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For centuries farmers have tried to bend their crops -- nature’s bounty -- to their will to create bigger, more plentiful, perhaps ever-tastier foods. In the past, this genetic editing, known as hybridization, has been luck of the draw. But new genetic technologies have changed that random-luck equation. A new study looks at how your scientific literacy impacts the perception of these changes, and whether knowing more reduces fear.

Tylenol-stuffed mouse bombs dropped in Guam. Back-seat skeleton drivers, and if you gotta go it might as well be from a yummy cake. And a gratuitous shot at J&J. Here's your Screwball Science News of the Week.

What does the science say about the safety of America’s chicken farming practice?

Do you want to use recycled pee for your garden, but first make sure it's safe? How about the world's smallest gold coin? And loud-talkers are not just annoying; they spread germs. Oddball news of the week.

Here's what's in store: The comeback of an environmentally friendly, sustainable building material ... Is perfection the enemy of the good? ... Can Big Data be too big? ... And long before Big Food, there was the "Agro-mafia."

The World Health Organization does a tremendous job advancing the cause of global public health. But two recent, major screw-ups show that the institution is far from perfect. In one instance, a group of UK scientists accused the WHO of spreading "blatant misinformation."

High-tech medical advances make for sexy headlines, but the use of common-sense low-tech checklists can provide more than an ounce of prevention. ACSH advisor Dr. Henry Miller explains.

Are those cheery ads, featuring celebrities with a milk mustache, actually beckoning you towards a shorter life and telomeres? Or is this just another "nutritional nowhere" situation? A recent study reports definitively, perhaps.

Public health advocates regularly promote bans on flavored liquids, or e-liquids, used in e-cigarettes, arguing that they prompt teenagers to take up vaping and ultimately “hook” them on nicotine. While this is a reasonable concern, the evidence shows that banning flavored e-liquids would discourage adult smokers from giving up cigarettes and do little to quell teen vaping, which is low in both the U.S. and U.K.

If you're a government agency like the CDC, the best time to admit to a huge mistake is on Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend. And if you're a government agency like the FDA, there's never a good time to make a boneheaded decision.

It’s been 50 years since cleaning up the air in the United States began in earnest. Skies are much clearer now than in the mid-20th century. Leaded gasoline is gone, power plants have been abandoning coal and sulfur dioxide has dropped by 91%. Despite these growing improvements, why have epidemiologists been unable to show the demonstrable public health benefits that their computer models predict? 

For a health issue, who doesn’t love a good screening test? Some love them, either assuring or sending them to find the underlying problem. Physicians have more of a love-hate relationship. But the quiet truth is that few screening tests for general populations, in terms of reducing mortality, are productive.

Innovation is built upon an ecosystem that takes decades to mature. Yet, China has already made substantial advances in computer science, chemistry, engineering, and robotics -- all of which pose a direct challenge to U.S. technological supremacy. However, the U.S. will remain dominant and largely unchallenged in biotech and medicine for the foreseeable future.

There is a naturally-occurring chemical called skatole. Its claim to fame is that it is named after, and smells like, fecal matter. It's "synthetic" but also "man-made" and there's a revolting distinction in this case. It's also an additive used in cigarettes and strawberry ice cream (??). Do your "duty" and read this article.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that men and women have significant differences in their physiology, and subsequent manifestation of disease phenotypes. At the same time, scientists increasingly view physiology as it changes, rather than as static points in time. Those trends come together in a new paper in JAMA Cardiology, which looks at the most ubiquitous of cardiovascular diseases: high blood pressure.

Dr. Jeffrey Singer takes issue with a Cincinnati Enquirer article touting a recent CDC report of a 30% drop in opioid prescriptions in 2016-17, compared to 2010-11. Our ACSH advisor maintains that the restriction of the drugs has no impact on their misuse, but does force pain patients to use ineffective and dangerous alternatives. In other words, prohibition.

According to the CDC, approximately 26 million Americans smoke tobacco daily. In comparison, 14.6 million smoke marijuana every day. In the headlong green rush for dollars -- it's, after all, a $7 billion market in the U.S. -- no one has been able to answer the question of whether all that pot smoking has any ill effects.

Rarely does a week go by without some rather strange stories emerging about science and medicine. This past week was no exception.

Author Steven Pinker's observation, that the world is less violent now than ever in human history, is probably true.

Heroin is like a box of chocolates. And it wasn't invented in Germany. And it's (technically) harmless. To make sense of all this gibberish you better read the article. A bunch of stuff you might not know about H.

A controversial article on red meat had an unintended consequence: it unmasked the ties between science and industry. Not the meat industry, but the "anti-meat" health-advocacy industry, which reaches into academia and commercial interests. JAMA takes a stance. Good for them, which is good for us.

It's January, with an increase in gym memberships as people vow to get fit; but the fitness craze has its roots at least 100 years ago in Victorian Britain. Did HAL, the super-smart computer in 2001 - A Space Odyssey commit murder? Stories with a kernel of truth and a dash of obfuscation or misdirection make TRUTH somewhat negotiable even in textbooks. Finally, images that capture birds in flight by compressing time.

With vanishingly few exceptions, we do not understand the underlying causes of dementia. A new study adds evidence to the hypothesis that unintended side-effects of anticholinergics may be involved.

Completely banning alcohol would only prevent about 3.5% of cancer deaths. That, of course, means the other 96.5% of fatal cancers are caused by things other than alcohol. Given that cancer is the #2 leading cause of death in America, there's a good chance that you're going to die of cancer no matter what you do. So chill out and have a drink.

In 1997, the BMJ reported that GlaxoSmithKline had withheld data in a clinical trial, specifically, that Paxil was ineffective in adolescents and often caused suicidal thoughts. From the subsequent justifiable uproar rose ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry for clinical trials requiring the posting of their results when the study was completed. A new study shows that this regulation is routinely ignored. And like a labradoodle, is all bark and no bite.