People commit suicide for various reasons: Depression, loneliness, mental illness, drug addiction, relationship trouble, financial hardship, and bullying have all been implicated. Determining the predominant causes of suicide in each age and ethnic demographic would be a major step toward reversing this troubling trend.

The opioid crisis is at an all time high, with no sign of slowing down. What we are currently doing to stop the crisis is not working. One company has designed a product to help. It's an app that is easy to use, cheap, can be accessed by anyone with a phone, has been shown to help people during their recovery and just might make a difference. 

"Fake news" has become a meme — and it's all over the Internet. For example, take a look at a site that claims to provide real evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic in humans. Not only does it cite old data, it has picked a study whose authors don't agree with them. Can you get much more fake than that?

Hollywood will make no sequel to Erin Brockovich, nor will Pacific Gas & Electric be reimbursed $333 million. However, after nearly 20 years the truth about hexavalent chromium has finally been revealed by California regulators.

Dicamba is big news in 2017. It's easy to blame agriculture companies but what about farmers who used dicamba with their resistant plants knowing it drifts?

Given modern medical advances extending survival rates for chronic diseases, while at the same time overall life expectancy continues to lengthen, companies are diving into niche markets. Take, for example, Hormel — makers of Dinty Moore stews and Spam – which has come up with a meal line specifically targeted to cancer patients.

Proton pump inhibitors have some mild, treatable side effects. Other reported side effects, such as heart attacks, kidney disease, and dementia are sensationalist and based on weak evidence.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is being more widely discussed following a high-profile research study on the brains of deceased football players, including 111 from the NFL. But what is CTE and how does it differ from other brain diseases?
 

The Environmental Working Group wants your money. And they're very good a getting it by scaring people about nothing. It should be no surprise that the group's latest fundraising letter is big on fears – but super small on science. Here's what we found.

Microbiologists have long known that the kitchen is an incredibly fertile field for bacterial growth — and a prime source is the kitchen sponge. A recent study of sponges found that even those that are "cleaned" by their users provide a soup of bacteria — some of which are pathogenic.