Categories
Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

Making lab rats out one’s children: Do-it-yourself cancer cures hit the media again

Several months ago, i wrote quite a few posts about a new anticancer drug that had not yet passed through clinical trials but had demonstrated efficacy against tumors in rat models of cancer. The drug, called dichloroacetate (DCA), is a small molecule that targeted a phenomenon common in cancer cells known as the Warburg effect. […]

Categories
History Humor Politics

What if John Adams had had access to YouTube in 1800?

Would it have looked something like this? And how would Thomas Jefferson have countered? (Hat tip to Spinning Clio.)

Categories
Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

Representative Dan Burton: Abusing his power to influence the outcome of the Autism Omnibus hearings?

It’s been a while since I mentioned the Autism Omnibus hearings. The Omnibus proceeding is the culmination of all the legal cases brought to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program by nearly 5,000 families who “feel” that their children’s autism was caused by vaccines. Many, but not all, of the plaintiffs blame the mercury in the […]

Categories
Biology Evolution Politics Pseudoscience Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Are we fighting a losing battle over evolution in the U.S.?

Sometimes I have a hard time not concluding that we are.

Categories
Biology Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Politics Science Skepticism/critical thinking

How much science matters to the average American?

Heard on the radio this morning, a commenter responding to a radio talk show host’s pointing out to him that Mike Huckabee doesn’t accept evolution as valid. This is as close as I can remember what he said, but the gist is correct: We disagree on that. But not believing in evolution is something I […]