There are growing calls to ban PFAS chemicals to protect public health. The problem is, these substances are used in a wide range of life-saving products and there's little evidence they pose a threat. Demand for "magic mushrooms" is booming in the US. These popular drugs may have some important medicinal uses, though experts remain divided over their benefits. We routinely hear that "ultra-processed" food is unhealthy. Is there strong evidence to support this claim?

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Join hosts Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 230 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Viewpoint: Why proposed PFAS chemical bans might do more harm than good

PFAS are used to manufacturer a wide range of vitally important products, everything from cars to consumer electronics and medical devices. Federal regulators have consistently found that these substances pose minimal risk to human health when used as intended. Nevertheless, one manufacturer of PFAS-containing products just settled a series of lawsuits for $10.3 billion. The settlement raises well-worn concerns that baseless litigation could discourage companies from producing useful products for fear of costly court battles, leaving the public with less access to important, and sometimes life-saving, products like firefighting foams.

* Mushroom hallucinogen sales booming despite reports of serious side effects

Advocates of hallucinogenic mushrooms have long argued that these fungi confer a wide variety of health benefits. Anecdotal evidence suggests that certain chemicals in some mushrooms could treat anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions. However, there have been cases of people experiencing serious side effects, raising concerns among some experts that we simply don't know enough about mushrooms to recommend their use. Is there a way to reasonably regulate these drugs without prohibiting there use?

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* What makes ‘ultra-processed food’ so unhealthy?

So-called "ultra-processed foods," broadly comprising the packaged foods that have become staples in the American diet, are thought to be major contributors to growing obesity rates and serious conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. But the story might not be that simple. Research actually shows that diets high in ultra-processed foods can be quite nutritious. Is it time to abandon our knee-jerk opposition to food processing?

Dr. Liza Dunn is a medical toxicologist and the medical affairs lead at Bayer Crop Science. Follow her on Twitter @DrLizaMD

Cameron J.

The less informed someone is about a topic, the more likely they are to overestimate their knowledge of it. This is a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect; it's a simple, compelling theory—and it may be incorrect. Is industry inherently untrustworthy? Activist groups have promoted that idea for decades, but there's much more to the story. Anti-GMO advocate Vandana Shiva is hailed as a visionary by her followers and attacked as a crank by her critics. Who is the real Vandana Shiva?

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Join special guest Dr. Cami Ryan and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 229 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Debunking Dunning-Kruger: It’s widely believed that the less you know, the more you think you know. Does everyone think they’re better than average?

The Dunning-Kruger effect is widely accepted in scientific circles. It's often assumed that people challenging the expert consensus on a given topic do so because they overestimate their knowledge of the subject. However, recent research has started to poke some holes in this seemingly universal cognitive bias. These studies have confirmed, as Dunning-Kruger asserts, that everybody thinks they're smarter than average. But that's where the theory's validity ends, some mathematicians argue. They say incompetent individuals are often keenly aware of their incompetence and able to accurately assess their limited understanding. Are these findings enough to debunk Dunning-Kruger?

* Viewpoint: Simplistic anti-agrobiotech narrative — ‘Companies lie; activists are outraged; regulations are tightened further; companies lie again… Wash, rinse, repeat’

Both reporters and members of the general public seem to believe that industry is inherently greedy and dishonest, while the activists who attack industry are motivated by science and a desire to protect consumers and the environment. According to one risk expert, though, this perspective is deeply flawed. Although companies certainly do behave unethically sometimes, they are often incentivized to do so by activists who support excessive regulations that businesses can't possibly comply with. Is there any real-world evidence to support this idea?

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* Viewpoint: Queen of Green Social Justice or Reckless Green-Revolution Rejectionist — Who is the real Vandana Shiva?

Vandana Shiva is a known promoter of fringe, dangerous ideas. She's claimed that the first SARS virus originated in farm an...

Marriage is a major milestone for many people, but how has the institution influenced human evolution? A growing list of Silicon Valley billionaires has endorsed Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK, Jr.) for president. Why does this incendiary figure attract support from so many tech luminaries? A new study shows that milk's positive nutritional impact more than offsets its contribution to climate change.

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Join hosts Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 228 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Pair bonding: How wedding vows have contributed to human evolution

Marriage is an important cultural and legal institution around the world, and every society throughout history has maintained the custom in some form. It's universality prompts an important question: how has marriage impacted human evolution? A large but often overlooked body of research indicates that marriage has helped maintain order in society by encouraging monogamy, promoting stability at home and improving individual well being. What insights can we glean from these observations about marriage and evolution today?

