Health

Drug Maker Faked Cancer Patients to Sell Addictive Opioids, Congressional Report Finds

On Wednesday, Senator Claire McCaskill released a report on the findings of a congressional investigation into the practices of pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics. The jaw-dropping allegations detail the process in which agents systematically convinced insurers to pay for a highly-addictive opioid cancer pain drug for patients who didn’t have cancer. https://gizmodo.com/why-the-fda-cant-fix-the-opioid-crisis-1797950053 The case of Insys’s…

Health Rhett Jones

Bulletproof Coffee Announces Bottled Bullshit Launch at Whole Foods

If you agitate cream enough, you will make whipped cream. Continue agitating it and skim off the liquid, and you will make butter. Put that in your coffee, and you have now wasted a lot of energy to put cream into your coffee. Somehow, the company trying to capitalize on this time waste of a…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Zika Virus Kills Brain Cancer Cells in Mice

The Zika virus played the role of 2016’s worst health story. At the center of that story was the virus’ heartbreaking link to microcephalic babies when it infected their pregnant mothers. But sometimes, the worst vectors can still be used for good. A team of researchers in the United States found that the Zika virus…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Even if You Drink Coffee You Will Die

There’s a trope in science news coverage that plays out again and again and again: the coffee study. Researchers observe a large population, measure their coffee drinking habits with a questionnaire, and crunch the data to see how the ubiquitous beverage affects our health. These studies have demonstrated, generally, that folks who drink a few…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Much-Hyped DNA Editing Study Under Fire

Science’s next space race isn’t in the stars, but in your DNA. People around the world are working to use the latest DNA-editing technology, called CRISPR-Cas9, to fix the gene-based ails that plague so many victims. But this is still science—which means every side faces scrutiny, even from the folks supposed to be on the…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

I Tried a Bunch of DNA Tests and All I Got Was a Bunch of Useless Data

As a young child, every morning at sunrise I would wake up to tap dance on the patio outside my mom’s bedroom door, much to my poor mom’s chagrin. These sunrise salutations became an enduring family story, as did my habit of getting up with the sun. Imagine my surprise, then, when a DNA test recently…

Health Kristen V. Brown

A Fascinating Potential Link Between Gut Bacteria and Health

These days, you can’t throw a rock without hitting some start-up trying to boost our microbiomes. For the health-obsessed, microbiome has become the buzzword of the day. That’s because it’s becoming ever-clearer that all the trillions of microorganisms that inhabit our bodies, and particularly our gut, play an important role in our overall health. But…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Will Your Next Taco Contain This Secret Ingredient?

There’s some crazy meat industry propaganda video waiting to be made where an All-American jock takes a bite out of a hamburger served by a polite waiter, who then rips off a mask to reveal the demented face of someone from the mushroom industry shouting “that burger is 50 percent mushrooms,” after which the customer…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

The FDA Just Approved the First ‘Living’ Therapy to Treat Childhood Leukemia

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved a treatment that genetically modifies a patient’s own blood cells in order to attack childhood leukemia, a landmark decision opens the door for an era of FDA-sanctioned human gene modification. The treatment, called CAR-T, is made by the drug company Novartis. Doctors first harvest a patient’s white…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Scientists Made Music From the Human Microbiome, and It’s Seriously Cool

There are many mysteries of human biology. Among those perhaps least considered, what do our bodies sound like? This was the question on the mind of the founders of Biota Beats, a collective of biologists and biology enthusiasts making music that explores the sound of the human microbiome. David Kong, an MIT synthetic biologist, community…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Report: Peter Thiel Is Funding a Totally Shady Offshore Herpes Vaccine Trial

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel is among a group of investors backing the offshore testing of an experimental herpes vaccine—flouting US protections for patients in human clinical trials, in a move considered broadly unethical. A group of businessmen including Thiel, who is an advisor to President Donald Trump as well as co-founder of the global…

Health Kristen V. Brown

What Present-Day Hunter-Gatherers Can Tell Us About the Bacteria in Our Gut

The Hazda is a small group of hunter-gatherers living in the central Rift Valley of Tanzania, one of the few remaining groups of people left in the world who still collect the majority of their diet through foraged foods. Modernity has still managed to touch their lives, of course, but far less than it has…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Report: Donald Trump Will Order Military to Begin Discriminating Against Trans Troops Within Six Months

President Donald J. Trump has decided to advance his bogus ban on trans individuals openly serving in the US military beyond tweeting vague dictates on the matter. Per the Wall Street Journal, Trump is expected to “issue guidance” to the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis which will be somewhat clearer than his original…

Health Tom McKay

The Romans Could Have Been Poisoned by Something Deadlier Than Lead

There are very few absolutely true things in this life, but one of them is you shouldn’t drink lead. Historians have long believed that ancient Romans learned this the hard way—it’s been said that lead used in water pipes and cooking materials could have poisoned Romans and contributed to their downfall. Now, new research has…

