Antibiotic R&D is hard. Getting to approval is harder. Surviving the commercialization step today is almost impossible. Government-based funding to fix the broken antibiotic market is essential to stop this march of the lemmings. Private investment will follow a government incentive and amplify its effect.
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Hear about the German guy who got arrested for getting selling forged vaccine cards to anti-vaxxers? That should be funny enough, right? Nope. ACSH goes the extra kilometer, as usual.
Separating rights from responsibilities, framing, following the science? Stealing our privacy through our games.
Although the 2022 revision of the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescribing Advice is an improvement over the original document, it still refers to Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) as a guide to physicians. Unfortunately, this number does not accurately reflect the relative strength of opioid painkillers. Dr. Jeff Singer and I explain why in a new op-ed in the NY Daily News.
There’s a new study of the benefits of eating your vegetables. It has the usual measurement problems – and concludes that vegetables are good for your health. But it clarifies the issue that your food selection has little effect, as compared to your other life choices.
A new study in JAMA Network Open is a follow-up to a 2015 study done by the same researchers. The questions are: Do you store loaded guns at home? Are they locked or not? Do you store guns that are loaded and unlocked? This is not about the right to bear arms, but the responsibility to store them safely around children.
How many of you have read any of the user agreements we have with Google or Facebook? Neither have I. Why are legal contracts so “notoriously difficult for non-lawyers to understand?” A new study in Cognition provides some clues.
Since the CDC, DEA, and Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing have become experts in dispensing prescription drugs, why stop there? Well, in Massachusetts, it didn't stop there. Judges were dictating specific medications to help addicts recover. Judges? Who's quoted in the article? Andrew Kolodny, of course. Why?
Plastics are ubiquitous in our environment. Much has been made about the increasing amounts all around us, in intended and unintended places. A new study indicates that one of those unintended places is now our bloodstream. This is the first step to understanding their potential toxicity, so it pays us to look carefully at what the scientists did and did not find.
On January 2, 2022, the Israeli government began the Pfizer vaccine's 4th dose or 2nd booster. The data from Israel's vaccination program is the basis of the decision by the FDA and CDC to recommend a second booster shoot for selected populations. What should you do?
Jane Campion takes home the 2022 Oscar for Best Director in "The Power of the Dog," an unsettling, psychological Western drama. The tension is due to the relationship of the main character, Phil Burbank, with his brother's new wife and her son, Peter. Phil, to put it bluntly, is a bully. However, young Peter is training to become a medical doctor and [spoiler alert] uses his knowledge of pathogens to destroy an unwitting Phil. How did making a rawhide rope lead to death?
Just like a trip to the dentist, it's time for The Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell. This time we'll discuss the element xenon. Also, Dr. Charles "Chuckie D." Dinerstein gets his comeuppance. And a mini-book review. No extra charge!
Once pretty, vivacious young women in their late teens and early twenties awaiting marriage and children, one by one, they sickened. On X-ray, their bones looked moth-eaten; their teeth fell out, leaving pockets of pus– every dental effort to treat them caused more tooth loss. Eventually, their jawbones broke or splintered in their mouths, or they suffered cancerous sarcomas of their limbs, requiring amputation. Their spines crumbled, their legs shortened, so they painfully limped. For years no one could determine what ailed them. They were the “Radium Girls.”
For the once pretty, vivacious young women in their late teens and early twenties awaiting marriage and children, sickened as they lip, dip, and painted radium onto watch dials the statute of limitations was a major obstacle to their legal claims. In Part II of our story, we look at their legal struggle.
My wife is an excellent cook, and I am a fair sous chef, not quite as devoted as Paul Childs, [1] but persistent and helpful. I always rinse chicken as I take it from its packaging; my wife always tells me that she and the CDC do not recommend that practice. A new study brings physics and bacteriology to the issue, alas, not in my favor – but it offers me some science-informed compromise.
Barry Bonds has an asterisk next to his name because he used muscle-enhancing steroids. President Clinton earned an asterisk because he used another human as a humidor. Will Smith applied for his when he slapped Chris Rock. An asterisk after your name signifies some notable exception, usually bad. I have questions.
In April, the EPA published its draft Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Toxicological Review of Formaldehyde (inhalation), a 192-page document. The publication of this document raises issues that go far beyond the health effects of formaldehyde, issues concerning science, policy, the role of our scientific agencies, and the potential overreach of government regulatory authority.
Federal regulators and anti-tobacco campaigners are on the warpath against flavored vaping products. Though alcohol and marijuana use are more common (and more harmful) teenage vices, there seems to be little interest in restricting access to these products.
On Episode 6 of the Science Dispatch Podcast, ACSH contributor Susan Goldhaber explains the genetic underpinnings of Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease affecting some 2.5 million Americans—including Jada Pinkett Smith. Now that Will Smith's so-called "slap heard 'round the world" has faded from the headlines, let's discuss the science behind the infamous Oscar meltdown.
We then examine fiber's exaggerated health benefits and the anti-GMO movement's descent into obscurity.
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 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.
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.
Last time, we discussed head transplants and how philosophers are gearing up to address the ethical implications. Many pages and scholarly brain waves were spent in the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine. What use were these ruminations? Are they valid considerations, even if the basic scientific premise is faulty? Or is this another example of asking how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? More importantly, what does this tell us about our capacity to resolve complex bioethical issues around new biotech?
Environmental Working Group has again claimed that chemicals in food and consumer products are contributing to obesity. They are mistaken, embarrassingly so.
Cato Institute's Dr. Jeffrey Singer (also an ACSH advisor) published an opinion piece in The Detroit News arguing that laws that restrict drug paraphernalia do more harm than good. "If states want to get serious about reducing the risk of harm from using illegal drugs, lawmakers should repeal their drug paraphernalia laws." We couldn't agree more. Harm reduction is one of the central tenets of ACSH.
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