* Prominent tech-investors throw support behind vaccine-rejectionist RFK, Jr.’s campaign for Dem nomination

RFK, Jr.'s outsider presidential campaign has generated broad support from people across the political spectrum. But Kennedy has attracted endorsements and donations from one group that seems puzzling to many observers: Silicon Valley billionaires, or 'tech bros' as they're sometimes called. This demographic is wealthy, well educated and intimately familiar with the latest developments in biomedicine, a field which RFK, Jr., has harshly criticized as a leading vaccine critic. Why does this group of science-literate investors have a soft spot for a rebellious character like Kennedy? His anti-establishment rhetoric may lead us to the answer.

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* Rethinking sustainability: Does nutritional value of dairy offset environmental impacts of milk production?

Animal agriculture is routinely lambasted for its supposedly significant contribution to climate change; many high-profile figures have even declared that we must end our dependence on animals as a food source to slow climate change. However, recent research could throw a wrench in their plans, in particular a new study showing that the dairy industry produces more than enough nutrients to offset its actually modest greenhouse emissions. Ridding the world of dairy would yield insignificant climate benefits while depriving billions of people of an important source of esse...

Is meat-eating analogous to human sacrifice? One Washington Post contributor says yes, but how strong is her case? Another expert panel has reaffirmed the safety of the weedkiller glyphosate. Is the long-running debate over the chemical nearing its end? Activists and lawyers are targeting the sweetener aspartame as a supposed cause of cancer. Is there any science backing up their claim?

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Join host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 227 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Viewpoint: With meat alternatives flourishing, ‘people might eventually look back on meat-eating much the way we view cannibalism and human sacrifice’

As synthetic alternatives to animal foods become more widely available, some proponents say the world will begin to look at meat eating as akin to universally deplored behaviors like human sacrifice. Although novel products like lab-grown burgers have some promise, many questions remain about their suitability to completely replace animals as a source of nutrients. For instance, is it truly sustainable to mass produce these products as part of an effort to end animal agriculture? And more fundamentally, is it actually unethical to eat animals? If so, why?

* Safety of herbicide glyphosate reaffirmed by European Food Safety Authority, rejecting activist claims

Another massive evidence review conducted by experts in Europe has reaffirmed that glyphosate poses minimal risk to human health and can be safely used by farmers. The report was followed by leaked news that the European Union will reauthorize the weedkiller for another 15 years, signaling its rejection of activist claims that glyphosate poses a cancer risk to humans. How much longer will the world continue to fight over the settled science behind this herbicide?

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* Aspartame spins the $25 billion Wheel of Mis-Fortune: How the environmental activist—tort lawyer money machine manipulates journalists, misleads policymakers and scares the public

In a campaign that bears a striking resemblance to the crusade against glyphosate, tort lawyers and activist groups now assert that the artificial sweetener aspartame is carcinogenic. As with their earlier claims about the weedkiller, their case against aspartame rests on a report from the controversial International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Much of the nutrition research that attracts media attention is deeply flawed. A new study explains why. Silicon Valley tech guru Steve Kirsch went from obscure entrepreneur to anti-vaccine celebrity. What led him down that troubling path? Confident people appear more intelligent to those around them. This odd quirk of human evolution has important implications for science communication efforts.

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Join host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 226 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Viewpoint: Misleading guidance — Why so many nutrition studies get the basic science so wrong

Whether it's sugar, fat or protein; meat, candy or soda, many nutrition studies focus on the potential health risks or benefits of eating a single nutrient or food. The results of this research are straight forward, widely covered in the press—and often wrong. Human nutrition is much more complicated than individual nutrients, as it turns out. What can we do as discerning consumers of media (and food) to properly assess the studies that we seen in the headlines?

* Scientific 180? One tech multi-millionaire’s journey from evidence-based advocate to COVID misinformation missionary

Steve Kirsch made a fortune as an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. At the beginning of the pandemic, he was poised to make an important public health contribution by establishing the Covid-19 Early Treatment Fund (CETF). The non-profit went to work investigating FDA-approved drugs as potential off-label treatments for COVID-19. Then Kirsch went off the rails.

Although he recruited respected scientists to conduct the foundation's research, he began disputing their results if they weren't to his liking. For example, the anti-depressant fluvoxamine seemed affective against the virus in preliminary studies, but subsequent research has yet to produce conclusive results. Kirsch nevertheless insisted that the drug's usefulness as a COVID treatment was being suppressed. That conclusion eventually led him to the belief that a campaign was underway to minimize the efficacy of existing drugs so pharma companies could sell their vaccines.

