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Over-the-top rhetoric is not only prevalent in our political dialogue, it is also commonly adopted by epidemiologists and journalists. Instead of Hitler, they compare anything they dislike to smoking.

A Colorado toddler required emergency medical intervention after ingesting 28 high-powered buckyball magnets that began to erode. Major surgery can often result, depending on the urgency of the clinical situation, and it can possibly lead to the removal of segments of bowel. 

It's a tough time for those infected with genital herpes. Genocea's candidate GEN-003 crashed and burned. The company announced that it's pulling the plug on the vaccine following Phase II clinical trials. It's disheartening news for the herpes community, but folks, keep your chins up. Other, and presumably better, candidates are still out there.

Training for my first marathon has produced a few questions, like these: What's in those little gel packs that serious runners swear by? And do we need them? Here we look into the beloved "goo" packs, and seek to understand how they're going to keep us going through five hours of running. 

As the chief junkyard dog of US Right To Know, an industry front group created to harass and intimidate scientists, Ruskin has managed to pay-to-publish a Short Article which allows him to claim he has been in a peer-reviewed journal. Authors, would you like this kind of anti-science dreck to be published alongside your work?

Exaggerating the extent of the challenges we face might help someone sell a product, but it provides little confidence in its reliability.

It is Game On!  for President Trump appointee Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Things are definitely changing there, and at this point, it's a pretty good start.

Peer review has been around for quite some time. But its history features interactions with the technology and forms of sharing information, with censorship, the rise and fall of generalists as well as concerns about marketing. 

In 2012, we learned that something as basic as drinking coffee might help control movement symptoms for sufferers of Parkinson's disease. But after closer inspection and expanded study, that conclusion has been withdrawn.

Organic chemistry can do all kinds of cool things, like making drugs and also detecting them. One drug it can detect – instantly –  is methamphetamine. A bit of urine, an immediate chemical reaction, and a very clear color change. And also a change in your auto insurance rates. Behold a chemistry lesson and a cautionary tale. 

This story should remind us how easy it is to pull off acts of terrorism. With drugs like fentanyl and carfentanyl pouring into our country, officials should treat synthetic opioids as a terrorist threat in addition to a public health threat.

Hey, UCI administrators ... in the wake of receiving your recent $200 million gift, there's something pretty basic that you're still not getting. When it comes to alternative medicines you can't choose selectively among them. You're either practicing medicine or you're practicing something else. What's it going to be?

The "wellness" platform is the sexy new term added to our lexicon.  Wellness clinics and gurus have hijacked medicine and have gone so far as creating fake medical problems to manipulate the public.  It's time to out them for the hacks that they are.

Heparin, which has primarily been used for the treatment of blood clots, is one of the oldest medications still in use. New research indicates that heparin has a more diverse physiological role, one of which stimulates food intake and decreases metabolism. This could have profound clinical implications, both in its current clinical use and for the future of developing weight-loss drugs.

Worried about North Korea tossing nukes around? Ebola? Killer hurricanes? While all of these are dreadful, you might as well forget about them and every other threat around. They are irrelevant. We are already doomed. Because someone put a fleece jacket in the dryer. 

Kurt Eichenwald, a journalist with enormous influence, claims to have predicted features of Hurricane Irma using a climate change equation. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a New York Times bestselling author, he took to Twitter to boast about his accomplishment. It didn't take long for him to be rightfully mocked.

Among the reverberating issues created in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma is a particularly disturbing one: multiple deaths at a Florida nursing home. Here we explore why those over 65 are especially susceptible to such scorching conditions.

A recent paper with too many qualifiers tries to link pregnant women receiving the flu vaccine in the first trimester, and miscarriages. Regardless of the quality of the science, this will almost certainly result in (1) pregnant women second-guessing their flu shot, and (2) the anti-vaccine crowd using this to fuel its fire. So, the takeaway: don't hesitate, vaccinate.

Even under the best of circumstances, the five-year survival rate for pancreatic adenocarcinoma is devastating. According to the American Cancer Society, for stage IA it's just 14%. And for stage III – a horrifying 3%. 

Exercise is good for us, and inactivity isn't. A new study emphasizes that not only is that true, but the pattern of inactivity – as well as the amount of inactive time – can increase the risk of mortality.

You can't buy Sudafed OTC anymore. In its place is something called Sudafed PE, which is useless. Why? It's all about crystal meth. A little chemistry lesson.

Some bad studies are simply bad, while others are both bad – and harmful. A recent study, which determined that antidepressants will make you 33% more likely to die, is an example of the latter. Worse, it could frighten away those in need of antidepressant therapy for no reason. Disgraceful. 

Ancient parchments decay over time, showing purple spots. The cause appears to be a succession of microbial communities: First, purple, salt-loving microbes grow. Then, other environmental microbes invade.

Tired of the same ole boring ways to contract food-borne illness? Look no further than chicken tartare: raw, seasoned chicken, now served at restaurants near you. 

Canadian researchers say they've produced software that can "accurately determine" when distracting activities are taking place behind the wheel. The new innovation, utilizing artificial intelligence, could potentially lead to the car issuing a warning and, if necessary, taking over for the driver briefly until the safety threat is alleviated.