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The price of eggs rose by 11% in January and does not appear to be coming down in the immediate future. The price hike is primarily due to the bird flu, which killed millions of egg-laying hens in 2022 in the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history.  

Facts about Eggs

In the 1970s, the public was urged to avoid eggs because one egg contained about 185 milligrams of cholesterol, which was assumed would contribute to high blood cholesterol, leading to heart attacks. However, about 20 years ago, the advice changed, and eggs became a recommended source of protein.    

Eggs are a complete source of high-quality protein, containing all nine essential amino acids [1]. They are also low in calories, about 71 calories per egg,...

A short while ago, despite two hurricanes and a shooting in Las Vegas, advocacy journalists in North Carolina were spending time attempting to Gerrymander the word "conservationist" in order to make sure an expert in favor of natural gas could be excluded from a committee. Mostly because he lacked their key criterion, a donation to Sierra Club.

Yet they didn't come right out and say that. Their stated concerns were that Jim Womack, a member of our Board of Scientific Advisors, was filling a slot reserved for a "nongovernmental conservation interest" on the state's Oil and Gas Commission. This passes for controversy in political environmentalism. Womack, a West Point graduate, retired after a long career as an Army Officer, where he had served in the Pentagon and testified before...

New cases of CWD, chronic wasting disease, have been detected in deer in Missouri and Arkansas. This is concerning because CWD is very similar to "mad cow disease."

During the 1990s, an outbreak of mad cow disease (formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in the UK sent the world into a panic. The outbreak was responsible for killing more than 200 people worldwide, and...

Like most people, I harbor a set of pretty standard concerns: paying bills, balancing work and family life, and protecting my son from crazy people who “identify” as frogs.

Many of America's college students don't have such pedestrian troubles, though. They're not worried about gas prices or the well being of the next generation. Instead, they're overwhelmed by the prospect of catastrophic climate change, and they fight this “climate anxiety” by protesting the use of synthetic pesticides on university campuses. [1] As US News & World Report noted last...

Here are the headlines:

From UPI: Study links soy consumption to breast cancer survival.

From Reuters: Soy tied to longer life after breast cancer

From NPR: New Study Reveals Benefits Of Soy For Breast Cancer Survivors

From NBC: Soy Doesn’t Worsen Breast Cancer and May Prevent It, Study Finds

And from...

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared he will ban the American herbicide glyphosate within three years, and sooner if a replacement is ready. Italy has vowed to do the same. Activists have said the replacement is already available, and it has been used in France since 1863 - a fatty acid called pelargonic (a.k.a. nonanoic, because of the nine carbon atoms) acid. Chemically, it's pretty close to a soap. Does this make any sense toxicologically? Is this another case of "natural = safe?" Or is something else going on? Let's take a look at the toxicological and...

In Act I, scene iv of Hamlet, Marcellus warns us, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." Likewise, something is rotten in the state of academic science.

Earlier this month, we revealed a double standard at the very heart of scientific journals; namely, that conflicts of interest are not applied equally. A scientist who spends his free time making money as an environmental consultant or organic food advocate is treated differently than a scientist who consults for Monsanto. The former has some sort of "health halo," while the latter is treated like a suspect at a crime scene.

Despite all the pleas for transparency, the...

Christmas tree farms don't cause global warming - and that is the scientific basis for why Europeans have decided to meet their emissions targets by...burning wood.

You read that right, they have decided to burn more wood to offset the increases in emissions that will be caused by closing nuclear plants. Because wood is renewable. Christmas tree farms prove it.

Renewable energy certainly sounds great, except that burning wood is still combustion and still has emissions. In the case of wood fires, the combustion is more harmful than CO2 emissions from coal, which makes them far worse than natural gas. Soot is an actual carcinogen, not made-up...

All of us diet soda aficionados have had this experience at least once, right? Sitting in a restaurant with a group of people and ordering a Diet Coke only to be rewarded with a look of disgust or derisive comment from one or more "healthy eaters." It's always the same -  "that's just a bunch of chemicals!" (with appropriate vitriol). You'd think I ordered a plate of sauteed yak scrotum. 

Well, I'm perfectly happy with my bottle of chemicals, since, as I have written numerous times (1), aspartame is one of the least toxic substances on earth. It's so safe that its lethal dose can't really be measured, but it is at least 50-times less toxic in rats than, let's say, caffeine.

LD50 (MPK)a...

1. Big Think interviewed Dr. Alex Berezow for their article Are there limits to the truths science can discover? The discussion ranged from defining evidence-based public policy to setting limits on what science should determine. 

2. In Washington Examiner, Dr. Josh Bloom and Henry Miller, MD, discussed Senator Dianne Feinstein's unscientific chemical scare bill.

3. I moderated a panel called  "The Challenge Between Critical Thinking and Emotional...