Mutualism describes a relationship that benefits both parties – the win-win of our world. A new study reports on a mutualism that goes from ants to trees to elephants to lions and zebras. It serves as a reminder of the mutualism around us.

Vaccination is a pillar of disease prevention, but Americans are under-vaccinated. We need a multi-pronged public education campaign with participation from politicians and celebrities of every stripe.

Scaling often refers to the ability of a system, application, or network to handle an increasing amount of work, users, or data. Scalability in human behavior considers how individual actions aggregate to form group dynamics, social institutions, and even global phenomena. As we continue to urbanize and our cities grow larger, it is increasingly vital to understand not just the use of resources but the creation of waste.

With the EPA finding that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans and the plaintiffs’ five-case winning streak against Bayer broken, things had been looking up on the Roundup event horizon. Alas, last week’s verdict dinged Roundup yet again. and some 40,000 cases are still pending. What can we expect next?

“The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) places all substances that were in some manner regulated under existing federal law into one of five schedules. This placement is based on the substance’s medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability.” The FDA has proposed changing the classification of marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. Let’s break down its thinking.

Cash on hand
What’s in a name – influencer
When Everyone is in Charge
Artificial Intelligence and Craft

If Tylenol trials are off the table, what else tempts? How about the weed killer Roundup - the most popular and successful herbicide ever? Luckily for the plaintiff’s bar, there’s some evidence that it causes cancer. There’s also sound evidence that it doesn’t. Eighteen cases have gone to verdict. Bayer (which owns Monsanto, the product’s developer) won ten; the plaintiffs won eight. So, is the stuff human-harmful or not? Who decides in a court of law and how? And what’s next?

In this radio conversation, John Batchelor and I discuss the effectiveness of vaccines and the challenges posed by new variants of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) such as the now-dominant JN.1.

Prohibition of drugs simply doesn't work. Clamping down on Percocet and Vicodin resulted in a surge in heroin use. Fentanyl took care of that market and now even worse drugs called nitazenes are being found in fentanyl samples. Dr. Jeff Singer and I discuss this latest development in USA Today

“There is high‐certainty evidence that ECs [electronic cigarettes] with nicotine increase quit rates compared to NRT [nicotine replacement therapy] and moderate‐certainty evidence that they increase quit rates compared to ECs without nicotine.” That is the initial statement by the Cochrane Group in its current report on electronic cigarettes. Care to know more?