Perhaps more so than in any election in recent memory, the two major party presidential candidates have shown a shocking willingness to abandon the truth at a moment's notice. Twitter was ablaze after it was announced that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump answered the questions posed by Science Debate 2016. But considering their inconsistencies, how seriously should we take their answers?

Last week, Dr. Julianna LeMieux brought her son to the office so they could test out a chemistry set by MEL Chemistry for ages 12 and up. The fun, subscription product gets delivered to your door monthly, with two chemistry sets which make for a couple of fun family evenings. Unless you invite Dr. Josh Bloom and our president Hank Campbell over — and especially if they don't know the camera is on!
 

My niece, Jordan, said “I want to write an article with you on role models.” Since she's my life coach and I, Dr. Jamie Wells, cut her cord when she was born, the mere suggestion was heartwarming. Passionate about psychology and understanding behavior and its origin, her theory was the advice itself and point-of-view from a non-parental adult is different from what a parent can offer. 

Donald Trump is going to appear on "The Dr. Oz Show" to talk about his proposed health policies and reveal new details of the presidential candidate's medical records. It's a huge coup for the slippery doctor, whose ratings have plummeted since he got nationwide condemnation after four ACSH members spearheaded a campaign to get the snake-oil salesman and scaremonger removed from the Columbia University faculty.

Accurate measurement of children's prescribed medications can determine the success of failure of a treatment. The factors that feed into that accuracy were investigated by a team of researchers from NYU, who found that the least accurate measurement tool was a medicine cup.

OCA, the notable militant trade rep group famous for creating anti-science Deniers For Hire like U.S. Right To Know and funding many others, has now laid its cards on the table, saying it wants every competitor of their clients gone. The pro-science side always knew that, but it's still odd to see it spelled out. 

Chinese researchers tested the combined effects of acupuncture and electrical stimulation on individuals suffering from chronic constipation. And they did find some differences compared to controls. But we think they could have contributed more to science's understanding of acupuncture.

“every time you hand somebody a slice of the cake a tiny little bit comes off, like a little crumb, and you can keep that. […] pretty soon you have enough crumbs to make a gigantic cake.”
 
Medicare pays physicians 106% of the average cost of the drug; the 6% to cover administering the drug – a crumb, Solomon Melgen recognized the crumb. Does his name sound familiar?

Perhaps the most problematic classification system in the scientific community is that of the impact factor, which attempts to rank journals by their relative importance. This factor for a particular journal is equal to the average number of times an article in the journal is cited in a given year. While this sounds useful, in practice, it has been a slow-motion train wreck.

Up to 40 percent of Americans want alternative ways to treat pain, fearing dependence on medication and adverse effects, or inadequate pain control. So-called “alternative treatments” offered by acupuncturists and naturopaths are neither cheap nor covered by insurance. And given a recent study published by the Mayo Clinic, we simply say: Save Your Money.