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* Confidence heuristic: Why humans are biologically programmed to follow self-assured, poised people

Research shows that confident people inspire trust in those around them. Part of this appeal stems from the perception that confidence is indicative of intelligence. Such a trait was quite useful throughout human history as people rallied aro...

Many harmful myths about farming persist on social media. Let's explore some of the most common falsehoods about agriculture you're likely to encounter on Twitter. New malaria and polio vaccines are on their way. Could these novel immunizations help us finally put two devastating diseases in check?

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Join host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 225 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* US agriculture: a toxic soup of factory farming, corporate greed and gene-altered crops? Debunking 10 myths around modern agriculture

So-called "factory farming" harms animals? New technologies only benefit large companies? These and a handful of other myths about modern agriculture continue to circulate online, deceiving millions of people about the safety and ethics of food production. One farmer has had enough of the nonsense. Let's discuss her rebuttals to some of the most popular falsehoods about farming.

* A new malaria vaccine could save thousands of lives in Ghana. Here’s everything you need to know about it

Before 2015, the world had made significant progress in preventing the spread of malaria by controlling the mosquitoes that vector the disease. In recent years, and especially following the COVID pandemic, malaria has made somewhat of a resurgence. This unfortunate development had one silver lining, though: it spurred the production of a new malaria vaccine. Ghana is poised to begin giving the shot to thousands of people, hopefully encouraging surrounding countries to follow its lead. Combined with an earlier malaria vaccine and insect-control tools such as pesticides, experts are hopeful we can regain the ground we've lost to malaria over the last eight years.

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* Old polio vaccines can mutate into a dangerous version of the disease — but a new ‘super-engineered’ vaccine is much safer

Existing polio vaccines have nearly eradicated the disease; today the virus is endemic in just two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, one of the lingering problems is that the oral polio vaccine can, on rare occasions, mutate and allow vaccinated individuals to spread polio to their unvaccinated neighbors. Scientists may have devised a permanent solution to this alarming side effect by engineering a polio vaccine that cannot mutate. The enhanced immunization is undergoing clinical trials to en...

Does the sweetener aspartame, found in all sorts of foods and drinks, cause cancer? Controversy over the chemical's safety has erupted in recent weeks, even though there's little evidence to justify the concern. A new study adds fuel to the debate over the heart benefits of consuming alcohol. Why can't we figure out how booze affects our cardiovascular system? New health scares hit the headlines every week; here's an expert checklist to help you separate scares from genuine threats.

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Join guest host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 224 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Viewpoint: IARC’s aspartame report echoes globally-rejected glyphosate cancer determination — Controversial organization ignores ‘back-off’ directive from WHO, US and Japan, releasing what scientists call an ‘illegitimate’ analysis

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has developed a reputation for declaring that chemicals pose a cancer hazard even when there's no evidence they harm human health. Some experts have speculated based on preliminary comments from IARC that the agency's upcoming monograph on the sweetener aspartame will conform to this pattern. Some 90 countries have authorized the use of aspartame in foods and beverages, and the FDA has conducted five reviews of the relevant research, all concluding that the sweetener poses no significant risk. "Scientific evidence has continued to support the FDA’s conclusion that aspartame is safe for the general population when made under good manufacturing practices and used under the approved conditions of use," the regulator's website notes. The stage is set for another international showdown over a benign chemical. Will the science win out?

* Alcohol is good for you, alcohol is bad for you? Here’s yet another study to fuel the debate

According to a recent study that monitored the drinking habits and heart health of thousands of people, moderate alcohol consumption (1-14 drinks per week) may lead to changes in the brain that reduce inflammation and ultimately lower a person's cardiovascular disease risk. Epidemiological studies can't demonstrate causation, so it remains to be seen if the results will hold up as additional research is performed in the coming years. Nonetheless, the study has put forward a plausible mechanism by which sipping the occasional cocktail or glass of wine may confer and import health benefit.

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Gene editing has yielded allergy-free eggs that might prevent severe episodes of anaphylaxis in young children. Ticks and mosquitoes are bringing potentially serious diseases to parts of the US where they are rarely seen. What can we do to stop the spread of malaria and other vectored illnesses? As RFK, Jr. gains popularity in the polls, should scientists debate him? Yes.

