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Social media platforms, fringe websites and activist groups are well-known sources of unscientific nonsense. Less discussed is the fact that ideological activism masquerading as research often finds a home in prestigious academic journals. One journal in particular has a long history of publishing such dubious content—The Lancet.

A recent story from the Associated Press (AP) highlights the many flaws in how we talk about teenage vaping. It's a public health issue that needs to be addressed, but before we can do anything about it, we have to understand the level of risk e-cigarette use actually poses to minors.

The Biden administration announced a "test to treat" plan to provide easy access to Paxlovid – an effective COVID antiviral drug – for anyone who's infected. It's not perfect, but it's sorely needed.

A new study looks at how those, who vape and use hookahs, inhale and exhale. It's an examination of duration, volume, and velocity. In other words, constructing product-specific puff topographies.

Explaining a paradox of science, let nature bury the excess carbon, Power, and letting go – at least of our notes.

Have you ever tasted a medicine pill that’s so bitter that you can barely swallow it? Most adults can handle it. But with kids, bitterness can affect compliance. Here’s some clever chemistry to the rescue.

Virus particles come from people, like you and me, when we are ill, even before we are symptomatic. While the necessity for masks for this pandemic may be ending, barrier face coverings (BFC) may, in the future, reduce exposure to particles of concern - other viruses. Here is the work of my organization.

We're learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections.

Canada has approved Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine. The new shot itself is an impressive development, but the technology it's built on suggests that we may be growing more drugs in greenhouses in the coming years.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the sentiment about how a child's behavior is often transformed into how they act as an adult. A new study finds a connection between some early lifestyle and health choices and later-life concerns.

They are the foundation of the CDC's 2016 opioid guidelines, resulting in legislation that limits opioid prescribing in 36 states. Morphine milligram equivalents, or MMEs, are used to set arbitrary prescribing limits for opioids by physicians, since many state legislators fail to understand – and translate into policy and law – the ‘16 guidelines. If we had all known the history of MMEs, perhaps we would not have been so eager to embrace them.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to what's been described as heavy fighting at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, near the Ukraine-Belarus border. There have also been reports of rising radiation levels in some places, and concerns about possible damage to the entombed reactor that was damaged in the 1986 accident.

Horseshoe crabs, those almost pre-historic-looking creatures that we occasionally see washed up on the shore, hold a special place in medicine. But that's about to change.

Here is the headline: Covid may raise the risk of diabetes in children, CDC researchers reported. [1] Of course, the study comes with more caveats than what’s in the article. So, what actually did the CDC find, and what does it mean?

There’s considerable discussion about whether COVID vaccines are responsible for the barrage of variants that keep hitting us. Is selective pressure driving this – like with bacteria and antibiotics? Let's take a look.

A 105-carat diamond, giving the moon its props! A belated Valentine’s Day present and a video of NY City 77 years ago.

The Michelson Philanthropy Prize in Immunology was awarded on Feb. 24 to Dr. Paul Bastard at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris. Why should you care? Because his work helps us better understand the biology of why some die from COVID-19, while others are seemingly – and are – immune.

The Olympics (mercifully) is over. There were four doping incidents, one of which was a doozy. So this is a fine time to discuss a lesser-known class of drugs called SARMs? These drugs are not anabolic steroids, but they act very much like them. (Bodybuilders love them, too.)

A new study in JAMA Network Open is a follow-up to a 2015 study done by the same researchers. The questions are: Do you store loaded guns at home? Are they locked or not? Do you store guns that are loaded and unlocked? This is not about the right to bear arms, but the responsibility to store them safely around children.

In considering traumatic deaths, firearms have overtaken motor vehicle collisions as the primary cause of lost potential years of life. This is not the gun violence that captures the headlines; it is the slow daily attrition we have, in large part, to which we have become numb.

There’s a new study of the benefits of eating your vegetables. It has the usual measurement problems – and concludes that vegetables are good for your health. But it clarifies the issue that your food selection has little effect, as compared to your other life choices.

Should organic farmers grow gene-edited crops? A leading figure in the agroecology movement says "yes"—and so does the generation of environmentalists following in his footsteps.

The media reports the results of sloppy vaping research, then quickly forgets them. We do not. What follows is a list of many of the low-quality studies that have investigated the alleged health risks of e-cigarette use. We'll regularly update this catalog of bad studies as necessary.

Although the 2022 revision of the 2016 CDC Opioid Prescribing Advice is an improvement over the original document, it still refers to Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) as a guide to physicians. Unfortunately, this number does not accurately reflect the relative strength of opioid painkillers. Dr. Jeff Singer and I explain why in a new op-ed in the NY Daily News.

In the mood for a lesson on drug-drug interactions? I didn't think so. But you got one anyhow. Might as well read it, no?