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The rapid expansion of legalized sports betting in the U.S. has fueled a significant increase in gambling addiction, with calls to helplines surging and treatment providers overwhelmed by demand. While the industry generates substantial revenue, it also imposes hidden costs on society, including financial ruin, mental health problems and strained public resources. Now the question is: Can we bring this emerging public health crisis to heel?

As AI quietly takes the wheel in medicine and other fields, once-sharp skills might quietly rust in the background. If AI is doing the thinking, are we still thinking at all?

Everyone wants to live longer — and better. As advocates like the MAHA moms push for a shift from simply avoiding disease to preserving strength, sharpness, and emotional well-being, a new Nature Medicine study asks a timely question: Can what we eat in midlife help us age healthily?

Does the Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell have an impact? Hell yeah. A former colleague responded to a recent lesson about purifying silver. His memoir is pure gold.

If you thought happiness was a warm puppy or a good tax refund, think again. According to the U.N., it’s a data point on a chart topped by Finland and mysteriously featuring Mexico and Israel in the top 10. Welcome to the annual World Happiness Report, where vibes are converted into spreadsheets, and antidepressant use is politely ignored.

Walgreens is about to be strip-mined by private equity like it’s the last orange in Florida. Meanwhile, your credit card company is quietly labeling you a "revolver" (spoiler: it's not as cool as it sounds), and people used to gamble on popes like they now do on the Final Four. Welcome to this week’s reading roundup, where history, money, and class anxiety meet.

Social media often feels like a battlefield: rapid-fire opinions, personal attacks, and a constant pull to react rather than reflect. But what if ancient wisdom could offer a different playbook? The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, a 2,000-year-old guide to mental and spiritual discipline, might not mention trolls or threads but its insights on self-restraint, truthfulness, and perspective are surprisingly relevant to today’s online chaos.

What do elite Navy SEALS, world-class free-divers, and marine mammals have in common? They all push the limits of breath-hold endurance — yet only one group evolved with the right warning system to avoid drowning. As it turns out, the difference between life and death underwater may hinge on whether your body listens to oxygen … or its proxy, carbon dioxide.

In a recent conversation with radio host Mark Hahn (KSCJ), I shared my optimism and also some concerns about where Artificial Intelligence is heading.

Fear sells, and nothing grabs clicks like an article with a dramatic headline warning readers to rethink every sip of possibly poisonous tap water. And especially one leaning heavily on selective science and even heavier on the allure of a product pitch. But before you start boiling your Brita, it’s worth asking: Are we being informed — or just expertly marketed to?

Is sugar the new nicotine … or maybe just the current scapegoat for our collective confusion over what’s “healthy?” Science can’t decide if sugar is a genuine addiction or a guilty pleasure, and our ever-changing regulations seem guided more by politics than hard data. Let’s see whether sugar really deserves its bad rap or if we’re simply hooked on the confusion.

The availability of suzetrigine may represent a critical step in addressing the nation’s pain management crisis. While questions remain about its cost, adoption, and long-term efficacy, its novel mechanism and positive clinical results offer a promising alternative to opioids.

Vaccination not only safeguards the health of individuals but also preserves the collective health of our communities, ensuring that many preventable infectious diseases are largely relegated to the past. The FDA performs an especially rigorous review of laboratory, preclinical, and clinical data to ensure the safety, efficacy, purity, and potency of vaccines.

Almost exactly 5 years ago – before COVID was all over the place – I decided that it was OK to ride the NYC subway. Some of us wore masks, some didn't, but everything seemed fine. Let's stroll down memory lane to a time just before everything went to hell. It's a subway trip report you don't want to miss!

Elon Musk’s Neuralink may be the latest headline-grabber, but brain-to-computer interface (BCI) technology has been advancing for decades. Initially developed for therapeutic use, it is now poised to enhance the worried well's cognition, memory, and emotional states. So, what happens when machines don’t just read our minds but start writing them?

From the hidden world of electrostatic ecology, where insects harness static electricity for survival, to the engineering feats behind rollercoasters, let’s explore forces both seen and unseen. Add in a look at how federal policy may have helped create food deserts and why automation could be making us less capable, and you’ve got reads that are equal parts science, history, and a touch of existential dread.

A warm summer night, the hum of mosquitoes filling the air, and you, slathering on DEET, waving your arms like a windmill, and — if internet lore is to be believed — chugging vitamin B1 in the hopes of making yourself invisible to these airborne vampires. Proponents claim that taking high doses of the vitamin makes humans unappetizing to mosquitoes. But here’s the catch: despite anecdotal evidence, historical speculation, and a few flawed studies, actual research doesn’t support this. Before you waste money on yet another supplement promising to keep the biters at bay, let’s take a closer look at the science.

Gatorade claims its alkaline water will hydrate you into peak performance, but it's just pricey H2O bolstered by clever marketing. Save yourself a few bucks and drink the stuff from the tap instead.

RNA interference – RNAi – functions specifically to silence, or deactivate, genes. Among other applications, it promises to be groundbreaking as a way to treat infections of bees by a commercially important parasitic pest, Varroa destructor.

Medicare is supposed to simplify healthcare for seniors. However, the plethora of options reads like a choose-your-own-adventure novel. Enter the sherpas: brokers and agents who promise to guide beneficiaries through the dizzying array of plan options, all while pocketing commissions for their troubles. But unlike the Everest sherpas, who are vested in getting climbers to the summit alive, are these Medicare guides more concerned with the mountain of money flowing into their pockets?

Dr. Mehmet Oz, poised to become the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), was publicly grilled by Senator Claire McCaskill in 2014 for promoting “miracle” weight-loss products with no scientific backing, exposing his role in peddling pseudoscience for profit. His testimony attempted to justify his exaggerations as audience engagement, but his contradictions and refusal to take responsibility raise serious concerns about his credibility in a regulatory position.

Newly discovered oncology drugs called “DNA-encoded tri-specific T-cell engagers,” or “DTriTEs,” engage the immune system more effectively than traditional therapies, particularly against evasive and deadly glioblastoma tumors.

Suicide often happens in moments of impulse, when opportunity meets desperation. For decades, the Golden Gate Bridge has been an unfortunate site of these tragic decisions. But a new, simple structural change is making the difference between life and death.

Have you ever met someone and instantly knew their political views by how they sip their oat milk latte, or rock a NASCAR hat? If so, you’re engaging in political projection — the fine art of assuming that people you like share your beliefs and those you despise must belong to the other side. Turns out, it’s not just you. Research shows that people instinctively project their politics onto heroes and villains alike, reinforcing the comforting illusion that the world is neatly divided into good guys (us) and bad guys (them).

Once upon a time, science communication was a niche hobby, reserved for the rare few who could translate lab jargon into something the public might understand. Carl Sagan made it look easy, but most scientists saw public engagement as either career suicide or an activity best left to journalists. Fast-forward to 2025, and science communicators, now "sci-fluencers," are everywhere.