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We started a media firestorm in the Pacific Northwest, and we set the record straight on chemicals for an agricultural trade publication. And we also took a peek into a baseball dugout to see how statistical analysis – personally delivered to field managers by stat geeks – is continually reshaping the game. 

There's nothing magical about a rattlesnake. Just because rattlesnakes are tough and cool doesn't mean that you'll be tough and cool if you eat them. Instead, you might just be a dope.

How far will behavioral economics go to improve our health and decrease costs?

A study from the Commonwealth countries indicates that it will take two weeks longer to get pregnant if you eat fast food. Huh? And you can save yourself a week or so by eating fruit, not vegetables. Really? And, no surprise, It goes without saying that this incomplete study came complete with grievous limitations.

Governments gave subsidies to farmers, who implemented political beliefs about biodiversity, like planting flowers among their rows of food. Did any of it work? Sort of. But there's more to it than that.

The proverbial searching for "the needle in a haystack" can help us understand science's problem with p-values, and why so many studies find contrary things.  

A few weeks ago, a paper claimed that an extra glass of wine will shorten your life. The story circled the globe in minutes. A new paper, with better methodology, concluded what we all knew: Moderate alcohol consumption can be integrated into a healthy lifestyle. It, however, won't receive nearly as much attention as the sensationalist report. Such is the power of the academic PR hype machine combined with a gullible, sensationalist press.

More than 140 children and 200 llamas, dating back to the 1400s, were discovered along the northern coast of Peru. Why is it believed this was likely an unprecedented child sacrifice?

The co-founder of Microsoft recently met with health experts in Boston and pledged $12 million to help speed the development of a universal flu vaccine, which he argued is badly needed. Gates warned that the U.S., as well as the world, is distinctly unprepared for the next big pandemic that will eventually strike.

A few folks from the University of Rochester got together and analyzed the recorded sounds of ice when dropped into a glacier borehole in Antarctica. As to what caused the odd sounds of plummeting ice, their research found that the answer centers around sound dispersion in acoustic waveguides.

Dr. Harold Bornstein, Donald Trump’s original physician, may have violated patient privacy when discussing the president's medications. But that was not the case in the "raid."

Carey Gillam is a well-known anti-GMO activist who rejects the scientific consensus, regularly reports easily provable lies, and works for an organization that gets most of its money from 9/11 truthers.

The FDA is going after the most egregious violators of common sense: those who are clearly targeting children. To name and shame the bad actors who are doing a great harm to legitimate smoking cessation efforts, we offer them up here. Take a look; it's truly shameful.

Over nearly a century, vaccines for genital herpes have come and gone. Make that gone and gone, because there's not a single vaccine that can treat or prevent either oral or genital herpes. But some good news might be coming from Vical, when phase II results of its VCL-HB01 vaccine is released, hopefully in mid-2018.

American air quality is terrific. And despite the calls for more regulations on business, U.S. technology is way ahead of regulators. Huge emissions reductions aren't due to runaway solar or wind subsidies, but instead to modern natural gas extraction techniques, such as fracking, which caused power plant emissions to decline nearly percent from 2005 to 2017.

Normally, CRISPR is synonymous with gene editing to correct mistakes in the genome. But this new CRISPR-based tool uses it to detect the presence of a specific DNA or RNA. In doing so, this tool may help millions determine if they have been infected with an infectious disease, such as Zika or a Dengue virus. 

The diagnostic criteria for high blood pressure are evolving. Should patients who are fine in the office, but hypertensive all the rest of the day, be considered as having high blood pressure? Should they be treated? Let's take a closer look.
 

To get us closer to an answer to that question, consider this example: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ recent strategy that makes it acceptable for doctors – as a last resort – to refuse to allow families who decline vaccination to be a part of their practice.

A hot rock massage and herbal tea might make you feel nice, but they don't actually cure anything. Pointing that out in China, however, might land a person in jail.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control, voluntarily agreed to take a pay cut Monday after unjustified political forces surfaced. And he's doing so despite four decades of experience in infectious disease research, as well as a government provision enacted specifically to permit his present compensation to be offered in the first place. It's simply wrong.

The study, CLARITY-BPA, represents a collaboration between two camps that have long been at odds over the safety of BPA: scientists and regulatory experts at the FDA, on one hand, and academic scientists on the other.

Assembly Bill 3087 wants to put a cap on health care costs. If you ignore the yelling from proponents and opponents, you'll see it creates the same marketplace that we have for drugs, whose prices continue to rise with little benefit to the real purchasers. (That would be you and me.) 

Want to know what the American Council on Science and Health does and why we do it? If you have a minute, that's all you'll need to learn about our mission as pro-science consumer advocates who separate health scares from health threats.
We've been making it safe to go into the refrigerator again, and outside, since 1978. And thanks to your support, we'll be able to do it for the next 40 years also.

Norovirus, otherwise known as the "stomach flu," hit the campus of Western Connecticut State University hard last week. The number of students who were walloped by the illness was so high the campus shut down for an entire day. So instead of the more-routine cancellation for a snow day, the campus had a stomach flu day. 

Regulations regarding the use of buprenorphine to help with opioid addiction do not hinder care - they are designed to protect patients and train physicians who did not have formal education in addiction management.