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Given that optics and buzzwords can sometimes influence more than a concept or specific technology, nothing baffles us more than how the start-up Theranos was able to rise so precipitously and garner a multi-billion dollar valuation – before its famous fall. That said, here's why Theranos' technology wasn't groundbreaking.

At one time, "The Three R's" (reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic) were considered the marks of a person who possessed at least a rudimentary education. How about as part of national education reform, we bring back that concept – and update it to include civics, economics, science, and technology? We could call it CRRREST.

If you're a regular, longtime reader of our daily Dispatch newsletter, you may recall that about three years ago, in response to California's severe, on-going drought we urged the public and policy makers alike to embrace genetically modified farming for many reasons, including that some GM crops grow well despite drought conditions. We were strong supporters of the science then, as we are today.

The first member of the cephalosporin class of antibiotics was discovered in the 1940s, in a sewage pipe in Sardinia. Now a group has isolated some novel compounds from lichens gathered in northern Quebec. Three of these have modest antibacterial activity. Can chemists make them more potent? 

1. A student at Emerson College has gone John Birch Society, alleging he just sort of knows fluoridated water must be bad for us because he read it somewhere on the Internet and thinks being contrarian to accepted science and medicine is journalism. Well, it is. Shoddy journalism, anyway, and the world is already deep in that.

One of the latest fads—turmeric—was supposed to cure everything from Alzheimer's to baldness. But it doesn't do anything. Why? It's all about how herbs, spices, supplements... are tested. A review in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry makes this very clear. 

Food and nutrition companies always capitalize on whatever fad diets are currently in fashion to shamelessly promote their products. Science is usually of secondary concern. Now, Nestlé wants in on the action, promoting an alleged nutritional drink, claiming that it's low in FODMAPs. Huh? What are those?

New research shows that when it comes to packaged foods and beverages sold in Canada, two of every three items contain added sugar of some kind. That jarring news comes from a report by Public Health Ontario and the University of Waterloo, a joint venture that included studying labels of more than 40,000 supermarket products. 

In 1976, Barry Kidston, a chemistry grad student, would find out the hard way that you had better be careful with your reaction conditions when making psychoactive drugs. He got a little sloppy, and instead of making a pure derivative of Demerol, got an impurity in the batch, which gave him Parkinson's with one injection. Six years later, a group of six "frozen addicts" suffered the same fate. Crazy brain chemistry.

Sex is considered an essential component of life and wellness. Touch, intimacy and the resultant pleasurable physiologic responses bestow a number of benefits. So is sex-on-prescription insurance coverage in our future?  

Ellie is the "first ever digital UV sterilizing pod." Do you still need to wash and sterilize baby bottles? Yes, of course – drinking milk from unwashed containers would make anyone sick. But does everything that newborns place in their mouths need to undergo UV irradiation? Absolutely not. 

The Massachusetts' legislature recently passed a bill titled, "An Act establishing a board of registration in naturopathy," that will give the naturopaths legitimacy. Regarding the health of the people of the Bay State, it's one of the worst moves that officials there could have made. 

Anyone who searches long enough can find that pretty much everything has been linked to cancer. Bacon. Cell phones. Wi-Fi. Even looking at our video correspondent, Ana Dolaskie. At some point the insanity has to stop. Unfortunately, we have yet to reach that point. 

Although surgical masks protect those wearing them, pathogens collect in the mask's filter. The mask then becomes another vehicle for spreading an infectious disease. But not any more, because now there's a very clever solution to this longstanding problem, using table salt. 

If one can get past its superficial reputation, there's value in understanding why photographing oneself has become a global phenomenon, and what in human nature drives billions of people to do it. In fact, researchers have identified three behavioral types of selfie shooters. We know you do it, too, so which one are you?

How are your New Year's resolutions going? Ana Dolaskie's are getting on swimmingly....

Regardless of people's views on capital punishment, it's unlikely that many would approve of chemically torturing prisoners to death. But because European drug companies now refuse to sell U.S. prisons drugs that can be used for lethal injections, some have tried using untested alternatives for executions. The results have been horrific. The reason? Pharmacological ignorance. 

Following the multi-year drought in the west and northwest, the question being raised is whether the mighty sequoia – which requires massive amounts of water – has been weakened or otherwise compromised. While there's no precise answer to that now, arborists are seeing signs that water depletion could be a real threat.

As if the U.S. opioid overdose crisis isn't bad enough, we have another killer on the streets. One of its components is called U-4700, a drug Upjohn was trying to make into a painkiller decades ago. It never made it to your local drug store, but it's now a big hit at the "street pharmacy." Worse still, a 10 year-old could make it. 

If your only source for news comes from the idiots at Mother Jones or Sourcewatch, you probably don't know much about the real American Council on Science and Health. In that case, you believe their manufactured claims – that we are some kind of sinister group organization – and not that we want to give readers useful information.

Most of us stay away from mushroom hunting since we are well aware of the dangers. There are certainly more poisonous mushrooms in the woods than edible ones. But mushroom hunters will tell you that Morels are one of the most popular and most delicious edible mushrooms you'll find in the Springtime.... If you can find them —they're quite elusive. 
So if you're going to hunt, here's what to look for.
 

Immunology studies the way we maintain our body’s integrity – “immunity’s central motif” – as well as our definition of self. Differentiating our self from "other" has many scales, and it's been used to separate tribes, ethnicities, nations. So in addition to cells, can immunology also help us understand the interactions of humans?

When it comes to finding new antibiotics, no place is too weird to look. Three separate teams of researchers have identified potentially useful antibiotics from some of the strangest places imaginable: Sponges, sea snails, and marine worms.

Since I believe laughter is often the best medicine, I didn’t have to look very far to find funny movie scenes that also delivered meaningful medical lessons.

Antibiotic resistance is a crisis. One of the driving forces is that the drugs are overprescribed by primary care physicians. Although there are efforts to minimize the unnecessary antibiotics being given to those who don't need them, a new study shows that they're just not working.