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Before you go all science on us, let's be clear: We're not advocating you stop drinking something because you can't spell it. In fact, we are saying just the opposite. If we lived by that mantra, we would dehydrate, since we'd have to forgo Dihydrogen Monoxide (water, duh.)

American Council advisor, and infectious disease expert Dr. David Shlaes has been writing a blog called "Antibiotics—the Perfect Storm" since 2009. Today, he features a guest blogger, Dr.Tamar Ghosh, who leads the Longitude Prize for the Innovation Lab at Nesta, a charity that is devoted to increasing the innovation capacity of the UK.
 
Dr. Ghosh writes about the biggest science prize in the UK:

Currently, breastfeeding is seen as the best (and some would say, only) choice for feeding babies. And many have fought for years to make this position a cultural norm. But the flip side of this position is that feeding formula, although a perfectly reasonable choice, has come to be seen as a dereliction of a mother's responsibility to guard her baby's welfare. Shouldn't feminists fight harder for freedom to choose?

Eugene Monroe does not come off as the stereotypical, egocentric, multi-millionaire ballplayer looking for league clearance to get high. Conversely, the veteran left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, who claims not to smoke, has willingly become a marijuana missionary, to help his NFL brethren ravaged by injuries steer clear of addiction to -- and premature death from -- painkillers.

An environmental group is scaring the public about hydroxyapatite in baby formula. The problem is it's natural calcium, and even sold as supplements.

If you want to find a hotbed of homeopathy, anti-vaccine, anti-GMO and other wacky anti-science rants, look no further. Pinterest is the 13th most popular website in America and the 32nd in the world. It's more popular than CNN. We here at ACSH fully intend to rectify this situation. We hope others join us in doing so.

Epigenetics is the all the rage in the scientific community, in that all that we know or don't know seems to be a result of this field of study. Researchers from Georgetown University published a study recently linking pre-conception influences in the father as a significant contributor to epigenetic changes in offspring.

Two Australian manufacturers have developed an anti-viral prophylactic that it will be available to Olympic athletes. Ansell, the world's second biggest condom maker, in teaming up with the Starpharma, maker of the anti-viral agent, says its product provides "near-complete" protection against the mosquito-spread Zika virus. But unfortunately, while the effort sounds worthwhile, it's essentially just window dressing for a major health concern that's gripped a jittery public.

Every time I think that this nightmare might be over, he's back in the news. This time, the rights to the former doctor's 2010 book have recently been acquired, and I fear my nightmare is going to become a Hollywood film. Why are Wakefield's supporters so effective at getting their message out than those on the side of science? In response, what do we need to do?

Pfizer just announced new restrictions on the sale of seven drugs that can be used for lethal injections. Is this decision a genuine, moral stand, or simply a public relations gambit?

According to a new Danish study, obesity isn't as bad for health as it used to be. More exactly, the BMI associated with the lowest mortality risk seems to be higher than it was 40 years ago. But given some of the problems associated with using BMI to estimate obesity, we're not so sure that these results apply to everyone.

The current opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. is both deadly and complex. But the Charlotte Observer wants you to believe that doctors were solely responsible for the death of a young man following a tonsillectomy. The only thing simple in this case is the bias of the newspaper's headline.

Death knells are beginning to ring for poliovirus. The CDC reports that, in 2014, there were 359 new cases of wild poliovirus in nine countries. Just one year later, the number of new cases dropped to 74, a nearly 80% reduction.

A writhing mass of maggots in a wound might seem like a good reason to seek medical help. But, reports Carrie Arnold, sometimes it’s the doctors who have put them there, adopting an ancient treatment to help heal painful infected injuries.

Credit: Shutterstock

You've seen that look: the big sappy eyes, staring through your soul... yep, that's just your dog beggin' for human food next to the dinner table. And scientists have discovered the reason why some breeds do it more than others, ahem... Labs.

We've all heard the nonsense that artificial sweeteners are bad for you — they cause cancer and a variety of other diseases, according to some scare mongers. The latest scary story is a link between moms' drinking artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy, and obesity in their offspring one year later.

Women who take dietary supplements and use multiple forms of complementary alternative medicine are less likely to initiate chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer when it's clinically indicated. And to put it mildly, that's not a good approach. Just ask the family of the late Steve Jobs.

Susannah Mushatt Jones, who passed away at the age of 116 after a brief illness, lived though an extraordinary period in American medicine, one which we should all take a moment to appreciate. Up until May 12, Ms. Jones was the very last American alive who was born in the 19th century.

The ADA and the CDC are among many groups which advocate for public health. All of them, including some 90 others, received occasional funding, in some fashion, from a large soda company in the past. And they are implicated in the American obesity epidemic. But you have to look a bit more closely to see what's really going on.

The scientific review process should be rigorous, fair and unbiased. However, a new study in JAMA indicates that none of those may be true, finding that those who author a paper influences how stringently the data are judged. 

1. Dr. Gary Null, one of the Four Horsemen of the Alternative (along with Oz, Chopra and Weil), is now most famous for hosting a conspiracy theory radio program and producing straight-to-video movies funded by organic food groups.
Environmental Working Group has never produced a science study but they have overturned 500,000 biologists, according to Null, while the US EPA, which just cleared glyphosate of weird claims made by an IARC Working Group that was hijacked by an Environmental Defense Fund consultant, is secretly suppressing damaging data about Monsanto. 

Northern California is home to a number of questionable lawsuits against various manufacturers, based mostly on activists trying to scare people to improve their own bottom lines. But there are places to find reliable health and wellness information, and the Council is one of them.

The concluding piece in this Brain Tumor series spotlights the expertise of Dr. Gregory Riggins. A professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology, and Director of the Brain Cancer Biology and Therapy Research Laboratory at Johns Hopkins, he will help us distinguish myth from reality.

People often tell new parents to avoid sing-song baby talk with their new addition, because it will slow the child’s language development. But evidence shows it does the opposite; baby talk plays an important role in development -- and their precious bundle of joy prefers it to other types of speech.