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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is once again warning about the supposed dangers posed by mercury-containing vaccines. "I’m proud to finally deliver on a long-overdue promise: protecting our most vulnerable from unnecessary mercury exposure," he tweeted in early August. Kennedy was celebrating the removal of the preservative thimerosal from a small fraction of seasonal flu vaccines. The problem? He bungled basic chemistry in his rush to (once again) badmouth immunization. Let's take a look.

In just three months, ChatGPT will turn three, and it’s already reshaping the way we work, think, and even imagine the future. Today, AI systems can generate images, mimic human behavior, and tackle tasks that once seemed uniquely human — feats that evoke awe, a sense of dystopia, and raise uncomfortable questions: “Will my job survive the rise of machines?”

American health policy has long grappled with the same question: do we change behavior by changing individuals, or by modifying the environments in which they live? From tobacco warnings to pandemic lockdowns, history shows that slogans fade but structures endure. The coming MAHA initiative will be judged not by its rhetoric, but by whether it builds the scaffolding that makes healthy choices unavoidable.

Before you toss every packaged food into the trash, consider that the line between“healthy” and “ultra-processed” is blurrier than wellness gurus would like you to believe. A fortified wholegrain loaf can be branded a dietary villain, while bacon and puffed rice sail through unscathed. The real story isn’t about purity versus poison; it’s about convenience, nutrition, and whether we’re confusing classification with common sense.

There’s no shortage of spectacularly bad advice about dietary fat these days. None quite compares to the Soap Diet — a theory I involuntarily tested decades ago, courtesy of my mother. It's even worse. Probably.

A system that allows drug makers to profit from restricted access will never liberalize on its own—and patients will continue to bear the cost.

Metabolic Health is your body's internal systems: blood sugar levels, blood pressure, lipids, and inflammation. Poor metabolic health can drive up insulin resistance, a main culprit of heart disease, type two diabetes, among other issues.

Constipation is often treated as a simple plumbing problem, too little movement, too much delay. But emerging research suggests that, in some people, the culprit may not be sluggish muscles or faulty nerves, but rather an unexpected partnership between common gut microbes quietly reshaping our intestinal environment.

Food has always carried meaning, but in contemporary nutrition culture, it is increasingly treated as a moral test. In the unqualified world of wellness and nutrition influencers, foods are no longer discussed as more or less nutritious; they are labelled good or bad, clean or dirty, virtuous or problematic. Framing nutrition this way shifts the focus away from health and toward judging both food choices and the people who make them.

New York City’s nation-leading cigarette taxes have pushed pack prices into the $14 range—and pushed consumers into the black market. Evidence from littered-pack studies shows most cigarettes smoked in the city evade local taxes altogether. If policymakers want to see how this escalates, Australia offers a cautionary tale.

A failed private lawsuit accusing major food companies of engineering addictive food has been resurrected by San Francisco’s city attorney, recasting contested nutrition science as a public nuisance. The new complaint invites judges—not legislators or regulators—to redraw the boundaries of what constitutes acceptably safe food. At stake is whether litigation will become the new tool for reshaping America’s dinner table and designing healthy menus.

What do Sichuanese chefs shrugging at The French Laundry, a meticulously dispatched bonito, a mountain of DoorDash detritus, and the psychic hum of “food noise” have in common? They all expose how modern eating is less about sustenance and more about culture, morality, convenience, and obsession. From haute cuisine to ike jime, from delivery addiction to the silence promised by GLP-1 drugs, these pieces circle the same uneasy truth: food is identity, ethics, status, and compulsion, and yes, occasionally, dinner.

For most of the 20th century, you could buy a laxative that looked like a chocolate bar. This seemed like a good idea until people started treating it like a chocolate bar. The story of “old” Ex-Lax is part dorm folklore, part chemistry lesson, and mostly useless. Enjoy it anyway.

There was no era in which Americans were healthier than now, except in a romanticized imagination.

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder, often robbing individuals of their grip on reality and ability to function. So when a US Cabinet secretary claims it can be cured by changing one’s diet, the statement demands scrutiny. The science behind the ketogenic diet and schizophrenia is intriguing—but far from the miracle cure being suggested.

One of the universal challenges in human knowledge is translating what is deeply felt and implicitly understood into something explicit, communicable, and measurable. Inner experience does not easily lend itself to diagrams, equations, or biomarkers. Meditation sits on this boundary. Can the implicit language of experience be translated into the explicit language of brain dynamics? A new study suggests the answer is yes.

Hedy Lamarr’s legacy extends far beyond Hollywood glamour. Behind the screen persona was an inventive mind that helped pioneer technology foundational to modern wireless communication, raising enduring questions about how society values beauty versus intellect. Her story is a cautionary tale about the biases that shape recognition of women's intellectual achievement.

At a moment when ultra-processed foods, industrial agriculture, and food subsidies are under political siege, can a New York bagel reveal the power of specialization to create abundance, and the urgent policy question of how to steer our food environment toward health rather than excess?

With the EPA launching a new toxicity review and the MAHA movement claiming fluoride is a hidden health menace, the battle lines are being redrawn between public health orthodoxy and rising political skepticism. Although this is an old controversy, what is coming might ignite one of the fiercest science-policy clashes in decades.

How much of our lifespan is written in our genes, and how much is sitting on our plates? A new analysis suggests that while genetics matter, everyday dietary choices may matter more. The message: longevity is influenced less by destiny and more by dinner.

Some breakthroughs change humanity forever. Others, not so much. This one clips discreetly onto your underwear and monitors how often you fart – the status of your flatus. And no, it's not April Fool's Day.

Recent research suggests that regular omega-3 intake from supplements is linked to a modest reduction in cardiovascular events—but the benefits are smaller than many headlines suggest, and not everyone experiences them. Who actually gains protection? Let's take a look.

On this episode of Science Dispatch, we dive into the latest Kīlauea eruption and the alarming chemistry behind the air people are breathing. The volcano is releasing massive amounts of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric acid, and other nasty gases—creating vog (volcanic smog) that irritates lungs, eyes, and skin, especially for sensitive groups. Here's what you need to know.

Science communication has exploded since the COVID-19 pandemic. While Carl Sagan, PhD, MS, was the first household name in science communication, it took a long time for the field to gain traction. But with the advent of social media came a whole new platform for people to discuss their jobs, projects, and passions. It was a brand new way of exchanging information.

While data might appear to show small benefits, the results for the population at large could be significant.