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The leaves are turning beautiful colors, the air is crisp and pumpkin spice lattes are back. Simply put, moving from September into October could perhaps be the best time of the year. But no matter how much fun we're having on the side, we never lose our focus on defending good science. Here's where we appeared in recent weeks.

Thanks to excess alcohol consumption, July 4th is the deadliest driving day of the year. If you find yourself inebriated at a DUI checkpoint blowing into a breathalyzer, you can thank Sir Ewart Ray Herbert Jones for the invention he published 75 years ago. Yep, you've been caught by organic chemistry, specifically, the Jones Oxidation.

Reforms to the U.S. drug pricing environment are required, but to improve patients’ health outcomes, reforms must be grounded in a comprehensive understanding of the current drug pricing system. Otherwise, policymakers will make things worse, not better. An important piece by ACSH advisor Dr. Robert Popovian and Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D.

Most of the extant COVID-19 analyses have been based on national or state-level data; a more granular county-level analysis would be overwhelmed by “noise” since most counties experienced only single-digit daily caseloads. Here we used an intermediate scale, 100 counties that each include a major city. This protocol avoids the noise engendered by small populations and provides enough diversity for meaningful cross-sectional analysis. 

A new report out of the European Union confirms what scientists have known for decades: the weed killer glyphosate poses minimal risk to human health and the environment.

My Medpage feed offered up this headline: "Let's Stop Subsidizing Obesity." I thought I would find an argument over the continued financial support for sugar and corn. Then, I caught the subhead, “Government benefits should only be spent on nutritious foods.” Let’s consider their argument. 

A new approach to mosquito control, the disparities of the gig economy – writers edition, critical economic theory?, are lawyers circling the Wuhan lab?

The FDA has at this time received 79 comments for its "Morphine Milligram Equivalents: Current Applications and Knowledge Gaps, Research Opportunities, and Future Directions; Public Workshop."
Here is the 80th.

Phosphorous was selected by Mother Nature to be the element responsible for holding together all genetic material. As its phosphate form, it is the basis for life. But a small modification of phosphate will take that life away quite efficiently - Sarin. Oh, yes - it's time for The Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell!

As a result of the latest Presidential election, state legislatures are garnering a great deal of publicity about a host of new laws surrounding voter registration. More quietly, several states, in a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, are also seeking to restrain the activities of our public health officials.

While developments will emerge, right now there’s not much information available about apparent problems at the Taishan nuclear power plant. Let's review what is known, and also consider its background, so we have a fuller context. And here are some educated guesses as to what might happen next.

Social media censorship has exploded since the beginning of the pandemic, in large part thanks to the proliferation of so-called "fact-checkers." While efforts to limit the spread of false information online seem sensible, experts are starting to point out the downsides of tech companies moderating scientific disputes.

Simple, inexpensive drugs to treat COVID are few and far between. But we may have a new, old pill to add to the arsenal. A new study tells us how well it works.

The New York Times reported that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reconsider reducing the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) from its current 12 μg/m3 as an annual average. What’s new, and what’s a tired retread? 

There has been a lot of ink spilled, and bytes spent this week discussing the FDA’s approval of aducanumab, brand-name Aduhelm, for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. I have mixed feelings; there are advantages to a Phase 4 study, but how do you say no to hope?

As we’re in the midst of a reevaluation of whether the Virology Laboratory in Wuhan, China was the true source of the Covid-19 virus that caused the pandemic, a theory which the World Health Organization (WHO), many U.S. scientists, and the media rejected for over a year’s time, there is another issue that warrants a complete reexamination: The International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC’s) assessment of glyphosate. 

Not since the 1980s and the rise in the use of cocaine has the nose been such an important public health organ. It has been the way COVID-19 gets into our bodies and the site of much poking and prodding from PCR testing.

Natural News founder Mike Adams claims the US government has launched a five-phase campaign to force vaccines on American citizens. This is false, of course, but the bigger problem is that Adams is drawing attention away from real problems we need to solve before we face another pandemic.

Vaccination status on dating sites has become an issue as more people have been immunized. Some online daters are concerned about the disease while others worry about privacy issues if the dating app is linked to government databases. Should people simply be counted on to tell the truth about their vaccination status? Having dwelled for far too long in that gruesome world that's an easy one: hell, no. Too many lies and too many liars.

The COVID-19 vaccines have been nothing short of miraculous. Life is returning to normal in many places. But ACSH advisor Dr. Henry Miller argues that we will still need effective medical treatments for COVID-19.

Countries that ban biotech crops aren't necessarily GMO-free. There's a prohibition-inspired lesson for regulators and activist groups in these nations if they're willing to listen.

The battles we have witnessed firsthand, or on video, over mask-wearing seem to be all about public health, or personal freedoms, or being isolated. But, of course, those are the obvious reasons. So, how 'bout we look at what psychologists are saying: not about the fighting, but the vehemence of the argument?

Orphan crops, private equity and the closure of Hahnemann Hospital, a for-profit medical school?, and how to understand the contradictions of science.

Over the years, I’ve generated tens of thousands of cubic feet of radioactive waste, managing the radioactive waste program at a large Midwestern university, and as the Radiation Safety Officer at a mid-sized university in the Northeast. None of this was glowing – in any color – and none of it looked much different from any of the other laboratory, medical, or remediation waste produced in so many places around the world every year. 

Deriving electricity from windmills is one way to diversify our energy sources, while reducing the use of fossil fuels and making us more energy resilient. But as the Second Law of Thermodynamics points out, there's no free lunch energetically, and that includes harnessing the power of the wind.