April is autism awareness month and the FDA isn't missing a beat, warning about fraudulent autism treatments – like chelation therapies and detoxifying clay baths. Not only are they expensive, they're completely ineffective. It's time to smoke out these snake oil salesmen who are preying on parents who just want to help their kids. 

In most people's minds, high blood pressure is undoubtedly linked to salt intake. But there's another mineral that should also be considered — potassium. A recent review of several types of studies strongly indicates that it's not just a proper sodium level that helps one achieve, and maintain, normal blood pressure.

The U.S. Prevention Services Task Force released its 2017 draft recommendations for prostate cancer screening. Here we extensively address the new guidelines, clarify the role of the PSA test, and delve deeper into the topic with Dr. David Samadi, Chairman of Urology and Chief of Robotic Surgery at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital.

Your donations at work: Here are our media appearances, including some bizarre conspiracy tales about science.

While reading science journalism, we must always remember we're viewing a secondary source. So when we say "You should read the plaque," that really means you should look at the primary source, otherwise known as the original report or study.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” - Alice in Wonderland
Science is, above all, a methodology designed for discovering objective “truths” about the natural world. All lawyers and politicians speak quite highly of Truth, and all routinely claim that it is on their side, rather than their opponents’, however, the real function of legal and political debate is not to discover truth, but to win. And, whenever “winning” is the prime directive,

Every scientific paper should be required to answer a simple question before it's published. So prior to considering whether ingesting too many polyunsaturated fats (e.g., fish and foods cooked with vegetable oil) will make women lazy, TV-watching diabetics, an elementary-school query must first be asked: Does that even make sense?

The Standard Homeopathic Co. issued a voluntary recall of its teething products, sold under the name Hyland, after the FDA repeatedly cited concerns over inconsistent – and excessive – levels of Belladonna, a toxic chemical. 

Babies are a little safer today as Hyland's homeopathic teething tablets have been recalled by their manufacturer, Standard Homeopathic Company. It's been a long road to get to this point, with pressure for the recall coming primarily from the FDA.

From a recent report on vaccine awareness, the two most prominent findings were that (1) parents concerned about other parents not vaccinating their children increased from 82 to 89 percent, and (2) that those calling themselves "vaccine-hesitant" decreased from 23 to 14 percent.