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'Tis the season. As we turn to the holidays, their spiritual meanings, and the liminal moment as we end another extraordinary pandemic year, we should take stock of our position. We should consider that a bit of DNA, far smaller than we can see, that we could not imagine until 1892 has brought the world to its collective knees. Where exactly do we stand in the grand scheme of life?

I’ve written several times about taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages. While the public health goal has always been to reduce obesity, nearly every publication has looked at the effect of taxes and the subsequent higher prices on purchasing those drinks. Today, we finally have some research on how well those taxes reduce our weight; we already know they reduce the weight in our wallets.

It's at times like this that the *real* value of ACSH makes itself known. Where else could you 1) Learn about the vileness of fruitcakes and 2) Simultaneously get a lesson on carbon-14 radiolabeling, a technique used to determine the age of really old stuff? Like fruitcakes. Enjoy this annual tradition.

It is impossible to estimate how much time, money, and effort has been wasted trying to find a real health issue with bisphenol A (BPA). Yet, JAMA published a study that is so obviously amateurish that it makes you wonder if the reviewers were comatose. Of course, "BPA increases deaths" made for great headlines, even though it does nothing of the sort.

Starting next month, many grocery store products will have to carry the USDA's bioengineered ("GMO" in the vernacular) food labels. Here's what you should know about this pointless, costly regulation.

A recent study suggests that vaping may be linked to erectile dysfunction. The results are alarming if they're valid, though there are several critical reasons to doubt their validity.

One of our loyal readers brought a recent Newsweek cover story to our attention. It is titled, Americans Are Addicted to 'Ultra-Processed' Foods, and It's Killing Us. In addition to cherry-picking words to favor “natural” over “ultra-processed,” whatever that means, the article raises but does not resolve or necessarily clarify some crucial issues. Are our foods addictive, like fentanyl? What does processed and ultra-processed really mean to our health? What does “the science” reveal or not fully comprehend? It is time to take a deeper dive.

Annapurna – goddess of food, Christmas trees, phrases I may or may not miss next year, and do our inner cycles embody our “self?”

While COVID-19 vaccinations are increasing (however slowly), infections are increasing more rapidly. Both provide a degree of immunity from further infection. We have previously investigated daily rates of change in detail. Here we consider the cumulative rates of infection and the implications for the future of the pandemic.

We need the industry to respond to AMR the way it responded to Covid. For that, we need a government intervention to fix the broken antibiotics market - the Pasteur Act.

Science journalism is plagued by several critical problems that jeopardize its credibility. If we want the public to be more science-minded, we have to correct these issues sooner rather than later.

Of course, the cure is for hookworms and lice, and the patients are sea lions. But, with apologies for clickbait, wouldn’t you like a feel-good storm about ivermectin?

It's no secret that yet another nasty COVID variant has emerged; omicron is spreading even faster than delta and there will be consequences. And other variants will surely emerge. Where? Impossible to say, but its name will be pi. Should this happen in the US, we might get stuck with a catchy, but unwanted name.

Here’s the conundrum. Seafood contains omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for you. But seafood also contains mercury, which is not (think the Mad Hatter). So given the tradeoff, should you have that tasty swordfish steak? Will it improve your health, or undermine it? A new study answers the first of the two questions, and perhaps the second.

Decades ago, I became a fan of the ACSH long before becoming an occasional contributor. I was motivated by one clear point of reasoning. I found it next to impossible to locate a reliable source of health-related issues I had an interest in, as well as being able to recommend that source to students enrolled in my college course for continuing education purposes.

Chickens and other poultry are colorful and delightful additions to any backyard. Their antics are amusing; they readily interact with their human caretakers and lay edible ovals called eggs. But backyard poultry flocks, raised lovingly by urban and suburban hobbyists, have been recently cited as the cause of several pathogenic outbreaks by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Mothers and newborns form special bonds from the moment of initial skin contact, if not from all the life kicking about within them in the last few months of pregnancy. Those bonds also form through eye contact and smell. A new study looks at “maternal chemosignals” in the bonding process.

The saying that you can buy pretty much everything online these days is truer than you might think. Check out this craziness.

A recent study quantifies some of the previously undocumented benefits of the Green Revolution. The results are nothing short of stunning.

The same mRNA technology that gave us effective COVID-19 vaccines could yield a new generation of highly protective seasonal flu shots. When will we see these upgraded influenza vaccines? Perhaps sooner than you think.

Gender pay disparity, Postum replaced by Atomo, praying – I have an app for that, the loss of scientists from immigration.

“Black pregnant people in the United States experience preterm birth (PTB; a birth before 37 weeks’ gestation) at rates approximately 2 times that of White pregnant people.” And that is a problem because “Black pregnant people are also twice as likely to experience the death of an infant younger than 1 year, a disparity primarily associated with preterm-related causes of death.” This new study has a lot for us to unpack.

In a bid to bolster their flagging anti-biotech agenda, several high-profile activist groups have bizarrely joined the chorus of voices suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab. The science community needs to make clear that wherever the virus came from, its beginnings do not undermine the safety or efficacy of important biotechnology innovations in food and medicine.

Environmental Working Group claims that meat "is exacerbating the climate crisis." EWG isn't wrong to point out the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, though the activist group has oversimplified the problem—and its promising solutions.

There have now been scores of cases seeking to compel a hospital to prescribe Ivermectin for COVID-19 patients. Most have been decided in favor of the ill patient. To be sure, these cases are usually heard on an emergency, ex parte basis, meaning without an opportunity for the hospital or doctor to sound in. Generally, the judicial opinion reeks of bald sentiment and judicial activism– the benevolent wish to give the dying patient a “last chance.” Reliance on good old-fashioned “law” is absent.