Few industries evoke an emotional response greater than the pharmaceutical industry. This cannot be surprising, since drug companies are typically viewed by the public as either providing miraculous life-altering therapies, or greedy instruments of Satan. There is little middle ground.
So, it is rather surprising that a new law, called the 21st Century Cures Act, has been overwhelmingly approved by the House, 344-77 on July 10th.
The new law, also known as H.R. 6, gives more latitude to the FDA in tailoring its safety and efficacy requirements for the approval of breakthrough medicines. Such drugs (as well as breakthrough medical devices) that are given this designation will no

Here s a hot investment tip: buy shares in Blockbuster. As many as you can afford. Put in all of Johnny s and Jill s college funds. A wave of nostalgia is bringing VHS back.
Are you going to do it? Do you trust me?

This week s U.S. News & World Report features an article by Health and Science Writer K. Aleisha Fetters entitled, Are Health Foods Making You Fat?--experts share how healthy foods can derail your diet.
The intentionally misleading title attracts attention, but of course her intent is to warn her readers not to be bamboozled by health claims prominently displayed on food labels, which upon closer inspection turn out not to be so conducive to a healthy diet as it seemed.

One of the main images most Americans have of farming is of a plow being pulled by a tractor (or in more antiquated images livestock) turning the land. Technically speaking this act is referred to as tillage: the preparation of soil for planting by mechanically turning it over. Today, most global farmland is prepared in this way and has been for several millennia.

It must be nice to have a job with so much free time on your hands that you can do just about anything, regardless of merit, and not only get away with it, but, rather, be rewarded for it.

In a piece dripping with sardonic disgust, Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Tabatha Southey took on the new curriculum at the august University of Toronto recently. Entitled Anti-vaccine course brings U of T one step closer to offering a masters of pseudoscience, Ms. Southey takes note of the recently-released official report of the approval of a course called Alternative Health: Practice and Theory, to be taught (so to speak) by the well-known homeopath Beth Landau-Halpern.

It has long been recognized that there is a link between various psychiatric illnesses, especially schizophrenia, and heavy cigarette smoking. However, the reasons why such a link may

The American Council on Science Health is sad to announce the passing of internationally renowned environmental scientist Dr. Paul Lioy, 68, professor of environmental and occupational health at the Rutgers University School of Public Health.
In 1999-2000, along with Dr. C. Everett Koop and fifteen other luminaries, Dr. Lioy was o

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a giant among anti-science groups, a $100 million per year juggernaut that is able to bully companies into writing checks in return for calling off the invective among the many satellite organizations in its orbit.
Republicans in the Senate seem to have finally had enough.
The NRDC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit prohibited from political activity but they refuse to disclose their donors so there has long been a belief that their dislike for one political party is not based on genuine concern about the public. Due to their giant coffers, they are able to wield an outsized level of mindshare amo

Environmentalists want you to worry that plastic is causing the uterus of pregnant women to change. Here is the actual science.