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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.

A resurgence of heroin in the black market might be contributing to a significant drop in fentanyl-related overdose deaths, with provisional CDC data showing a 24% decline in overall U.S. overdose deaths by September 2024. Could this shift, alongside harm reduction efforts like increased naloxone distribution, be reducing fatalities? Let's take a look.

Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has controversially promoted vitamin A as a treatment for measles, despite evidence showing it can be toxic in high doses and is no substitute for vaccination. Kennedy's view is particularly ironic given his criticism of genetically engineered Golden Rice, a crop designed to boost...vitamin A levels in developing countries.

Headlines warn of “toxic dust.” But are these ominous claims grounded in current science — or just blowing dust in our eyes? What was found behind the scary headlines is far less dramatic than advertised.

Is everyone’s favorite physician, Dr. Google, about to be replaced by a smarter algorithm? In a new study of virtual urgent care, AI played the role of digital triage nurse, doctor’s assistant, and maybe even top student in class. But before we hand over the stethoscope, let’s talk about how this study was designed, who graded the tests, and what was quietly left out of the final scorecard.

Behind the polished facade of peer-reviewed journals lurks a growing epidemic of junk science — propped up by predatory publishers, ignored conflicts of interest, and research so bad it refuses to die, even after retraction.

We’ve got enough calories to go around, but somehow, we’re still managing to feed people into chronic disease. When food policy treats a vending machine dinner and a home-cooked meal as equals, maybe it’s time to rethink the menu.

The debate over impoundment — the President’s refusal to spend money appropriated by Congress — has become prominent in our political discourse, igniting fierce arguments from various quarters. Critics call it a dangerous power grab, while supporters hail it as a necessary tool for fiscal discipline.

This week’s reading dives into the quiet casualties of convenience: the death of the doctor’s note, the fallout of screen-based learning, and the existential crisis of the USPS. If tech is the answer to everything, are we still asking the right questions?

What happens when a teenager’s identity collides with a courtroom gavel? In the United States, gender-affirming care for minors has become the ultimate battleground where medical ethics, adolescent autonomy, and political ideology clash — with doctors stuck in the middle and lawmakers rewriting the rules of consent as they go.

Lung cancer screening with low-dose CT could have saved tens of thousands of lives — if only we'd listened to the data back in the 1970s. Instead, fear of radiation, obsession with overdiagnosis, and bureaucratic hand-wringing kept this proven life-saving tool out of reach for decades. It’s a case study of how good science can be silenced by flawed assumptions.

Seals, dolphins, and seabirds are becoming ill and dying in disturbing numbers on West Coast beaches. The culprit is an algae-based toxin named domoic acid. The way this works is fascinating.