Category: Basic Science
OHNOMOPOMO! Justifications and Unsolicited Advice
People who have a chronic debilitating disease often have to deal with well-meaning people suggesting that they try treatments that are unproven or outright quackery. Consideration of the Sokal hoax can help.
We still Need Better Communication on GMOs
A new PEW survey has been carried out regarding public attitudes toward genetically modified organisms (GMOs), organic food, and scientific consensus. While the numbers are better than I expected for science, they still indicate a large disconnect between scientific and public opinion on food matters. Scientists need to do better.
Phenibut Is Neither Proven Nor Safe As A Prosocial Wonder Drug
Editor’s note: With Mark Crislip away on yet another vacation, we present an inaugural guest post from Abby Campbell, a practicing MD, Ph.D and contributor at HealthyButSmart.com. Welcome Abby! On average for the past year, phenibut has been typed into google 49,500 times a month. Phenibut is a supposed wonder drug that claims to promote sociability and lessen anxiety. When people run...
Medical science policy in the U.S. under Donald Trump
Last week, in an unexpected upset, Donald Trump won the Presidential election in the Electoral College while losing the popular vote and is now President-Elect. Regular readers of my not-so-super-secret other blog know my opinion of this; so I won’t belabor it too much here. If you’re curious, I have written about Donald Trump’s antivaccine views here before in the context of...
Blue Light. Special?
I do not sleep as well as I used to. Perhaps it is being tormented by guilt and worry combined with profound existential angst. Or maybe it is my iPad. I gave up on most dead tree editions. I miss the smell and feel of books and magazines, but nothing is better than being able to increase the font size to 18....
Stem Cell Tourism for Eye Disease: No Passport Required
Stem cell clinics outside the United States, and outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. regulations, have flourished and the pursuit of treatment at these centers has been called “stem cell tourism.” Seekers of unproven stem cell therapies no longer need to look outside the U.S. Paul Knoepfler, a stem cell researcher and leading advocate for the responsible use of stem cell technology,...
Infectious Diseases and Cancer
With apologies to my colleagues, but infectious diseases really is the most interesting specialty in medicine. There are innumerable interesting associations and interactions of infectious diseases in medicine, history, art, science, and, well, life, the universe and everything. ID is so 42. A recent email led me to wander the numerous interactions between infections and cancer. There are the cancers that are...
Parkinson’s Disease: A Detective Story
I didn’t intend to review Jon Palfreman’s book Brain Storms: The Race to Unlock the Mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease, but after reading it I decided it was too good not to share. Palfreman is an award-winning science journalist who has Parkinson’s himself. He has done a bang-up job of describing Parkinson’s disease, its impact on patients, and how science is working to...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease Speculcation
My wife and I are entering an age where our aches and pains are becoming a major ongoing topic of conversations. The pain of raising kids has transitioned into the pains of growing older. These aches and pains are, in the scheme of things, minor and intermittent. At work I get to see real suffering and it keeps my own in perspective....