Power Grids, Vaccines, and Immunity
The other day, I was sorting through some old magazines before throwing them out, when that thing that cements my status as “nerd girl” happened—I started reading articles. Peter Fairley’s “Averting the Blackout of the Century” in Discover magazine chronicling the journey of a trio of power engineers and physicists as they developed new…
U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate Unusually High and Rising
Part of a new study recently published as an article in the British medical journal, The Lancet, finds that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the United States has gone up by 64 percent since 1990 and is now higher than most “high-income” countries. Part of a new study recently published as an article in the British medical journal, The Lancet, finds…
Science Says Antioxidant Foods Are Protective
One of the tools which can help our immune system be as strong and resilient as possible, as well as avoid use of unnecessary pharmaceutical products, is our diet. Since the 1990s, foods “high in antioxidants” have been promoted as super foods that will do everything from keeping us young to preventing cancer. We are told that a diet rich in berries, kale, and dark chocolate…
Mercury Poisoning
We’ve all heard that too much mercury exposure, especially from fish, can be bad for us. But liquid mercury was used as far back as 3,500 years ago and was found in Egyptian tombs. It’s also called quicksilver, like the X-man character, because it’s fast-moving and surprisingly heavy, originally named after the wing-footed god and […]
How the FDA Controls the Media
Embargoes have been used in journalism since the 1920s. It’s a deal between journalists and their sources, which gives the journalist access to a story on the condition that it’s not published before a certain date and time. Some institutions, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), further control media coverage by offering briefings to…
Is There Objective Evidence HPV Vaccination Programs are Unjustified?
Part of the panel was meant to deal with the HPV vaccine, namely is there any objective to show that the current HPV vaccine program is not justified and what is the evidence, if any, that the HPV vaccine prevents cervical cancer and, therefore, can offer long-term benefits, because that’s the basis that they’re being […]