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Join guest host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 223 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* Allergic to eggs? Here’s how tweaking chicken genes can save kids from anaphylactic shock

Utilizing a gene-editing technology called transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), a team of researchers has cut out the gene in hens that encodes a protein responsible for many eggs allergies in young children. Their study, recently published in Food and Chemical Toxicology, has demonstrated that it's possible to produce low-allergen eggs, but that's only the beginning. The next step is a lengthy review process, including clinical trials, to show that foods containing these eggs are substantially equivalent to the items consumers already have access to in grocery stores and restaurants.

* Ticks and mosquitos are bringing Lyme disease and other vectored illnesses to new places across the US

Warming temperatures, land-use changes and increasing global travel have enabled disease-vectoring ticks and mosquitoes to spread to parts of the world in which they're rarely seen, including regions of the US with more temperate climates. Most of these illnesses remain uncommon. For example, the CDC reports that the US has experienced roughly 150 locally acquired cases of malaria and 60 limited outbreaks over the last five decades, and 2,000 cases found in returning international travelers. Nevertheless, slight increases raise an important question: how do we prevent malaria and other nasty diseases from regaining a foothold in the United States?

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A pesticide ban in France has sent the country's sugar beet production to a 14-year low, a troubling result that could boost consumer food prices to alarming levels. Environmental activist groups that complain about industry "greenwashing" make dubious scientific claims to promote their agendas. Why do lawmakers and voters tolerate this double standard? Americans generally pay little attention to the politics of farming. But the recent push to further restrict pesticide and fossil fuel use in agriculture could force the public to pay more attention to farm policy.

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Join guest host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 222 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* France sugar beet production hits 14-year low, analysts blame neonicotinoid pesticide ban

Sugar beet growers in France are battling unfavorable weather conditions and a pesticide ban that have sent their yields plummeting to 14-year lows. Experts have long argued that the prohibited insecticides, seed coatings known as neonicotinoids, pose minimal risks to human health and the environment while helping farmers control aphids that spread several deadly plant viruses. Will regulators reconsider the neonic ban in light of its potentially disastrous impact on the country's sugar production?

* Viewpoint: ‘Organic is good’? — Greenwashing propagated by environmental advocacy group lobbyists and marketing-savvy green industry

Food and consumer goods manufacturers are routinely accused of "greenwashing," using dubious claims to market their products to sustainability-minded shoppers. The oft-overlooked problem is that the politicians and activists who complain about greenwashing are guilty of promoting falsehoods about agriculture, energy and recycling as they try to generate public support for their environmentalist causes.

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* Viewpoint: The politics of farming affects every American. Here’s why agriculture will be the next presidential election’s big issue

American voters tend to focus on a handful of highly polarizing, controversial issues during presidential elections. But the federal government's recent push for "green" farming—that is, growing crops with access to fewer pesticides ...

Social media companies are experimenting with new technologies that measure human brain activity. Does this drive to fine tune the ads we see on Facebook threaten our privacy? Developing countries are increasingly rejecting the anti-technology views of Greenpeace and other environmental activist groups. Scientists have discovered a new compound capable of killing one of the many "superbugs" that are difficult to treat with existing antibiotics.

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Join guest host Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 221 of Science Facts and Fallacies as they break down these latest news stories:

* New wave of neuroscience: Tech companies experimenting with controversial brain-focused products?

Technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), implanted electrode systems, and electroencephalograms (EEGs) serve important medical purposes. For instance, fMRI scans allow doctors to see which parts of the brain control certain actions and abilities and prepare for surgical procedures. Now tech giants like Meta (Facebook) are investing money in these same tools in hopes of tracking the brain activity of users on their platforms, the idea being to more accurately the target the ads that people see.

Does this pose a threat to our online privacy? Are governments prepared to regulate these uses of powerful brain-imaging tools? Should they be trusted with this responsibility? The answers to these questions could have profound implications.

* Viewpoint: ‘Rejecting the luxury green beliefs of the privileged West’ — Why developing countries are rebelling against Greenpeace’s anti-technology policies

The citizens of developing countries are increasingly rejecting the anti-technology message proffered by Western activist groups. Nonprofits such as Greenpeace have pressured these nations for years to forgo the use of GMOs, pesticides, fossil fuels and nuclear power to protect the environment, but the message is falling on deaf ears as people around the world see the value of these technologies in improving their living standards.

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* AI helps discover new drug that kills antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’

AI remains a controversial technology, though it seems to have already proven its worth i...