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Just like a trip to the dentist, it's time for The Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell. This time we'll discuss the element xenon. Also, Dr. Charles "Chuckie D." Dinerstein gets his comeuppance. And a mini-book review. No extra charge!

The need for social distancing and isolation during the pandemic has driven a surge in home-delivered foods and meal kits. Consumers must trust the vendors and shippers to provide logistics, packaging, and shipping policies that ensure safe foods. How well are they doing? 

Social media platforms, fringe websites and activist groups are well-known sources of unscientific nonsense. Less discussed is the fact that ideological activism masquerading as research often finds a home in prestigious academic journals. One journal in particular has a long history of publishing such dubious content—The Lancet.

A recent story from the Associated Press (AP) highlights the many flaws in how we talk about teenage vaping. It's a public health issue that needs to be addressed, but before we can do anything about it, we have to understand the level of risk e-cigarette use actually poses to minors.

The Biden administration announced a "test to treat" plan to provide easy access to Paxlovid – an effective COVID antiviral drug – for anyone who's infected. It's not perfect, but it's sorely needed.

A new study looks at how those, who vape and use hookahs, inhale and exhale. It's an examination of duration, volume, and velocity. In other words, constructing product-specific puff topographies.

Explaining a paradox of science, let nature bury the excess carbon, Power, and letting go – at least of our notes.

Have you ever tasted a medicine pill that’s so bitter that you can barely swallow it? Most adults can handle it. But with kids, bitterness can affect compliance. Here’s some clever chemistry to the rescue.

Virus particles come from people, like you and me, when we are ill, even before we are symptomatic. While the necessity for masks for this pandemic may be ending, barrier face coverings (BFC) may, in the future, reduce exposure to particles of concern - other viruses. Here is the work of my organization.

We're learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections.

Canada has approved Medicago's plant-based COVID-19 vaccine. The new shot itself is an impressive development, but the technology it's built on suggests that we may be growing more drugs in greenhouses in the coming years.

Perhaps you’re familiar with the sentiment about how a child's behavior is often transformed into how they act as an adult. A new study finds a connection between some early lifestyle and health choices and later-life concerns.

They are the foundation of the CDC's 2016 opioid guidelines, resulting in legislation that limits opioid prescribing in 36 states. Morphine milligram equivalents, or MMEs, are used to set arbitrary prescribing limits for opioids by physicians, since many state legislators fail to understand – and translate into policy and law – the ‘16 guidelines. If we had all known the history of MMEs, perhaps we would not have been so eager to embrace them.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to what's been described as heavy fighting at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station, near the Ukraine-Belarus border. There have also been reports of rising radiation levels in some places, and concerns about possible damage to the entombed reactor that was damaged in the 1986 accident.

Finally, there are antiviral drugs that will keep people with COVID out of the hospital (and the morgue). But, good luck getting a prescription if you should need it. The FDA has pretty much guaranteed that this will be almost impossible. Here's why.

Reporters and science communicators commonly point to widespread COVID misinformation to explain why so many people are skeptical of vaccines and other infection-control measures. Bad pandemic takes clearly influence the public, but there's much more to the story.

Another study has found that lotteries didn't boost COVID vaccine uptake last year. Here's a few reasons why these giveaways probably didn't work.

Yay! We have another variant. But this time, the scientists who isolated it named it after themselves. Shameless? I say yes.

Should we end anonymity on the Internet to bring civility back? The Great Barrington Declaration, Making a Deal with the Devil, a contrarian opinion on the value of a vegan diet.

Hospitals are noisy places. What with the alarms and the interruptions to take medications or check your blood pressure, pulse, or blood sugar. It is challenging for patients to get any real rest. Short of a medically induced coma, is there anything to be done? A new study offers up a possibility.

Hello, nut cases! Have I got a book for you. Comedy writer Dennis DiClaudio's  "The Hypochondriac's Pocket Guide to Horrible Diseases" is both repugnant and hilarious. Here are three (of many) diseases you don't want to catch. Not for the squeamish. Plus some science thrown in. No extra charge.

Are GM crops a tool of "neocolonialism"? The answer is "no." I joined Dr. Kevin Folta on episode 325 of the Talking Biotech Podcast to explain why.

We know that Omicron is more contagious than Delta. Those 30 mutations on the spike protein alter its activities in ways we are just uncovering. A new study suggests that those nasal swabs may be so last year.

We continue to be awash with COVID stories. But let us cut to the chase. How many annual COVID-19 deaths are the nation prepared to tolerate on a routine basis? Substantial public health efforts have been devoted to reducing these other causes of death; why should COVID be different? Reducing traffic accident deaths by mandating vehicle seat belts comes to mind, for which some 9000 lives were saved each year. How prepared are we to similarly enforce a comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination program?

There are chemistry teachers all over the U.S. that know this simple truth: chemistry matters in everyday life. Nothing demonstrates this principle more than when you look back at the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan.