#38. Closed Borders Will Not Keep Out More Infectious Forms of COVID
January 31, 2021
Border closing efforts serve as a distractions. We need to focus on known methods of disease control — vaccination, masks and social distancing.
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#37. Vaccine Administration Is Much Harder than It Seems
January 14, 2021
Substantial logistical challenges and vaccine refusal by health care providers have contributed to a slow vaccine rollout. Better policies could fix this.
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#36. China’s Poorly Regulated Food and Drugs Threaten U.S. Consumers
April 24, 2020
When the coronavirus pandemic slows and allows us to catch a breath — both literally and figuratively — there will be an international reckoning that likely will end with China bearing the brunt of the blame. In order to force China to implement adequate safety standards, we should stop importing essential items, especially food, medicine and medical equipment, until the country proves that it can be a responsible member of the global community.
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#35. Stop the Panic. Don’t Let the Coronavirus Win.
April 4, 2020
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, democratic governments across the world have implemented unprecedented peacetime lockdowns. One California city is even using night vision equipped drones — made in China, ironically — to enforce it. A city in Washington encourages citizens to snitch on those who violate the “stay home” order.
Let’s pause a moment to consider the serious ramifications of what we are doing.
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#34. Yucca Mountain Is the Safest Spot for Nuclear Waste. We Should Pay Nevada to Use It.
June 14, 2019
An attempt to reopen the Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada, where it was built to store nuclear waste, was recently shot down in Congress. The state’s refusal to become the nation’s central repository for nuclear waste means that we are forced to store it at 80 sites across 35 states — an impractical, expensive and less safe solution. It’s time to tempt Nevadans with an outside-the-box approach: Let’s pay them.
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#33. How Many Have to be Hospitalized for Salmonella, E. coli Before We Try Food Irradiation?
December 7, 2018
The United States is being hit by two large foodborne illness outbreaks — first, the E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, and now a salmonella outbreak in beef that has sickened more than 200 people. These high-profile cases underscore the inadequacy of the safety measures meant to protect our food supply. If we are serious about addressing this issue, we must implement food irradiation.
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#32. From St. Paul to the American church: Partisanship is Poison. Focus on Truth Instead.
April 29, 2018
What if St. Paul, a Christian global strategist, who wrote most of the letters in the New Testament, could write a letter to the Church in America? We imagine it would read as follows.
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#31. CNN Thinks that Socialism is Cool. My Grandparents from the USSR Would Disagree.
February 23, 2018
It is frustrating to me that many Americans are ignorant of the crimes of socialist and communist movements.
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#30. Mystery Behind U.S. Decision to Yank Diplomats from Cuba?
September 29, 2017
It’s a tale fit for a sci-fi novel: 21 diplomats in Cuba suffer from symptoms like hearing loss and brain damage. And Cuba stands to lose a lot.
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#29. ‘Designer Babies’ Won’t Be a Fad. It’s Too Hard to Create Them
September 8, 2017
Intelligence, physical ability, height, skin color and disease risk each are determined by many genes. You can’t get what you want by editing one or two.
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#28. Solar Eclipses Have Always Been Weird. Don’t Let This One Weird You Out
August 21, 2017
From folklore to numerology, solar eclipses have inspired fear, awe and even ads for copulation during the moment of totality.
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#27. Call Junk Science by Its Rightful Name: Fake News
July 21, 2017
America’s new obsession with detecting and correcting fake news is good for democracy. The future of our republic depends on a properly informed electorate.
Likewise, our health depends on us being properly informed about science. Therefore, we should extend the war on fake news to banish unscientific buzzwords and health fads. Here are 10 from my new book, Little Black Book of Junk Science.
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#26. Scott Gottlieb Is Right Choice to Lead FDA
April 4, 2017
Dr. Scott Gottlieb is a medical school professor with bureaucratic know-how and a long, pro-science resume. That makes him an excellent choice to head the Food and Drug Administration.
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#25. Cancer Fear-Mongering Has Got to Stop
January 24, 2017
Imagine what a typical American might do for breakfast: Fry a few slices of bacon, slather Nutella on a piece of toast, and pour a hot cup of coffee while checking e-mail on a smartphone. If we are to believe everything we read in the news, then that rather common daily ritual could cause you to die from cancer.
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#24. Junk Science Is No Way to Win a Jackpot
November 17, 2016
A jury in St. Louis awarded a woman over $70 million last month because her lawyers convinced a jury that talcum (baby) powder caused her ovarian cancer. This is the third jackpot verdict issued by a jury in that city against Johnson & Johnson. Since sharks are smelling blood in the water, surely more lawsuits will follow.
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#23. Can $3 Billion Cure Zuckerberg’s Ego?
September 29, 2016
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have announced a 10-year, $3-billion initiative to “cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime.” Hopefully, one of the conditions they will try to cure is the couple’s sizable ego.
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#22. Let Grad Students Teach Science to Kids
September 7, 2016
It is no secret that the U.S. spends more money per K-12 pupil than most other countries, yet American students consistently rank in the middle of the pack against their peers. In the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, measured against their counterparts in 34 developed nations, U.S. students ranked 27th in mathematics and 20th in science.
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#21. Hot Water Causes Cancer? Don’t Believe It
August 10, 2016
If nanny state critics want a fine example of regulation gone wild, they should look to the World Health Organization. The group’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has given us a reason to fire up our espresso machines by declaring that coffee does not cause cancer. But don’t celebrate too hard. The IARC also says that any very hot drink probably causes cancer, including hot water.
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#20. Would President Trump Be a Science Guy?
May 23, 2016
Science is one of America’s most important strategic resources. With just 5% of earth’s population, we produce over 30% of the world’s science and lead the world in Nobel prizes. Now that Donald Trump has a realistic chance of becoming the 45th president of the United States, it’s time to ask: What would that mean for American research?
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#19. Mosquitoes, This Time It Is War
February 4, 2016
The Zika virus, which is spreading like wildfire throughout the Americas and is linked to a head-shrinking birth defect called microcephaly, is just the latest in a long list of mosquito-transmitted diseases that make the insects the world’s deadliest animal. It is time to launch a global initiative to eradicate them.
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#18. Dolezal’s Delusion
June 29, 2015
Contrary to much of the racial identity debate, race is far from a social construct.
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#17. Jail ‘Anti-Vax’ Parents
January 27, 2015
The entirely preventable California measles outbreak has now sickened more than 70 people. With perhaps hundreds more exposed, the outbreak will likely continue.
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#16. CDC Lost Its Ebola Gamble
October 24, 2014
The Ebola situation is testing the world’s best infectious disease team, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at its ability to perform crisis management. While the immediate threat in the United States appears to be receding, it is far from clear that we’re up to facing a stronger test.
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#15. Minimum Wage Law Broken in Two Ways
May 29, 2014
President Obama is urging the nation to adopt a $10.10 minimum wage. Most Americans agree that it is time for a pay increase. Before we rush into this, however, we ought to consider overhauling the entire minimum-wage law because it is fundamentally broken in two major ways.
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#14. Obama Must Take Hit for Pot Talk
February 4, 2014
The apparent heroin overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who first used drugs decades ago, is a reminder of just how difficult it is to get a handle on drug abuse and the youth culture that enables it. One reason for the surge in heroin use over the past five years is a crackdown on the abuse of prescription opiate painkillers. Addicts might simply be substituting one drug for a related one.
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#13. Politicians Throw Science Under the Bus
January 2, 2014
The latest international exams — which show that students from the U.S. rank 21st and 26th in science and math, respectively — once again confirm a pattern that emerged in 1964 with the First International Mathematics Study: Compared with their counterparts abroad, American kids are decidedly mediocre.
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#12. ‘Dr. No’ a Good Steward of Our Money
August 12, 2013
Late last month, the National Science Foundation decided to stop funding new political science grants through the end of 2013. Predictably, political scientists are outraged. But so are hard science researchers.
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#11. Beware of Stem Cell Therapy Claims
May 16, 2013
Angelina Jolie courageously announced Tuesday that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy after genetic testing showed she had a high probability of developing breast and ovarian cancer, which she followed up with reconstructive surgery of her breasts. Not only does this highlight the promise of medical research and biotechnology, undoubtedly, Jolie’s willingness to publicize her decision will encourage other women who find themselves in similar circumstances.
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#10. Humanity is Not a Plague on Earth
March 5, 2013
In January, David Attenborough, an internationally renowned host of nature documentaries, revealed how disconnected he is from nature. Mankind, he recently warned, is a “plague on the earth.” He said, “Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us.” Nobody told him that world population growth is already slowing in nearly every part of the world. In many countries, demographers worry more about a shrinking population than an exploding one.
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#9. Does Science Have an Honesty Problem?
November 29, 2012
A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences got mainstream news media attention because it revealed that of the 2,047 scientific papers that had been retracted over the past seven decades, 67% were because of misconduct, such as inventing results or plagiarism. Admittedly, that sounds terrible. Does science have an honesty problem? Not really.
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#8. Stealth War to Redefine Science
September 28, 2012
In our state of political gridlock, the scientific community fears the impact of the looming federal budget cuts known as “sequestration.” But there is something else they should be fearful of: the redefining of science itself.
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#7. Congress Isn’t Qualified to Investigate the CDC
July 2, 2012
A recent air leak from a laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta is a very serious security breach that has the potential to harm both employees and the public. These labs study dangerous pathogens, such as influenza, tuberculosis and rabies.
But fear not, Americans: Congress has assembled a team mostly of lawyers to solve this leak problem…
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#6. Quit Fretting. U.S. Is Fine in Science Education
June 3, 2012
Pop quiz. What year was this written? “Our once unchallenged pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. … The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.”
2012? 2004? 2000? Try 1983.
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#5. What Science, Libertarianism Have in Common
March 18, 2012
What is it about Ron Paul that so many people find intellectually appealing? Perhaps it is his frankness and candor, a rare trait in politicians. But I think it goes far beyond that. Paul — and libertarian philosophy in general — tackles government policy the same way a researcher tackles an experiment.
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#4. Four Ways to Fix Our Broken Election System
November 7, 2011
One thing upon which most Republicans, Democrats and independents seem to agree is that America’s political system is dysfunctional. This became crystal clear recently when the world watched, aghast, as the U.S. bickered over how to pay its bills. Such immaturity from our leaders in Washington is at least partially responsible for the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of our credit rating.
With millions of Americans heading to the polls today, and the presidential election just a year away, it is time to consider reforms that could help change two destructive features of American politics: partisan gridlock and the never-ending election cycle, both of which feed upon the other.
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#3. GOP Might Be Anti-Science, But So Are Democrats
September 20, 2011
The notion that Republicans are uniquely anti-science is an oft-repeated theme in American political discourse. Every election cycle, Democrats salivate over opportunities to indicate how scientifically illiterate they believe Republicans to be. And all too often, the news media happily play along without pausing to analyze whether it is actually true.
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#2. When ‘Science’ Looks for Sexism, It Finds It
July 26, 2011
When is a science paper not really a science paper? It’s when the scientific method has been hijacked to promote a clearly stated ideological agenda.
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#1. Order in the Court: Science Does Matter
March 8, 2011
When I received my jury summons in the mail, I had the same reaction most Americans must: “No! Why me, and why now?” I resolved to do whatever it took to get out of this legally mandated fiasco as soon as possible.
Sour disposition in tow, I reported for duty at the courthouse weeks later. It was immediately obvious I had entered a foreign country; an actual scientist in a jury box was about as welcome as a Yankees fan at Fenway Park.