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Are Giant pandas closer to bears or raccoons? It turns out that based on their eating habits, they share qualities of both. Perhaps pandas are not the vegetarians they seem to be.

Who better to tell us what drives our choice in foods than marketers? We pay more attention to those front-of-the-package claims than to the nutritional information hidden on the back. What a surprise.

It's hayfever season, and this year it's brutal. People will be buying all kinds of drugs to stop sneezing and dry up runny noses, but most of them won't work very well. And if you dare wander into the abyss of online decongestants, you better read this article. That is, if you want to understand the thousands of products (mostly bad) that companies are hawking. This is nothing to sneeze about.

A couple of years ago Panera Bread went crazy. Those high up in the corporation decided that selling really great tasting food was no longer a sufficient strategy. No, they reasoned, if Panera Bread wanted continued success it needed to go on a full-frontal assault against science. 

Time for another hideous chemistry lesson. No one requested a tutorial on this interesting metal. But guess what -- you got one anyhow! Palladium, named after a Greek goddess and worth more than gold, also keeps our air clean. There's plenty of interesting stuff you'll learn here (if you can stand to read this).

Digital health is coming, and many services are already coming to a smartphone near you. As the first guidelines from the World Health Organization indicate, the obstacles aren't technological. They're regulatory.

The disposable cup was meant to be a public health initiative. But over time it has become a societal concern, just like plastic bags.

As banning plastic -- especially bags -- becomes "a thing," biodegradable or cloth bags are taking their place. But how degradable are they?

Different people respond to cannabis in different ways, making a blood THC level difficult to legislate.

The medicines we swallow contain inactive ingredients, and among those ingredients are 38 known allergens. Are they a cause of concern? Perhaps, but just for a very, very few of us.

Professional societies annually release guidelines designed to standardize and improve care. But implementing those standards is harder than they -- or frankly, most of us -- think. A concerted effort to improve surgical care across the United Kingdom is falling short.

Chances are, on the back of many an ice cream tub, you will see something that reads “modified milk ingredients” in addition to any "cream" or "milk" you expect to see. So what are these?

The FDA just announced the approval of a new drug for psoriasis. But it really isn't new at all -- it's a combination of two generic psoriasis drugs in one tube. The price of the tube is interesting and the company involved even more so. Welcome to the world of insanely expensive generics.

A study of the health effects of alcohol separates the population by a genetic difference: the ability to metabolize alcohol. Researchers found no benefit to drinking, moderate or not. Is it true? Maybe if you're Chinese.

Providing healthcare by region increases experience and improves outcomes. But what happens when you have a complication ... and your doctors and regional care is a few hours away?

A new study links propionate, a food preservative, to alterations in our metabolism, increasing the production of glucose, at least in one mammal: mice. The evidence of an effect on humans is based on 14 lean humans and two meals.

A third of patients started on dialysis die within a year. Does that make the care futile?

How do we decide which species to favor and which to spurn? The law protects dwindling populations of snail darters, but does it apply to nature's creatures that we consider pests, like weeds, or flesh-eating bacteria.

The anti-opioid zealots have benzodiazepines, especially Xanax, in their sights. The drug is being demonized by (more or less) the same people who created the fake opioid crisis. But how dangerous is it? It is nearly impossible to kill yourself with Valium, another member of the benzodiazepine class. Does this hold true for Xanax? Yes, more or less.

A 2018 Washington Post article addressed the methods we use to breed food crops. But it suffered from a common shortcoming -- “pseudo-balance” -- or the seeking out of clueless commentators to contradict advocates of superior modern genetic modification techniques.  We hate to break it to the author, but in spite of what they teach you in journalism classes, not every issue benefits from point-counterpoint.

A new study tries to show that not eating breakfast increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The study has significant limitations, and so it remains unanswered whether breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Tule fog is a very dense fog found in California's Central Valley, and it's the source of many traffic accidents and fatalities annually. But over the last 30 years Tule fog is seen less often, and for shorter times. Apparently, it's not a result of climate change but of improving air quality.

Is there a magical prescription for how much exercise and activity eliminates the increased risk of premature death, which comes from sedentary behavior? A new paper takes a swing at an elusive target. Spoiler alert: This is an area that continues to defy precision.

There are 14 new HIV infections in an outbreak that's hit homeless drug users in the Seattle area. These are the predictable consequences of a feckless public health policy, and one that lacks compassion.

There are reports that as little as one piece of bacon a day will increase your risk of colon and rectal cancer. A closer look at the study suggests that while bacon is certainly a risk factor in being a pig, its impact on humans may not be as great as the media claims.