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The fluoride issue has moved from conspiracy theories of the 1940s and 50s – claiming it was a communist plot or a government mind-control trick – to today’s science-based debate. The outcome of a court case involving fluoridation could have serious ramifications for EPA rules in the years to come. 

Do condescending "food experts" make you feel like a war criminal for eating a so-called "unhealthy snack?" If so, there's a pretty good chance they're pontificating about something like a Twinkie. Or maybe a Pop-Tart. Is a Pop-Tart a food? A lab creation? Or a death sentence? All the yummy answers are here!

The opioid crisis is fueled by fentanyl, largely a direct product or precursor manufactured in China. It's a rocket-fuel inversion of the Opium Wars, when Britain smuggled illegal opium into China.

Long COVID remains an enigma wrapped within a conundrum. Many individuals claim the affliction. But without a consensus on its diagnosis, unraveling its underlying physiologic changes, let alone therapeutic approaches, is a random walk. It's a lot a drunk searching for their keys under a streetlamp because the light is better. Two developments this week may well begin the unwrapping.

Chatbots – trainable software applications capable of conducting intelligent, informed conversations with users – have tremendous potential for vast societal benefits but also tremendous mischief. We are at the earliest stage of the learning curve.

Hands began wringing about global warming and subsequent climate change in the 1980s, and those predictions are now being seen. It’s not rocket science; temperature will increase when heat is pumped into a system limited by greenhouse gases. Electric power generation has been the largest source of heat-trapping gases, and the emerging popularity of electric vehicles promises to increase that share. What exactly are the costs and characteristics of electric generating systems?

Peer review has long been considered the gold standard guarantor of good science and medicine. It is also a rubric upon which legal standards of scientific admissibility are based. When the process fails – which is becoming increasingly common – medical practitioners and scientists alike are led astray, as is the law.  But while the scientific establishment is becoming aware of the concerns, such awareness is glaringly absent in the law.  

Europe’s proposed pull incentive for antibiotic R&D is a mixed bag ...

The Lessons of COVID
Chimp lessons
A.I. comes for you
Sabbath bread

Credit card purchases, unlike those made with cash, are traceable. Leaving the value of untraceability for criminal enterprise aside, do consumers choose one over the other based on traceability? A new study suggests we choose cash when we wish to “forget” a purchase.

If you're one of the 100% of viewers who want to put a brick through your TV when one of the ceaseless, nauseating Ozempic ads comes on there's hope on the horizon. Pfizer has a pill that seems to work as well as the O-O-O-Ozempic injections. Perhaps this will shut up those wretched ads. A look at Pfizer's clinical trial data.

Melatonin is a neurohormone that the body uses to regulate sleep. It's sold as a dietary supplement without a prescription. As the CDC states, in "2020, melatonin became the most frequently ingested substance among children reported to national poison control centers.”

Many of our national leaders appear to suffer from some sort of cognitive impairment or other mental disorder. Should they undergo periodic intelligence and mental status testing?

When we turn on the tap, we all expect clean and safe drinking water. Threats to the cybersecurity of public drinking water systems are critical, but often overlooked, issues facing our country. The EPA is faced with the challenge of how to regulate these emerging threats. 

EPA has a long history of pandering to activists, encouraging them to sue the Agency and then capitulating to their agenda. Their stock in trade is shoddy science and dishonesty, resulting in farmers deprived of safe, effective pesticides.

Within the timeframe of the legalization of recreational cannabis, there's been a rise in cannabis “use disorder” and the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It's become a chicken or egg which-came-first problem. A new study suggests cannabis is the gateway, creating 15% of new cases of schizophrenia annually.

A group of Harvard scientists claims that it has discovered cocktails of certain drugs that will help people live longer. Slow down fellas, you're not even close.

A new study in the journal Nature examines what happens when pancreatic cancer cells are deprived of glucose, their normal fuel. Do the cells stop growing? No, they adapt by switching "fuels" to a different, ubiquitous biomolecule: uridine. The authors suggest that this discovery could lead to new treatments for this deadly cancer.

Cooking – work you can eat, and enjoy
Writing a novel
Being an apprentice
Add a smidge, perhaps even a pinch.

The Sixth Amendment states, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial….” In 2019, felony charges required a median of 424 days “to reach some final resolution.” Fourteen months in pretrial custody is not speedy. Bail “reform” seeks to end cash bail for certain crimes in the hopes of reducing pretrial jail populations. A new study tries to get past the sound bites of the media.

Following reports of infant illness last year, the FDA investigated and subsequently issued a warning not to use products manufactured at the Abbott baby food plant. Abbott responded by voluntarily shutting the facility resulting in an acute shortage of baby formula in the US – and rampant hysteria. Given Abbott’s strenuous denial that its products caused harm, one cannot help wondering if this closure was an overreaction or a calculated ploy.

The EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) was founded in 1985 to assure scientific integrity and present intra-Agency consensus on health effects information on environmental chemicals.  It is an excellent example of how a government agency can misuse a well-intentioned idea to meet a political agenda resulting in flawed public policy decisions with significant implications.

Last week an article in City Journal wrote about a “scoping review” of the physical harms of masks. It is time for a bit of debunking. A note to the tl:dr – the too long, didn't read among us, it takes more words to correct a mistruth than to propagate one.

Long COVID burdens tens of millions of Americans and the nation's healthcare system, but our response to it has been fragmented and chaotic. We need to address it without delay, with more research and better access to treatment.

Using the criteria contained within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the diagnostic standard, almost 1 in 5 individuals smoking weed for medical therapeutic reasons develop cannabis use disorder within three months of initiating therapy. Yet there is no cry to greatly restrict medical marijuana in the same way we over-control opioids. Whether marijuana or opioids are that addictive depends on your definition of a substance use disorder. Is our current definition the best?