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The opioid crackdown changed more than prescribing. It brought surveillance, pain contracts, and suspicion into the exam room, reshaping the relationship between doctors and pain patients in ways that would be unacceptable elsewhere in medicine. Remind me again: what country are we living in?

Social media can feel like a minefield for parents. Every scroll brings a fresh wave of chemical scares, "toxic" warnings or the latest must-try health fad—if you want to be a "good mom," that is. This week on the Science Dispatch podcast, two ACSH moms step into the host seats: video reporter Ana Dolaskie and science teacher Desiree English. They push back against the fearmongering and offer evidence-based guidance to help parents navigate Instagram (and the rest of the internet) with confidence instead of anxiety.

Fathers are wired to protect, provide for and engage with their children. From neuroendocrine changes that support bonding to distinct but complementary parenting styles with moms, dads play an essential role in their children’s emotional security, cognitive development and resilience—while reducing substance use and other risky behaviors. This Father’s Day, the evidence is clear: kids thrive when dads fulfill their unique, irreplaceable role.

If you did not grow up in Utah, the phrase “dirty soda” sounds, at best, intriguing and, at worst, like a fast track to an upset stomach. If you did, it sounds like a perfectly ordinary Tuesday afternoon at the local soda shop.

A new nationwide recall of Nara Organics infant formula, now linked to three confirmed cases of infant botulism, is a sobering reminder that rare does not mean negligible when babies are involved. Formula recalls make headlines, but one of the most preventable sources of infant botulism remains much closer to home: honey. Here’s why a food celebrated for its benefits in adults can pose a serious danger to infants under one year old—and what parents need to know to keep them safe.

Gene therapy has given sickle cell disease what medicine has long promised but rarely delivered: the possibility of a cure. Yet the slow uptake of Casgevy and Lyfgenia shows that even dazzling science can falter when it collides with cost, logistics, risks, and a medical system many patients distrust.

Should we regulate sugar like opioids? It's a proposal with widespread appeal (at least in the academy). But when considered practically, the idea runs headlong into the complicated realities of food production, federal bureaucracy and individual behavior.

The debate MAHA sparks over food is whether incremental reform can improve public health within the existing food system or merely help corporations preserve it under a new health-conscious label. MAHA’s frustration with Secretary Kennedy’s limited regulatory achievements reflects a broader question: can political power force structural change, or will it be absorbed into another round of corporate adaptation?

Hey new parents — that tiny vitamin K shot your baby gets right after birth? It’s one of the most important protections you can give them. But lately, social media is full of scary stories saying you should skip it. Don’t fall for the myths — they could put your newborn at real risk.

The death of 22-year-old bodybuilder Gabriel Ganley is more than a tragic story from the bodybuilding world. It points to a broader cultural shift in which social media, influencers, and the pursuit of extreme physiques are making anabolic steroid use seem not only acceptable but almost expected. For young people chasing status, confidence, and online visibility, the risks are no longer hidden — they are being minimized, rationalized, and sometimes openly embraced.

Unless you're living under a rock (the only affordable housing in New York), you probably have at least some knowledge of the mind-blowing NBA finals series between New York and San Antonio. In the 53 years between the Knicks' championships, much has changed, especially in medicine. Here's some medicine and some basketball to help make the medicine go down.

Every blood donation carries a story of science, courage, and public health. On World Blood Donor Day, we honor not only the donors but also two physicians who made transfusions safer and turned blood banking into a system that could save lives at scale - discoveries that still shape our medical care. 

A new study suggests that a blood-based protein signature may help identify people at risk of lung cancer more accurately than conventional screening criteria alone. The findings are promising because they point toward a future in which lung cancer screening could be better targeted—but they also raise important questions about validation, access, and how such tools should be used in real-world medicine.

Rapamycin has been called the anti-aging” drug. As usual, that is an oversimplification.

Falling overdose deaths are encouraging news. They are also a reminder that public health trends often emerge from multiple interacting forces, not a single policy change or intervention.

Last week was the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), arguably the largest gathering of physicians involved in cancer research and treatment. Amid reports of encouraging progress, including fantastic advances in pancreatic cancer that drew headlines, one abstract focused on Galleri, a blood test designed to detect chemical “signatures” that may signal the early presence of cancer. Could tests like this mark a shift in cancer screening?

Public health officials are concerned about the influx of people from multiple countries for the World Cup and communicable diseases. But not much has been said about the NBA finals and the enormous crowds watching on the street around Madison Square Garden. Which is worse?

So-called ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are blamed for a litany of health problems—often based on shaky science. But recent headlines pushed the spurious correlations even further, alleging that some popular snack foods might be linked to behavioral problems in children. The problem? The study that generated all the headlines said no such thing.

The America First Global Health Strategy (AFGHS) promises a transactional approach to foreign aid, tying health support to domestic co-investment and U.S. interests. But in the moment between dismantled aid systems and unsigned bilateral agreements, HIV treatment and prevention are already faltering, creating the conditions for a resurgence that could extend far beyond any one country’s borders.

Ultra-processed foods are often described as the devil’s handiwork of “Big Food,” engineered to hijack our brains and keep us eating past satiety. But the history of Lunchables suggests a more complicated story: one shaped not only by corporate profit-seeking and tobacco-industry tactics, but also by the practical demands of preservation, convenience, price, and mass distribution.

Coffee contains plenty of caffeine—enough, in principle, to make every cup taste hideously bitter. Fortunately for civilization, it doesn't. Scientists have now figured out one reason why.

The name of Louis Pasteur is usually associated with the germ theory of disease, but Pasteur was a chemist who made a significant contribution to the understanding of molecular structure.

Who owns a future-person? As IVF outpaces the law, embryos are becoming the newest battleground of love, loss, and legal uncertainty, triggering legal questions of personhood, property, and constitutional law.

Think 'natural' always means safe? Think again. Here are 5 eye-opening examples from science and real-world health that show natural doesn’t automatically equal safe.

“Food is medicine” has an irresistible logic: give chronically ill, food-insecure patients healthy meals, and perhaps you can improve their health while lowering medical costs. A new Massachusetts Medicaid study seems to support that promise; however, the results also raise a less comfortable question: are we treating disease with food, or using the language of medicine to deliver food aid to people who are hungry?