ACSH Science Dispatch

Tort lawyers regularly bring litigation against pesticide companies alleging that their products cause devastating diseases. Of course, our genetic makeup profoundly influences our risk for certain medical conditions, including those allegedly caused by pesticide exposure. Yet this reality rarely gets the attention it deserves in court. Let's take a closer look at the science the lawyers would rather ignore.

Microplastics are everywhere, including in your arteries, and they heighten your heart attack risk! So declared a slew of recent headlines reporting on a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Let's examine all the science reporters ignored in their rush to get hyperbolic stories out the door.

A recent study found that controlled periods of fasting could hold the key to unlocking a longer, healthier life. Do we finally have evidence that skipping meals reverses aging, or is the situation more complicated than that?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays an increasingly prominent role in modern life, medicine included. While the technology promises to improve health care in many ways, it also carries potentially serious risks. That raises a critical question: when AI harms patients, who's responsible?

Join Cameron English and Dr. Barbara Billauer on Episode 70 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they discuss AI in medicine with Stanford Law professor Michelle Mello:

Tinnitus–a vexing ringing in one or both of your ears not caused by external sound–impacts some 740 million adults globally. A recently FDA-approved treatment appears poised to help many of these patients reduce the severity of their symptoms and thereby boost their quality of life. Let's take a closer look at this therapy to find out how it works.

The standard argument for restricting patient access to pain medications is that these drugs frequently lead to addiction. A large body of research contradicts that claim, though it's doubly absurd when directed at people afflicted by terminal (and often very painful) illnesses. They sometimes have only weeks or months to live, yet they're denied pain medicine in the name of fighting opioid dependence. Such absurdity has to stop.

Unlike other public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic had unmistakably partisan overtones. Politics exerted an unhealthy influence on how governments, scientists, reporters and ordinary Americans responded as SARS-CoV-2 swept across the world and upended our lives for the better part of four years. What went wrong and what can we learn from it? Dr. Paul Offit joins us to answer those critical questions.

The Bible of science–the body of peer-reviewed literature–is increasingly filled with dubious and even fraudulent research. Most academics openly recognize the threat this poses to scientific progress, though viable solutions to academic fraud are sorely lacking. How do we address this critical problem?

Join Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 66 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they examine the growing problem of scientific fraud:

Far too many scientific papers are being retracted from prestigious scientific journals because scientists fabricated or falsified data. Although no one defends scientific fraud, few recognize its long-lasting impacts on governmental policy and society.

Loud noises and...trace minerals? Let's break down a new study examining an important contributor to age-related hearing loss. Spoiler alert: stocking up on zinc supplements is not the solution.

Join Cameron English and Dr. Chuck Dinerstein on Episode 65 of the Science Dispatch podcast as they examine the science of preserving hearing:

Hearing loss, frequently due to exposure to loud noises, is a

NPR recently lost its nerve over the realization that some men are giving up internet porn, fearing this "masturbation abstinence" trend is a gateway to radical right-wing politics. The media should be more interested in the potentially serious health impacts of porn itself.