Scientific American
STOMP—Scientists skeptical of RFK, Jr.’s dubious crusade on microplastics
The Trump administration is going after microplastics in drinking water. A new plan to study and regulate plastic pollution was announced ...
‘Not backed by evidence’: RFK, Jr. wrongly claims that keto diet can cure schizophrenia
... Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s claim that a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet may cure certain psychiatric conditions is misleading and not ...
Hype adjustment: Probiotic supplements don’t help much to improve your gut function and overall health, and are a waste of money
There are microbes living in medicine cabinets across the U.S., next to the aspirin and the Band-Aids. And people want ...
As temperatures climb, so does America’s sugar cravings
Pan He, an environmental scientist at Cardiff University in Wales, hit on the idea to look at ... how rising ...
Viewpoint: What happens when you Silicon Valley-ify the dubious effort to breed super children?
An understandable ethics outcry greeted the June announcement of a software platform that offers aspiring parents “genetic optimization” of their embryos. Touted by ...
Breakthrough diabetes therapy uses CRISPR to help body make insulin again
People with type 1 diabetes must constantly rely on insulin injections or pumps, usually for the rest of their life after diagnosis ...
‘Frankenstein bunnies’: Rabbits with antler-like tentacles are swarming through Colorado
Rabbits in northern Colorado have been spotted with bizarre, somewhat grisly horns on their face. But wildlife officials say the ...
Viewpoint: ‘It could sicken millions and kill many’—Massive anti-vaccine disinformation activists intensify their propaganda campaign
A long-running nationwide brainwashing campaign, conducted in plain sight, now comes to its deadly culmination. The predictable consequence—reviving a preventable childhood disease ...
Viewpoint: Why you should read science headlines with caution
The strong correlation between flashiness and wrongness comes from several factors. First, much, if not most, scientific research is wrong. That’s why ...
Clinical trials involving animals can have a 99.6% failure rate in some instances sparking researchers to find alternatives
Animal-based studies have contributed to important findings and lifesaving medical advancements. The COVID-19 vaccines, for instance, were developed in animals, ...
Why we need a moonshot project for a universal flu vaccine
H5N1 bird flu is here. It’s moving from animals to people in ways not seen before. It’s spreading to new ...
Echolocation: How tongue clicks allow the blind to ride bikes
Human echolocation has at times allowed people to ride bikes or play basketball despite being completely blind from a very ...
How the brain predicts coming events
The human brain is constantly picking up patterns in everyday experiences — and can do so without conscious thought, finds ...
Will eye and face transplants become more common? First recipient is making a strong recovery
In June of 2021 Aaron James experienced a terrible accident while working as an electrical lineman. The 46-year-old military veteran ...
Shattered stereotypes: Half of people over 70 stay cognitively sharp
“The belief about old people is that they’re all kind of the same, they’re doddering, and that aging is this ...
Dogs not only can smell stress in human sweat — they also react to it emotionally
Humans and dogs have been close companions for perhaps 30,000 years, according to anthropological and DNA evidence. So it would make sense that ...
Belief in sorcery runs deep in Papua New Guinea. Science education helps villages understand why people get sick
Sorcery and sanguma beliefs deeply rooted in our cultural beliefs. So everyone, whoever’s family member dies or somebody else in the community ...
Discount weight loss drugs? India and China vying to make lower-cost versions of blockbuster Wegovy
Companies in India and China are vying to make lower-cost versions that will widen access to such treatments ...
Eat like we were programmed by evolution? Then we’d eat whatever we want
Nutrition influencers claim we should eat meat-heavy diets like our ancestors did. But our ancestors didn’t actually eat that way ...
Viewpoint: Artificial wombs could help preserve the fragile life of preemies, but more tests are necessary to understand if the hope eclipses the known science
A technology meant to help severely premature infants raises questions of inequity and may someday threaten parents’ rights to make ...
Viewpoint: Activists who sought to restrict access to abortion drug mifepristone cite Comstock Act to buttress their position. Here’s background on this 150 year old law
Activists who seek to revive this antiquated law share with Anthony Comstock,a similar view of women as subordinates ...
Is AI infiltrating scientific publishing? Rise of ‘suspicious’ tell words popping up in published papers
Researchers are misusing ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots to produce scientific literature. At least, that’s a new fear that ...
Viewpoint: CRISPR gene editing is no silver bullet in in the battle to contain bird flu
Recently, a group of scientists announced a breakthrough approach to combat Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (bird flu or avian flu), a severe illness ...
Comparing weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro
Drug Comparison: A plethora of new weight-loss drugs are now available in the U.S., but they aren’t necessarily the same ...
Viewpoint: ‘Conversion therapy for gay and transgender youth is one of our darkest chapters. We shouldn’t inflict it on today’s kids’
New bills aim to create a climate of panic around young LGBTQ people’s access to health care and participation in ...
Death and dying: In our lawsuit-laden society, here’s why we need a more precise definition
UDDA, the U.S. legal standard for death, has deficiencies, particularly with the description of death by neurologic criteria ...
Urban farming sounds great in theory — but releases more CO2 than conventional agriculture. Here’s what needs to change
A new study in Nature Cities compared carbon emissions from small farms and gardens in major cities across the U.S. and Europe with ...
Viewpoint: Weight loss drug boom raises host of unaddressed ethical and scientific questions
The world has launched into an era of injectables not just to treat obesity but to manage weight. Is that ...
