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Perfluorooctanoate is a simple 8-member carbon molecule that has fluorine, rather than hydrogen, atoms. The result is a chemical that resembles simple forms of fat that occur naturally in our bodies – but does not break down significantly.

Despite its higher transmissibility, research continues to show that the authorized COVID-19 vaccines protect against the Delta variant. The latest evidence comes to us from the UK.

Vaccine skeptics continue to insist that the COVID shots are dangerous. As always, their favorite sources are the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and other similar passive surveillance databases. As cases of supposed vaccine injury are investigated, we come to the reassuring, though admittedly boring, conclusion that COVID-19 jabs pose a low risk to most people.

As the fall approaches, the Delta variant continues to infect our citizens as the climate becomes more hospitable to respiratory viruses. Booster immunizations have arrived, and they’ll be rolled out soon.

As was the case with other "instant therapies" for COVID, convalescent plasma showed no utility whatsoever in a well-designed randomized controlled trial, something that should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever waded in the treacherous waters of drug discovery research. Another one bites the dust.

As of today, people who are immunocompromised are allowed to receive a booster shot. Sounds simple, right? That is, until the madness becomes evident.

There hasn’t been much news recently on the “Collapse on Collins” -- the Miami building tragedy that resulted in nearly 100 fatalities. To date, no official cause has been determined. Could “bad” vibrations have contributed to the disaster?

Studying the nautilus, the beauty of lullabies, understanding stupid, the continuing hype of AI, separating signal from noise, and a worrisome note on bananas

It's no secret that the weed killer glyphosate shows up in our food. But how much of a health risk is this to consumers? A new review paper examining the evidence offers a reassuring conclusion.

Given the unabated rise in drug overdoses, the idea of safe injection sites has once again been raised. Dr. Jeffrey Singer of the Cato Institute (and also an advisor for ACSH) writes in the Providence Journal about Rhode Island's “overdose prevention sites.” It's all about harm reduction.

There’s an epidemic of obesity and diabetes, and everyone is trying to lose weight. Many individuals use artificial sweeteners to reduce their caloric intake. A recent article titled “Aspartame and cancer: new evidence for causation” is just the latest of several studies over the years that have attempted to link artificial sweeteners – in this case, aspartame – with cancer.
Is there any evidence for an association?

The COVID-19 media is saturated with vaccination information and news. Information includes vaccine performance, vaccination availability, hospital crowding. The news includes local mandates, compliance statistics, breakthrough infections, masking requirements. Data on demonstrated public health benefits of vaccination are scarce; we set out to fill that gap. Our primary goal was to define quantitative relationships between vaccination and subsequent rates of infections as of July 24, 2021.

As another wave of infections washes across the land, and officials call for or against the non-pharmacologic interventions (NPI) a new battle is being waged. Do these interventions work? Where is the science to follow? Let’s ignore your favorite expert or talking head; I’ll report, you decide.

Cato Institute's Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, also an ACSH advisor, and Dr. Josh Bloom argue in The Philadelphia Inquirer that the unwinnable war on drugs is simply a losing proposition for pain patients.

The pushback over mask mandates has been fierce. It’s been portrayed in the media as another skirmish in the political and cultural wars. And while there’s an element of truth to that, framing all of the COVID controversies as political can lead us very much astray.

Thanks to genetic engineering, it's now possible to make this frozen dessert without cows, at least indirectly. Naturally, the anti-GMO industry is up in arms. They're making all sorts of baseless arguments in an attempt to scare people away from this so-called "animal-free" ice cream.

Maia Szalavitz's terrifying article in Wired, which described the cruel laws and punitive regulations that pain patients are forced to abide by, brought to mind hundreds of similarly tragic comments I've been reading for years. These can be found following any of my ~100 articles about pain, opioid denial, or government malfeasance and ineptitude. Here are a few.

When Mark Hahn asked me about "poisoning mosquitoes with human blood," I couldn't resist chuckling. It kicked off a lively conversation covering everything from mosquito-borne diseases to an exciting new painkiller — all in a day's work dissecting science for a curious audience.

You’d probably be horrified if a stranger licked your face on the subway.
But if that stranger has four legs and a tail, suddenly it’s "adorable."
Spoiler: Your pooch's mouth isn’t clean — it’s a petri dish with a tongue.

While HHS Secretary Kennedy frets over food dye in Froot Loops, his 2023 attack on Gardasil — a vaccine proven to prevent deadly cancers — reveals a troubling willingness to distort life-saving science for political points. RFK Jr.'s bizarre blending of misinformation and misplaced outrage underscores the urgent need to separate fear from fact when public health is at stake.

Colorectal cancer, long associated with aging, is rising alarmingly in younger adults, especially those born in the 1980s. Investigators are looking past family history and lifestyle to mutational signatures, telltale scars etched deep into our DNA, pointing to possible early-life exposures that set cancer’s deadly wheels in motion long before symptoms appear.

"Sugar is addictive." It's a widespread, well-researched claim — and it's probably false. The assertion oversimplifies complex eating behaviors driven by an even more complicated cluster of influences. While sugar intake can stimulate reward pathways in the brain similar to drugs, it lacks several key characteristics of true addiction, leading to a less satisfying but more accurate conclusion: We've picked a convenient scapegoat instead of solving our real nutritional problems.

What starts as digital applause can quickly devolve into a chorus of chaos. In the Wild West of online connections, praise, poison, and pseudoscience often sit side by side, especially when the topic is science and the target is women.

We’re often told to “follow the science” — a comforting phrase that suggests clarity, objectivity, and consensus. But in today’s hyperpolarized world, even science itself has become a political Rorschach test. A new study in Science reveals that Democrats and Republicans cite science differently and effectively operate from separate scientific realities.

“Rapid unscheduled disassembly” — the corporate version of “oops,” made famous by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Whether it’s exploding rockets, free-riding empires, AI on fast-forward, or a measles bioweapon conspiracy, this week’s reads ask: is breaking stuff the new innovation strategy?