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While pill mills, overdose, and irresponsible prescribing were real concerns, the response hardened into an overgeneralized culture of suspicion that abandoned legitimate pain patients. Science-based medicine can be distinguished from a narrower, politically distorted use of evidence that replaced clinical judgment and individualized care with bureaucratic fear.

I get a lot of questions tossed my way, but I really liked this one: “You wrote a book with the title 'Better Not Burn Your Toast,' and I would like to know why not?”

Long before 20th-century researchers discovered monoamine oxidase inhibitors, Indigenous tribes had been making use of such chemicals.

Every administration says it prioritizes getting the science right, and our current Administration has emphasized using “gold-standard science” as the basis for policy and regulatory decisions. However, for over six decades, regulatory agencies have relied on a flawed model, the linear non-threshold model, as the basis for cancer risk assessment, which significantly affects regulatory decisions at many agencies, including the EPA. 

Have you ever wondered whether the cocaine you snort ends up giving Atlantic salmon the zoomies? It turns out it does—at least to a certain extent. Welcome to the Salmonopolis 500.

Supervised consumption sites have become a flashpoint in the debate over how to address the opioid crisis, often framed in stark terms of success or failure. But the evidence tells a more complicated story: these sites are neither a panacea nor a proven failure, and evaluating them requires a clearer understanding of scale, access, and policy constraints.

Born as a coal-tar dye, reborn as a “magic bullet,” methylene blue has taken an improbable journey from textile vats to today’s biohacking. Its appeal rests on a seductive mix of real biochemistry and speculative promise. But as the science unfolds, the story becomes less fairy tale and more cautionary tale about how easily plausible mechanisms can outpace proof.

What happens when public health policy is reshaped not by evidence, but by ideology? In a striking rebuke, a federal court confronted just how far that shift could go—and drew a line, only to be outwitted by further political maneuvering. Yet even as the ruling halts the latest disruption to vaccine policy, at least temporarily, the broader battle over scientific evidence, authority, and trust is only beginning.

For decades, nutrition advice on carbohydrate-rich foods has offered a simple way to enjoy carbs guilt-free: no need to give up bread, pasta, or your breakfast flakes—just switch to whole-grain versions instead.

Alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne allergy to red meat, was once considered a medical curiosity largely confined to the American Southeast. That is no longer the case. The Lone Star tick, which triggers the condition, has expanded its range northward, and Long Island—particularly Suffolk County—has emerged as an unexpected hotspot.

Pickleball is life. Purple Gatorade makes pickleball possible. Now RFK is coming for the purple—so what’s left? Give up and drink water like a savage?

A growing movement claims social media is “addictive,” and lawmakers are treating it as settled science. But the evidence is far less clear, and the rush to litigate and regulate risks turning a debated concept into sweeping policy. When science is uncertain, the costs of getting it wrong can be enormous.

Do you watch The Pitt? It’s a great show—except when it tries a little too hard to show things better left unseen. One of the worst moments comes in episode 8, where a woman arrives covered in blisters. The cause? Phytophotodermatitis, aka margarita dermatitis. Steve and Irving do their best to explain the science behind this strange affliction, even though they're completely wasted.

Our air is getting cleaner. Fewer people are dying in natural disasters. We're growing more food than ever before on less land. While the media panics about planetary doom, let's examine some of the innovations that are driving remarkable environmental progress. The apocalypse is cancelled—yet again. Happy earth day.

Contrary to what some videos on YouTube suggest, you will not shorten your life by reheating leftovers. But you can get sick if you don’t follow a few simple rules.

The simplest explanations are often the most appealing, yet they are also often the most incomplete. For a long time, it seemed reasonable to treat all sugars as interchangeable parts of the same equation. A closer look at fructose suggests the body may be responding to more than calories alone. Focusing only on calories may obscure a more important role. Seeing that difference more clearly requires a shift in perspective.

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is having a moment in the longevity influencer space. With wild claims that it will help you stay young and celebrities receiving NAD via IV drips, the question is: Is NAD really worth the hype?

It’s now been two years since Great Women of Science debuted, featuring women who have made notable contributions to science, technology, or health and have largely gone unnoticed, often with Nobel prizes they deserved awarded to the men with whom they collaborated. There’s a name for this phenomenon - it’s called “the Matilda Effect.”

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Dr. Fred Lipfert, a member of our Board of Scientific Advisors, a constant contributor to our website, and a friend.

A large prospective cohort study examined how different forms of cow’s milk consumption affect infant health during the first year of life, with a focus on common infections. The findings suggest that raw (unprocessed) cow’s milk is associated with a lower risk of respiratory infections and other illnesses, potentially due to bioactive components with immunomodulatory effects that may be diminished by heat processing. However, these results must be interpreted alongside unresolved safety questions, inconsistent reporting of some outcomes, and broader evidence on both the benefits and risks of raw milk consumption.

In a recent episode of The Pitt- a patient comes in with jaundice, nausea, and a rapidly declining liver. At first, it’s a mystery. No alcohol abuse, no obvious illness. Then comes the twist.

From a chatbot that refuses to delete its peers to decades-old promises of frictionless, jobless offices that produced more work, the future keeps arriving with less revolution and more irony. Layer in a primate brain rewired by fermented fruit and a corporate world reshaped by spreadsheets that taught us to optimize everything, and a pattern emerges: technology doesn’t just change what we do; it rewrites what we value, often in ways we recognize only in hindsight. If AI feels different this time, it’s worth asking whether that’s insight or just the latest version of a very old story.

What causes an epidemic to spread? Don’t underestimate the power of rhetoric and oratory by politicians.

Modern medicine is improving in precision, identifying exactly who needs treatment and who doesn’t. In heart disease prevention, ApoB may outperform traditional cholesterol measures in predicting risk. But as a new study shows, greater precision doesn’t necessarily make care cheaper—it may simply shift where the costs appear.

Pesticides, Girl Scout cookies, food additives, and more—the list of allegedly harmful chemicals feels endless. And so does the army of influencers happily deceiving us about them, fueled by algorithms that serve up fear-laced content for maximum clicks. Given those odds, how can scientists cut through the nonsense proliferating online?