Environmental activists have claimed for decades that PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are "forever" chemicals that have been causing disease. Once former Natural Resources Defense Council environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. joined the Republican team, their belief in homeopathic effects and endocrine disruption was adopted by some on the right.
Remember when a small bacterium from California’s Mono Lake was supposed to rewrite the very definition of life? Headlines screamed: NASA finds “alien” life on Earth!
The organism reportedly swapped out precious phosphorus - one of life’s six essential building blocks - for arsenic, the toxic villain in murder mysteries. For science communicators and, let’s be honest, journalists hungry for clicks, it was a dream come true.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has signaled it will once again examine formaldehyde under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Due to the rising costs and inability of doctors to own hospitals since the Affordable Care Act (ACA), costs have ballooned. The ACA was passed because 750,000 people had pre-existing conditions that made private insurance unavailable, yet their incomes were too high for government assistance. The ACA bridged that gap, yet as government requirements increased the cost for everyone increased so much that 50,000,000 now need subsidies.
Nowadays researchers and scholars of all ages and specialization find themselves struggling with mailboxes pestered with invitations to conferences, invitations to submit papers to journals, invitations to participate in the editorial board of journals, invitations to receive prizes for this or that reason; and of course, 99% of the origin of these invitations are individuals running fake conferences, scam, or predatory journals. Spam filters are not extremely good at distinguishing good and bad invitations, so if one wants to avoid discarding prestigious opportunities the only option is a painful manual screening.
The inexpensive medication pantoprazole prevents potentially serious stomach bleeding in critically ill patients and can save consumers and the government thousands of dollars.
The results of a new study show that when prescribed in hospital for mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit, where patients are on life support and at high risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding due to ulcers, the benefits are dramatic. So are the resulting savings, at a time when governments are struggling to contain costs during times of rising public criticism.
Image: Storyblocks
Sports used to bridge a lot of cultural gaps. You could walk into any bar and ask what the score was and everyone was your friend, regardless of race, creed, or color.
Those days are gone, according to humanities scholars at coastal universities. Even elite athletes are shook by being around anything different from them, they write in
a new paper. The authors even suggest their work means business teams may want to group employees by political beliefs. Perhaps restaurants should consider having sections just for Democrats or Republicans.
The 10th congress of the USERN organization was held on November 8-10 in Campinas, Brazil. Some time has gone by, so it is due time for me to report on the event. I could not attend in person for a cause of force majeure, but I was connected via zoom, and I also delivered two recorded speeches plus one talk in one of the parallel "virtual session" that were run via zoom in the evenings (CET) after the in-person program of the day was over.
The Nobel committee dropped a bombshell in 2025 by handing its annual physics prize—often reserved for theoretical wizards—to a scrappy team of chip engineers. For showing that quantum mechanics isn’t just for blackboards and headline-grabbing paradoxes, but the heartbeat of the chip in your own hand. That’s right: the same theory that has tormented generations of undergrads is now expected to run your phone.
Sounds wild. But before anyone starts imagining quantum teleportation apps, there are two (uncomfortable) facts to remember:
1. Quantum weirdness isn’t some bonus feature—it’s mostly a headache in modern electronics.
2. Most “quantum breakthroughs” in tech are more marketing than miracle.
Despite big ambitions, most life sciences organizations are stuck navigating outdated systems that make collaboration harder and breakthroughs slower.
The result? Slowdowns, missed insights, and costly rework.
