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Statins have been blamed for everything short of causing bad hair days—especially by the alternative-medicine crowd, who treat “Lipitor” like it’s a controlled substance. A new Lancet meta-analysis of the best double-blind trial data available shows that most of the scary side effects on statin labels simply don’t hold up.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims “petroleum-based chemicals” are inherently poisonous, but that’s chemically illiterate: molecules don’t become dangerous because of where they come from. Some of the most important hydrocarbons on Earth—like ethylene, isoprene, squalene, and β-carotene—are made by living things and are essential for plant life, animal life, or both. This isn’t hard, folks — even Eagles fans ought to get it.

Models, by definition, are approximations: useful, informative, and inevitably incomplete, because they are the only way to simplify a world too complex to grasp all at once. A new study on nitrous oxide chemistry in the stratosphere shows how even small revisions in a model’s assumptions can ripple outward, widening uncertainty and reshaping projections.

Eat romantic AND protect your ticker! This Valentine's Day, love your heart as much as you love your Valentine! 💕 Discover 4 heart-healthy foods + a bonus red wine toast — backed by real studies that slash heart risks.

When health insurance becomes conditional and unaffordable, it doesn’t just disappear from balance sheets—it vanishes from people’s lives at the moment they need it most. The expiration of enhanced ACA Marketplace subsidies is not a technical policy lapse but a predictable accelerator of opioid use disorder and overdose deaths, exposing how coverage gaps, economic stress, and fragmented care combine to turn preventable suffering into fatal outcomes.

Scientists created a form of “super ice” that conducts electricity rather than simply freezing by compressing water under enormous pressure and bombarding it with powerful X-rays. This discovery reveals how water might behave deep inside planets like Uranus and Neptune, offering insight into their magnetic fields and internal heat.

Red light therapy has gone from dermatology clinics to the wellness world, promising everything from younger-looking skin and thicker hair to weight loss, pain relief, better sleep, and even improved mood. It’s sleek, futuristic, and marketed as an effortless biohack. But when one product claims to fix everything, skepticism is the healthiest response — the consumer marketplace is flooded with underpowered gadgets, exaggerated claims, and claims that race far ahead of the science.

On this episode of Science Dispatch, we dive into the latest Kīlauea eruption and the alarming chemistry behind the air people are breathing. The volcano is releasing massive amounts of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid, and other nasty gases—creating vog (volcanic smog) that irritates lungs, eyes, and skin, especially for sensitive groups. Here's what you need to know.

Two women in California are unhappy about phosphates and carrageenan in Costco’s rotisserie chicken. I’m fine with them—by which I mean the additives, not the women. Their lawsuit claims Costco misled customers with a “no preservatives” label, even though neither ingredient is a preservative, which makes this less a food safety issue than a masterclass in scientific confusion.

Whether it’s a chemist’s reckless sweet discovery, a reader’s ever-growing “tsundoku” pile, or scientists tracing the hidden patterns of superspreaders, curiosity turns accidents, habits, and outliers into insight. Even something as small as the em dash reminds us that the stories we tell — in science, books, or punctuation — often hinge on unexpected connections.

You've seen them on your social media algorithms: longevity influencers promising eternal youth with fancy gadgets, exotic supplements, extreme protocols, and million-dollar routines. In reality, most of what they're peddling is just a flashy overpriced rebrand of what doctors and health experts have been recommending for decades.

Science communication has exploded since the COVID-19 pandemic. While Carl Sagan, PhD, MS, was the first household name in science communication, it took a long time for the field to gain traction. But with the advent of social media came a whole new platform for people to discuss their jobs, projects, and passions. It was a brand new way of exchanging information.

How much of our lifespan is written in our genes, and how much is sitting on our plates? A new analysis suggests that while genetics matter, everyday dietary choices may matter more. The message: longevity is influenced less by destiny and more by dinner.

Recent research suggests that regular omega-3 intake from supplements is linked to a modest reduction in cardiovascular events—but the benefits are smaller than many headlines suggest, and not everyone experiences them. Who actually gains protection? Let's take a look.

With the EPA launching a new toxicity review and the MAHA movement claiming fluoride is a hidden health menace, the battle lines are being redrawn between public health orthodoxy and rising political skepticism. Although this is an old controversy, what is coming might ignite one of the fiercest science-policy clashes in decades.

While data might appear to show small benefits, the results for the population at large could be significant.

At a moment when ultra-processed foods, industrial agriculture, and food subsidies are under political siege, can a New York bagel reveal the power of specialization to create abundance, and the urgent policy question of how to steer our food environment toward health rather than excess?

Hedy Lamarr’s legacy extends far beyond Hollywood glamour. Behind the screen persona was an inventive mind that helped pioneer technology foundational to modern wireless communication, raising enduring questions about how society values beauty versus intellect. Her story is a cautionary tale about the biases that shape recognition of women's intellectual achievement.

Microplastics have become a hot topic in environmental science — and a reliable source of alarming headlines. A new study reports a nifty approach to removing them using genetically engineered cyanobacteria. The key ingredient is an orange-scented molecule called limonene, which "captures" the plastic. Very clever.

One of the universal challenges in human knowledge is translating what is deeply felt and implicitly understood into something explicit, communicable, and measurable. Inner experience does not easily lend itself to diagrams, equations, or biomarkers. Meditation sits on this boundary. Can the implicit language of experience be translated into the explicit language of brain dynamics? A new study suggests the answer is yes.

What do Sichuanese chefs shrugging at The French Laundry, a meticulously dispatched bonito, a mountain of DoorDash detritus, and the psychic hum of “food noise” have in common? They all expose how modern eating is less about sustenance and more about culture, morality, convenience, and obsession. From haute cuisine to ike jime, from delivery addiction to the silence promised by GLP-1 drugs, these pieces circle the same uneasy truth: food is identity, ethics, status, and compulsion, and yes, occasionally, dinner.

There was no era in which Americans were healthier than now, except in a romanticized imagination.

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder, often robbing individuals of their grip on reality and ability to function. So when a US Cabinet secretary claims it can be cured by changing one’s diet, the statement demands scrutiny. The science behind the ketogenic diet and schizophrenia is intriguing—but far from the miracle cure being suggested.

A failed private lawsuit accusing major food companies of engineering addictive food has been resurrected by San Francisco’s city attorney, recasting contested nutrition science as a public nuisance. The new complaint invites judges—not legislators or regulators—to redraw the boundaries of what constitutes acceptably safe food. At stake is whether litigation will become the new tool for reshaping America’s dinner table and designing healthy menus.

Food has always carried meaning, but in contemporary nutrition culture, it is increasingly treated as a moral test. In the unqualified world of wellness and nutrition influencers, foods are no longer discussed as more or less nutritious; they are labelled good or bad, clean or dirty, virtuous or problematic. Framing nutrition this way shifts the focus away from health and toward judging both food choices and the people who make them.