment for Celiac disease.
How often do you hear of someone using their spouse's antibiotic from a prior illness? Or, dispensing an Ambien to a colleague or friend? For those practicing medicine without a license in person, or through social media crowdsourcing, the harms can be considerable.
Bloomberg's recent hit piece on milk touches upon almost every sensitive issue that worries parents: food, school and their children. Toss in a conspiracy theory about "Big Dairy," and that's how Bloomberg came up with a fear-mongering headline, complete with a disgusting photo that is supposed to make readers feel queasy.
We count on innovation to improve our lives. In a quest to make innovations come faster we have considered how, and to whom, we entrust research and development. A new study suggests that the rate of innovation is driven mostly by how many simple and complex solutions might be available.
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