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This issue is a flashpoint today in America, and these shootings are frequently reported with benchmarks demonstrating disparity. But which benchmarks are the most valid? And are they the best -- or only -- way to characterize the problem? A new study takes a different approach.

Imagine you’re a firefighter trying to prevent a house from burning to the ground. After many hours of hard work you’ve rescued the family, saved their pet chinchilla and extinguished every visible ember — a job well done. Wouldn’t it be strange if the blaze came roaring back the following day?

Opioid hysteria is not confined to the U.S. or Canada. A British group writing for the BBC manages to get all the usual stuff -- and then some -- wrong. So here's a deal: We keep baseball, they keep cricket, and we both stop writing idiotic, misleading papers on the phony "opioid crisis." Jolly good idea if you ask us!

Last month, we discussed the risks associated with traveling to the Dominican Republic, where nine Americans died under mysterious circumstances. Now, a recent development should point investigators in a particular direction: a huge number of deaths in Costa Rica, linked to consuming alcohol adulterated with methanol, or wood alcohol.

During the opioid epidemic, any form of medical care involving "addictive medications" has sought alternative therapies. So we ask: Can music soothe our nerves prior to undergoing medical procedures?

Much of the country is experiencing a nasty summer heat wave. So, be sure to stay cool and hydrated -- and take comfort in the fact that Americans are more likely to die in winter than in summer. From the relative safety of our air-conditioned offices, we have been toiling away, ensuring that evidence-based science gets into the hands of the media. Here's where we appeared in recent days.

The protection of intellectual property is one of the biggest challenges facing the technology industry. Somewhat hostile foreign powers, like China, are actively stealing it. What can the United States do to protect its own IP? ACSH interviewed Patrick Kilbride, Senior VP of the Global Innovation Policy Center, seeking answers.

Disease X -- a yet unseen deadly infectious disease with an epidemic potential for which no countermeasures exist --  has recently been added to WHO's Blueprint list of priority diseases of concern to public health. While we don’t know what Disease X might be, it reflects the fact that a future pandemic threat may be unexpected.

Should we think of obesity as a disease or lifestyle choice? While it seems it's a matter of splitting hairs, it really is another skirmish in an age-old debate: fate versus free will.

Various forms of calorie-restricted diets are all the rage. A study in The Lancet takes a detailed look at one version. It changes our biomarkers, but does it alter our health?

I must be getting old because I don't know who some of these young whippersnappers are anymore. Apparently, a Canadian singer named Grimes (who happens to be dating Elon Musk) is somebody I need to pay attention to. And as is often the case with celebrities, it's not for a good reason. 

In the human body, there are roughly two trillion cell divisions every day. Molecular mechanisms to ensure that DNA is replicated properly are very accurate, but mistakes are inevitable. Most of the mistakes don't change anything but some cut the brake lines that control cell division -- and these can lead to the development of cancer cells. Dr. Chris Gerry explains, in Part 2 of his series on the complexities of cancer.

We all make mistakes, but errors by physicians can lead to significant harm to patients. Can we learn from our mistakes? A new study looks for common threads in one area: misdiagnosis.

Given the uncertainty and risk of wrong interpretation, should you have your telomeres measured? Maybe, if the results motivate healthy lifestyle changes. For now, a surer bet for healthy aging would be to spend the money on exercise programs and nutritious foods instead.

Biomedical scientists today stand in a position not dissimilar to that of our ancient ancestors. A thousand years from now, we will be viewed as naïve and of limited means. Yet, it's quite possible that historians of science will look back at the 20th and 21st centuries as periods in which great marvels were accomplished. If there's ever a list called The Seven Wonders of the Biotech World this is what should be on it.

Nudges are a no-cost way of influencing peoples' decisions, and policymakers love 'em. Some nudges work better than others. Is it an appeal to our intellect, our feelings, or where a product sits on the supermarket shelf that most effectively alters our food choices? Let's find out.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams celebrated Independence Day by trumpeting a study which concluded that Tylenol worked as well as morphine for controlling the pain from a broken rib. But the study was complete nonsense. ACSH caught him and now he's backpedaling like the woman in the bicycle scene from The Wizard of Oz (played backward of course).

A recent scare headline from CNN proclaimed that "a small glass of juice or soda a day is linked to increased risk of cancer, study finds." Ooh! That's really bad. Or it is? So many dietary studies turn out to be nonsense; they are the product of flawed observational studies. How about this one? Angela Dowden lets us know.

ACSH friend Dr. Aric Hausknecht takes issue with the July 4th advice tweeted by Surgeon General Jerome Adams, which recommended the use of IV Tylenol for post-operative pain. The New York neurologist and pain management physician gave us exclusive permission to print his response to Dr. Adams.

A Virginia news report states that two people died and 18 are hospitalized following an outbreak of an unknown respiratory infection at a retirement community. It's probably not influenza, but answers as to the cause are elusive.

In 2017, the CDC recorded 2,813,503 deaths in the United States. That's an average of 7,708 per day. But averages can be misleading. While that's the average, there is wide variability depending on the time of year. Specifically, people are far likelier to die during one extreme temperature season than the other.

Our reaction time slows as we age, a study suggests that increasingly autonomous cars can make driving safer for older drivers and the people surrounding them. Yogi Berra sums it up, "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."

A new study shows physicians "over-prescribing" the length of treatment for pneumonia. We seem to restart therapy at discharge.

Identifying the cause of an infectious disease is time-consuming and not always easy. So a company called Karius has developed a blood test that analyzes cell-free DNA to identify more than a thousand pathogens.

Nomenclature -- the "art" of naming organic chemicals -- is crazy making. Some chemical names are simple. Some are complex. What's more, saying the names of some chemicals makes you sound like a fourth grader. (And if that's not enough of a pull to get you to read this, there's a contest, too!)