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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and I rarely see eye to eye, but I’ll grudgingly admit he’s not entirely wrong about food dyes, though not for the reasons he thinks. His claim that dyes are fueling a national cancer “explosion” is both alarmist and unsupported by data. Still, in the risk-benefit world of medicinal chemistry, there’s a good argument to be made for flushing them, for reasons both scientific and literal.

The Trump Administration has gutted many areas of healthcare funding and research, especially in infectious diseases. One area that has been particularly hard hit has been research, prevention, and treatment for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). While the COVID-19 pandemic is still fresh in everyone's mind, the HIV pandemic seems to have slipped from the general public's awareness. It's time for a refresher on just how bad the 1980s were.

What if the next big thing in nuclear energy was a dusty old idea from the Cold War era? Once considered to power nuclear bombers, molten salt reactors (MSRs) are in the spotlight, promising safer, cleaner, and more efficient power without the pressurized headaches of traditional designs.

Imagine receiving the news that you're developing an extremely aggressive cancer — and that the only way to prevent it from spreading through your body is to amputate a limb. Shaken by the diagnosis, you research similar cases and come across what appears to be a lifeline: an alternative, marginal treatment not recognized by the scientific community yet praised in countless online testimonials as a possible solution.

One in three dementia cases could be prevented with something as simple as treating hearing loss. As scientists present compelling new data linking hearing loss to cognitive decline, the U.S. Supreme Court is simultaneously considering whether insurers must cover preventive care at all — a collision of science and politics.

Cannabis laws in the U.S. are what you’d get if a biochemistry textbook and a Kafka novel had a love child — nonsensical, inconsistent, and somehow both legal and illegal at once. THCA (which is not psychoactive) is now banned in Tennessee because when you light it on fire, it turns into THC (which is psychoactive), but whether that’s legal depends entirely on where you're standing when you use it. As if that’s not ridiculous enough, here’s some chemistry to make it worse.

Recent reorganizations and "reductions in force" at the FDA have damaged the very backbone of our public health system. Gutted by Administration-initiated layoffs and seemingly ideologically-motivated cuts, the agency tasked with keeping your food safe and your medicines effective is now stumbling through a bureaucratic fog in which innovation stalls and risks multiply.

Opinions regarding “safe” and unsafe foods vacillate more than hem-length fashion. While we disregard emerging data, fail to conduct sound research, and bury science at odds with popular and political platforms, blaming the “food victim” by denying medical benefits for allegedly food-related diseases – the latest proposal – doesn’t seem the most prudent course to safeguard American health.

They say you can’t turn lead into gold. But try telling that to a policymaker pitching retraining programs. Transforming coal miners into coders sounds efficient, even inspiring. But without foundational skills, all the job training in the world will, like the alchemists, yield only lead.

China’s dominance of the market for "active pharmaceutical ingredients" — critical components of drugs — has given it powerful economic leverage and introduced significant risk into the American healthcare system. That must be considered in the imposition of tariffs on Chinese products.

“Food is medicine” makes for a great bumper sticker. However, as a health policy, things start to fall apart. The MAHA model, born from a blend of good intentions and Instagram-friendly catchphrases, skips the messy parts: the collision of biology and policy in creating the chronic disease crisis it claims to cure.

Miller Gardner, the 14-year-old son of longtime New York Yankee outfielder Brett Gardner, died from carbon monoxide poisoning while vacationing at a resort in Costa Rica. It was a tragedy that was entirely preventable. Despite initial denials, a routine blood test confirmed the cause, underscoring the importance of mechanical maintenance and working carbon monoxide detectors.

The U.S. government spends over $160 billion annually on scientific research. This massive expense is marketed to taxpayers as an investment in groundbreaking research that fuels innovation and discovery. In truth, much of the federal science budget is expended on questionable and even fraudulent research. It’s time we eliminate it.

This week’s reading takes us from the literal underground of Manhattan’s steaming veins to the not-so-metaphorical land grabs shaping the global future. We revisit the original “signalgate” that made the NSA look like amateurs and finish with a much-needed science lesson for anyone still confused about what theory means.

Can eating well pave the way to healthier, more vibrant golden years? The answer is "maybe," based on a recent study surveying how diet affects disease risk as we age. Let's break down the paper's results.

Organic food is a $52 billion enterprise, fueled by wealthy consumers convinced they're avoiding the alleged harms endemic in "industrial agriculture." Is there any science behind that belief, or is it just high-priced marketing hype? Let's take a closer look.

If paying more for produce that’s neither cleaner, greener, nor more nutritious sounds like a good deal, organic farming is the fairy tale for you.

As GLP-1s quiet the constant hum of hunger, are they a permanent pharmaceutical crutch, or can they create space to let us permanently turn down our biological volume? Have GLP-1s made weight loss less about will and more about a reset?

Think your vitamin C comes from hand-picked oranges and sunshine? Try corn syrup, sulfuric acid, and genetically modified microbes instead. This isn’t a wellness fairy tale. It’s industrial chemistry with a twist of irony.

Welcome to the world of opioid prescribing, where government mandates based upon Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MMEs) are the rule rather than clinical judgment. In the zeal to fight the risk of opioid addiction, policymakers chose a metric — then forgot what it was meant to measure.

Zinc is known primarily as something you take for a cold. But there's much more to it. Let's have Steve and Irving 2.0 – now dwellers in the AI netherworld – swing into a Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell. ™️

There’s a new villain in the hive. On his radio program, "CBS Eye on the World," John Batchelor and I unpacked the real threat to honeybees, discussed a new remedy for it, and explained why treating bees as livestock is harmful.

Nothing says spring as much as cherry blossoms or opening day in Major League Baseball. For many fans, attending a game in person to see that ceremonial first pitch is often followed by the ceremonial consumption of a hot dog. Not bothered by baseball’s momentary reprieve from our day-to-day vicissitudes, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCMR) offers some warnings, stats, and carcinogenic handwringing.

Before Watson and Crick basked in Nobel glory, before The Double Helix mythologized their genius, there was the photo. Photo 51 — crisp, clear, and groundbreaking — captured by Dr. Rosalind Franklin, the crystallographer whose name is often footnoted in a story she helped write. But Franklin wasn't just a supporting character in the DNA saga. She was the scaffolding.

This week’s reading list spans from the dugout to the data table: from a poignant moment in 1948 baseball, to why natural gas bans are stuck in legal limbo, to how universities became productivity cults in khakis. So, grab a hot dog, maybe a spreadsheet or a beer, and settle in.