Antiscience

The Washington Post has this specimen of science journalism at its worst. Weak correlative data about the presence of certain industrial food byproducts in fast food is gleefully transformed into full-blown alarm bells. Check out this textbook sample of medical panic journalism: Researchers at George Washington University have linked fast-food consumption to the presence of potentially harmful chemicals, a connection they argue could have "great public health significance." Specifically, the team found that people who eat fast food tend to have significantly higher levels of certain phthalates, which are commonly used in consumer products such as soap and makeup to make them less brittle but have been linked to a number of adverse health outcomes, including higher rates of infertility,especially among males. The researchers' demand to alter the headline from "alarming" to "striking" is also dodgy. They should have thought twice about giving an alarmis...

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed into law today a measure that allows the renegade compound — synthetic phosphoethanolamine — to be produced and sold legally as a cancer therapy in Brazil. Scientists poured scorn on the decision, contending it puts patients at risk and undermines the authority of the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency (the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) to regulate research and approval of new drugs based on internationally accepted safety and efficacy protocols. This was a “political decision inspired by a messianic surge of pseudoscience,” says Gustavo Fernandes, president of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Oncology in Brasília. “It was the worst possible way of dealing with this problem.” Originally shared by Steve Esterly OMG Brazilian health care and politics are f'd-up http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/brazil-president-signs-law-legalizing-renegade-cancer-pill

This is a shitty experiment and even shittier science journalism by the usually solid Ars Technica . The problem is the experimental model --- dissemination of bacteriophages from hands immersed in viral cultures then stuck in Dyson Airblade hand dryers. This is not faithful to the typical use case of washing hands before putting them in hand dryer*. *alternative use cases are too horrifying to contemplate. Originally shared by Ars Technica "Viral bathroom bomb" is a label you'd like to avoid http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/04/dyson-dryers-hurl-60x-more-viruses-most-at-kid-face-height-than-other-dryers/