Health Rae Paoletta

Why the FDA Can’t Fix the Opioid Crisis

Opana was a painkiller twice as strong as Oxycontin. Like most opioids sold in the US it was easy to snort, until one day it wasn’t: Its manufacturers, Endo Pharmaceuticals, rigged it with crush-resistant technology in 2012. Within months the largest HIV outbreak in Indiana’s history was underway—addicts had taken to injecting it. The non-snortable…

Health Daniel Kolitz

Maybe Leave Dogs Out of This Anti-Vaccine Nonsense

Vaccines are good. Dogs are good—in fact, very very good, aren’t you girl? Unfortunately, some bad owners who have bought into scientifically unsupported anti-vaccine propaganda have begun choosing not to vaccinate their dogs, fearing that choosing to properly inoculate their canines will give them dog autism, the Daily Beast reported. Dog autism, of course, is…

Health Tom McKay

Um, You Can Now Buy the Paleo Diet in a Bottle for Babies

The Paleo diet may well turn out to be the fad diet our decade is remembered for—never mind that it probably has very little to do with how our Stone Age ancestors actually ate. Now someone has dressed up the diet and bottled it—literally—so that Paleo dieters everywhere can also feed the paleo diet to…

Health Kristen V. Brown

EpiPen Maker to Finally Pay $465 Million for Ripping Off Taxpayers

EpiPen manufacturer Mylan has been involved in a contentious legal case over its overcharging of the US government. On Thursday, the Department of Justice finalized its settlement with Mylan, which will pay $465 million in penalties. But many believe that’s not enough. https://gizmodo.com/senator-epipen-manufacturer-ripped-off-the-us-governme-1795711207 According to Reuters, Mylan admitted no wrongdoing by agreeing to the settlement:…

Health Rhett Jones

Pill Cures Peanut Allergy For Four Years in Limited Study

You’ve no doubt heard a peanut allergy horror story sometime in your life. Maybe a friend’s friend was on a plane that needed to make an emergency landing for an allergy sufferer, or someone you knew had an allergic reaction from kissing their romantic partner. We now have things like epi-pens to help, but of…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Can Trauma Experienced by Your Great-Great-Grandparents Be Passed on to You?

Our families pass on pieces of themselves to us in more than one way. Your eye color may be thanks to genetic inheritance, but not everything we inherit is encoded in the letters of our DNA. An affinity for Russian literature might be something your parents passed on via social influence, reading it to you…

Health Kristen V. Brown

Drug Maker Faked Cancer Patients to Sell Addictive Opioids, Congressional Report Finds

Bulletproof Coffee Announces Bottled Bullshit Launch at Whole Foods

Zika Virus Kills Brain Cancer Cells in Mice

Even if You Drink Coffee You Will Die

Much-Hyped DNA Editing Study Under Fire

I Tried a Bunch of DNA Tests and All I Got Was a Bunch of Useless Data

A Fascinating Potential Link Between Gut Bacteria and Health

Will Your Next Taco Contain This Secret Ingredient?

The FDA Just Approved the First ‘Living’ Therapy to Treat Childhood Leukemia

Scientists Made Music From the Human Microbiome, and It’s Seriously Cool

Report: Peter Thiel Is Funding a Totally Shady Offshore Herpes Vaccine Trial

What Present-Day Hunter-Gatherers Can Tell Us About the Bacteria in Our Gut

Report: Donald Trump Will Order Military to Begin Discriminating Against Trans Troops Within Six Months

The Romans Could Have Been Poisoned by Something Deadlier Than Lead

Why the FDA Can’t Fix the Opioid Crisis

Maybe Leave Dogs Out of This Anti-Vaccine Nonsense

Um, You Can Now Buy the Paleo Diet in a Bottle for Babies

EpiPen Maker to Finally Pay $465 Million for Ripping Off Taxpayers

Pill Cures Peanut Allergy For Four Years in Limited Study

Can Trauma Experienced by Your Great-Great-Grandparents Be Passed on to You?

Roborock F25 Ultra Steam Wet Dry Vacuum Is Now at Its Lowest Price, but Only During the Spring Sale Window

This $450 Semi-Dumb Phone Is Barely Even a Phone

Startup Successfully Ignites World’s First Fusion Rocket

Shokz OpenDots One Earbuds Hit Their Lowest Price Yet Across All Color Options, Including the New Ones

INIU Portable Power Bank Is Small in Size and Smaller in Price for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (45W, 10,000mAh)

Humans Were Already Dog People 16,000 Years Ago, DNA Suggests

California Regulator Says Tesla’s ‘Robotaxis’ Are More Like a Limo in the Eyes of the Law

Dyson Airwrap Falls to an All-Time Low in Amazon’s Spring Sale, Lowering the Barrier for This Premium Multi-Styler

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Let us help find what you are looking for...