Science Controversies
Hantavirus outbreak research: Trump administration shut down study last year on rodent-to-human transmission
In 2025 the Trump administration eliminated funding for a group that had been running a pilot project aimed at studying the type ...
“Evidence for puberty suppression and gender affirming hormones limited’: British doctors group questions early transitions but also opposes blocker ban
The BMA’s long awaited critique of the Cass review has largely vindicated the findings of the original landmark review into ...
Cooling the planet with balloons: Could a geoengineering gamble slow global warming?
The political momentum behind costly climate-change mitigation appears to be weakening, especially in the United States. President Donald Trump has ...
Overmedicalization? RFK Jr.’s antidepressant crackdown raises conflict questions over his fee stake in Wisner Baum, the tort firm built on suing drug makers
Environmental lawyer and volunteer riverkeeper RFK Jr continues to make waves in his current job as head of the US ...
Science Disinformation Gap: The transatlantic battle over social media and censorship
Every day, the same post appears in two places at once. A Facebook user in Munich sees it with a ...
FDA’s expedited drug reviews are hailed in some quarters but other approval practices are problematic
In July 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a pilot program intended to expedite reviews for drug ...
Vaccine shootout at the CDC
When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public ...
‘Conflict entrepreneurs’ are driving disinformation and shaping public opinion
As brands battle for people’s attention, they no longer control their brand messages nor the ecosystem they exist in. Their ...
Farmers are a major source of misinformation—about farming
Misinformation has long been a feature of social media platforms. That’s why a University of Waterloo researcher has launched a ...
Viewpoint: Misinformation infodemic? Why assessing evidence is so challenging
When United States Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unveiled new dietary guidelines earlier this year to “Make America Healthy ...
Singularity crisis ahead? Can super babies save us from rogue AI geniuses?
Mathematician Tsvi Benson-Tilsen once worked at the Peter Thiel–funded Machine Intelligence Research Institute, where he was one of many experts tasked with ...
Immortal dragons: The quest to ‘make death optional’
...[I]n recent years, finding the secret to longer life has transitioned from mythical fiction to actual science with the help ...
GLP podcast: ‘Safe injection sites’: enabling drug addiction or saving lives?
With illicit opioids still killing thousands of Americans each year, some public health advocates are pushing a radical solution to ...
How RFK, Jr.’s false vaccine claims are holding up $600 million to fight diseases in poor countries
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push to remake the U.S. vaccination schedule is on hold following a federal judge’s decision last ...
Viewpoint — Food-fear world: The latest activist scientists campaign: Cancer-causing additives
Here we go again. The rather tiresome Activist Playbook is being applied again, this time not to pesticides, plastics, fossil ...
Nanoplastics in drinking water: MAHA activists forge science-based bipartisan coalition
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would, for the first time, formally flag microplastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water as ...
Trump’s America First health aid cuts: Retrenchment has already hit global malaria, HIV, TB, and polio programs
A reduction in U.S. foreign aid under the "America First" policy of President Donald Trump, who took office in 2025, ...
‘Science moves forward when people are willing to think differently’: Memories of DNA maverick Craig Venter
I was saddened to hear of Craig Venter’s passing at the age of 79 on April 30, 2026. Often portrayed ...
Paraben panic: How a flawed study, media hype, and chemophobia convinced the public of the danger of one of the safest classes of preservatives
Public opinion driven by fear has immense influence in our society, especially when it comes to science and health topics ...
Anti-seed-oil to anti-vax pipeline: MAHA movement spreads to teen influencers
For years, the “Make America Healthy Again” movement was driven by moms. Concerned about the safety of childhood vaccines and ...
‘Alarming’: Nicotine’s wellness rebranding
Nicotine - the highly addictive substance found in tobacco and vaping products - is being promoted online as a way ...
The tech billionaires behind the immortality movement
Among the most potent archetypes of our time is the elite who seeks eternal youth, whose power is drawn from ...
Viewpoint—“Miracle molecule” debunked: Why acemannan supplements don’t work
We’ve done a lot of debunks. After a while, they start to blur together because the formula is almost always ...
Dad brains: Only women undergo bodily changes during and after childbirth? Think again.
... By the time [anthropologist Lee] Gettler looked into this field, it was already an established fact that fathers had ...
How America’s medical system encourages psychiatric overdiagnosis
Psychiatric diagnoses in the United States are rising across virtually every category, in every age group. According to the National ...
MAHA wellness influencers deride proven anxiety medications, tout lifestyle fixes
After a grueling year of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation to treat breast cancer, Sadia Zapp was anxious — not the ...
IV vitamin therapy could change your life — by killing you
An IV therapy clinic offers a vitamin cocktail administered via injection, promising hydration, energy, a strengthened immune system, and a ...
