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Government policies often have unintended consequences — especially those that affect large swaths of a population. Thus, China's single-child policy, in place from 1980 to 2016, has been linked to increased levels of childhood overweight and obesity, particularly in boys who have no siblings.
 

Everyone knows you get a fever when you have an infection. But why? And while we're on the topic, what causes our temperature to rise?
 
 
 
 

If you're ever in need of an impressive biological story, look no further than the examples of mutualism, when two totally unrelated species not only coexist, but both benefit from the relationship. Check this out.

A pilot study of involving veterans from this war conducted by the Department of Veterans Affairs may indicate a decades-long infection with a parasite could be causing cancer of the bile duct.

A traveler who smokes should be able to wait to light up until he, or she, gets home. But if that's not possible, the nicotine craving can be satisfied with a layover in Europe or Asia.

When young athletes are injured playing high school sports, frequently it involves their hands or wrists. One important finding from a new, national study was that nearly 1 in 10 injuries fell into that category, with 45 percent of those resulting in fractures.

Serious science writers don't follow the Huffington Post. But when Dr. Angela Logomasini of Competitive Enterprise Institute posts something, it's worth walking into the belly of the anti-science beast. Here's that, and a few other things we've been up to recently.

What was the co-founder of Rational Vaccines thinking when he injected eight patients with a live herpes virus formulated as a vaccine at the Holiday Inn? What was previously a sordid tale, lurches towards the criminal.  
 

By encouraging her students to do incomplete research on a scientific topic and to lobby politicians for political change, a teacher of 3rd Grade is showing kids how to be environmental activists. What a shame.

Many metals are too chemically reactive to be found in their elemental form in the Earth. Instead, they're found as minerals where the element exists in a different chemical form. Silver does both. It can be found as pure silver or in minerals that contain it. Some of these are spectacular.

A new role for chemotherapy is emerging – and it's not a good one. It's thought that the same drugs used to treat cancer patients may also lead to sepsis with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, resulting in infections that may be lethal.

Jacob Thompson, a 9-year-old suffering from cancer, whose request to help him celebrate his last Christmas went viral – and was met with a global outpouring of love – has died. His death was due to neuroblastoma. What exactly is it?

With the opioid epidemic occupying center stage in media and political arenas, what's gone largely overlooked is that pediatric opioid-related hospitalizations, warranting the highest level of intensive care unit admission, doubled between 2004 and 2015.

It's been clear for years that the CDC was making a huge mistake in gathering data about opioid overdose deaths. Specifically, lumping together prescription drugs with street drugs. All this accomplished was to make the pills look much more dangerous than they really were. The agency finally fessed up. Too little. Too late. Too secretive. 

Recently on vacation abroad I was exposed to a conspiracy tale that went something like this: "I read this thing on Google that says corporations control science." As a result, one thing really stuck out: Americans are a whole lot more scientific than their counterparts in Europe.

Our northern neighbor affirmed that a variety of Golden Rice, which has higher levels of provitamin A, is otherwise no different that varieties of rice that have been genetically modified for thousands of years. Further, it does not pose a greater risk to human health than rice varieties currently available on the Canadian market.

Twenty years ago, an expert panel at the National Institutes of Health lowered the BMI cutoff for being overweight from 27 to 25. But a recent report suggests that for one segment of the population — postmenopausal women – that might not be low enough. Also, to define obesity in this population the cutoff of 30 might be too high.

With so many well-respected medical schools in Boston, you just might assume that physicians there are likely among the best paid in the nation. But that isn't nearly the case. In 2017, the Boston metro area produced the ninth-lowest average pay for physicians in the U.S., according to a recently-released salary analysis.

In a recent episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, sisters Kim and Kourtney take some tests to figure out which one of them is healthier: Kourtney, who is strictly gluten-free, or Kim, who eats everything in moderation. 

Commissioner Scott Gottlieb believes that his FDA should be in the business of getting smokers to transition away from cigarettes, to something less harmful like e-cigarettes or other products. That's similar to the policy taken by the UK's National Health Service, and it's precisely in line with ACSH's policy stance of harm reduction.

Aging can be associated with a loss of muscle mass and functional deficits. Recent research finds that while testosterone can help older men gain muscle, just adding more protein to the diet does not. Thus, there doesn't seem to be a reason to change protein requirements for seniors.

Colon cancer kills more than 50,000 Americans each year. One in 22 men and one in 24 women will be diagnosed with colon cancer in their lifetime. Currently, patients rely on colonoscopies to detect pre-cancerous growths called polyps. But doctors from John Hopkins University have discovered two digestive bacteria that form a film on the colon — months before the polyps appear.
 
 

Most of us don't think of cold-blooded creatures, like reptiles and amphibians, as having any maternal instincts. However some crocodiles do, and some snakes that bear live young have been seen to shelter babies. New research demonstrates that the South African python, which lays eggs, also demonstrates maternal concern.

ACSH President Hank Campbell sat on a Q&A panel for an anti-agriculture film called "Poisoning Paradise," knowing they were going to yell about corporate conspiracies. And he thinks everyone who cares about science should. Not for the activists who want farmers extinct, but for the people who walk out when they see how environmentalists behave. Because those people can be reached.

Theranos had been staying afloat on the waves of Elizabeth's Holmes' smoke-and-mirrors act. But what its famed CEO lacked was evidence to support the technology upon which the would-be, blood-test innovator was founded. Unfortunately for Holmes – some, like the SEC – call that fraud. And that's something even Holmes couldn't talk her way out of.