Category: Basic Science

Black Oxygen Organics (BOO)

BOO: Or how “magic dirt” became a MLM miracle cure scam for COVID-19

"BOO" stands for Black Oxygen Organics, a "cure" for COVID-19 that got the attention of regulators last week. Basically, it's dirt billed by its believers as "magic dirt" that sells for $110 a bag (plus shipping) through a multilevel marketing sales model. What can this latest COVID cure tell us about the relationship between alternative medicine and COVID-19 denial?

/ December 6, 2021

Mini-Brains for Disease Research

New research on organoid "mini-brains" highlights the potential of this new kind of scientific research.

/ October 27, 2021
Lab mice

Even in a pandemic, bait-and-switch acupuncture studies still get published in Nature

Last week, a study claiming to have identified a neurologic mechanism by which acupuncture reduces inflammation was published in Nature. It does no such thing. it's another bait-and-switch mouse study that likely would never have been published in such a high profile journal if it hadn't rebranded electrical stimulation as "electroacupuncture".

/ October 18, 2021

Desktop Genetics

We seem to be in the middle of a revolution in genetics research, which has just taken another leap forward.

/ September 15, 2021

Science Goes Viral

Joe Schwarcz has done it again! His new book is not only packed with good science-based information, but is highly entertaining.

/ September 7, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 delta variant

Are vaccines driving the emergence of “escape mutant” variants of COVID-19?

Geert Vanden Bossche is back, and this time he's blaming COVID-19 vaccines for driving the evolution of more dangerous "escape variants" of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease, that are capable of evading vaccine-induced immunity. As antivaxxers making this argument always do, unfortunately, he ignores the much larger problem in which free circulation of the virus is a far more powerful...

/ August 16, 2021
Ivermectin repurposing

Ivermectin is the new hydroxychloroquine, take 5: The Nobel Prize gambit

Ivermectin continues to be the new hydroxychloroquine, an unproven repurposed drug promoted to treat COVID-19. Now the advocates are pointing to the history of the drug's developers being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, as though that has anything to do with its effectiveness against COVID-19.

/ August 9, 2021
Wuhan Institute of Virology

The origin of SARS-CoV-2, revisited

Since early in the pandemic, scientists have overwhelmingly concluded that evidence points to a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, as a far more likely explanation for the pandemic than a laboratory origin. In May, however, there has been a lot of media chatter about the "lab leak" hypothesis, and President Biden even ordered US intelligence agencies to look...

/ May 31, 2021

Artificial Sweeteners – A Free Lunch, or an Obesogenic Carcinogen? What 80+ Studies Say (part 1 of 2).

In this two part series, I explore the impact of artificial sweeteners on obesity, diabetes, the gut microbiome, and cancer. Part one of two!

/ May 21, 2021

Craniosacral Therapy Is Bogus but DOs Are Required to Learn It

The standard textbook used in many schools of osteopathic medicine includes a lamentable chapter on cranial manipulation. It is clearly biased and fails to meet the minimal standards of science-based medicine. Craniosacral manipulation therapy is bogus, and it should no longer be taught to DOs or feature on their exams.

/ May 18, 2021