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We thought we hammered an Israeli study on artificial sweeteners pretty hard in our Sept 18th Dispatch article Israeli study on sugar substitutes is complete bullsweet.
Maybe we did, but we were seriously out-hammered by Matt Raymond s piece Of Mice and Media: A Credulous Response to an Iffy Sweetener Study.

A journalist decided to tackle her favorite food concerns and check them out with experts from nearby medical centers the answers surprised her.

Though politicians and the public love to hate Big Ag and Big Pharma, everybody comes begging for help when the going gets tough. The arguments against biotechnology have been made exponentially weaker by the success of the coronavirus vaccine.

1. A website called the National Observer is an "online only" publication whose editor has been accused of political boosterism and using her publication to attack opponents of her family.

In Part 1 we discussed the RO1 grant, the bread and butter of academic research funding. Here, in Part 2, we delve into what happens to a grant after it is submitted – and how select grants are awarded funding.

Are bees facing extinction as many environmental advocacy groups and some scientists claim. And are neonicotinoid pesticides the key reason behind their health problems, as many activists, and some news reports suggest?

A new paper seeks to inform concerns about e-cigarettes, purportedly used as harm reduction and smoking cessation techniques, being a gateway to smoking. The conclusion by Hongying Dai and Jianqiang Hao is that e-cigarettes, and especially flavors, do lead to both cigarette smoking and an unwillingness to quit. There is just one problem: there is no data showing that.

What is complementary-alternative medicine anyway? Alternative to what? If a practice is not science-based, it is not medicine. Now we learn that Cleveland Clinic has sold out this concept for herbal treatments. Sad.

People who see corporate shills everywhere they look are no different from run-of-the-mill conspiracy theorists. And some of them are MDs.

Dr. Whelan presented this speech on November 10, 1992 upon her acceptance of the Calver Award presenter by the Environmental Division of the American Public Health Association.
This lecture pays tribute to Homer Calver and his crusade against premature death and disease during the first decades of this century. Calver's greatness came because of the time in which he lived.

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.

Twitter is not that mythical town square where you can get on your soapbox and be heard. It is more like a carnival barker seeking attention by being outrageous. It is not a forum for truth or to communicate science.

The American Council on Science and Health, a leading pro-science consumer advocacy organization, announced today the appointment of Thom Golab as president, only the third person to lead the Council in its 41-year history.

Mainstream news outlets have gone after COVID-19 conspiracy theorists with a passion. But when it comes to equally important science topics, they have no problem ignoring evidence and promoting conspiratorial nonsense. This blatant hypocrisy causes confusion and fuels the public's skepticism of science more broadly.

There's a pervasive bias in academia against scientists who work in industry. It is often said that such individuals aren’t "real scientists." The less charitable describe them as having gone over to the so-called dark side. For at least two reasons, this is a shameful and hypocritical way to characterize industry.

Part 1 of this two-part series described the “Stanford University paradox” – the uncritical embrace of politically correct concepts that contradict its reputation as a cutting-edge, science-grounded institution. I described the contrast between the university’s outstanding research and its dubious view of “sustainability,” which includes a commitment to organic farming practices. I elaborate on the latter here, in Part 2.

Communication skills do not always come as naturally to scientists as being curious innovators and brilliant problem solvers. One of the main reasons for this is our reliance on jargon - specific words that are difficult for non-experts to understand. A new tool, the "de-jargonizer" - identifies jargon and translates it into language that can be understood by everyone - having the potential to blur the line where science and society meet. 

Michelle Obama was caught eating a cheeseburger, the Baltimore Sun notes. For most of us, this is not headline fodder only an indication that the First Lady is a normal human being. But according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an activist group that poses as a health group, Mrs. Obama s occasional burger indulgence is a dangerous practice that must be stopped.

Dr. Michael Dourson, who sits on ACSH's Board of Scientific Advisors, discusses changes at the EPA. He notes the public interest is best served when science is replicable, and when it's not access to underlying data is vital to independent analysis. Without quality risk assessment, we can't create effective national regulations.

The internet is brimming with nutritional nonsense. A new book teaches us how to spot the myths.

Drug Interaction

North Carolina State University recently cancelled a science-outreach event because the invited speakers have the wrong skin color. It's another example of academic institutions prizing a radical social agenda over education.

Instead of being ruined by nature, you can buy a papaya for $.25. Science did that. What went right?

In the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a writer named Leon Stafford demonstrates why Americans don't trust corporate health and science journalism and prefer to get it from experts like the American Council on Science and Health.

The literature is filled to overflowing with "publish or perish" articles. So how do we know what to read? Well, the same people that brought you so, so many articles have a curated solution to your current awareness overload.