Barbara Pfeffer Billauer

She was told she was chasing the impossible. She persisted through poverty, skepticism, and 25,000 failed attempts. In the end, Ada Yonath unlocked one of biology’s most elusive structures: the ribosome, transforming our understanding of how antibiotics work and paving the way for drugs that can overcome antibiotic resistance. Her story is not only one of scientific brilliance, but of extraordinary perseverance.

Daubert was meant to keep unreliable science out of the courtroom by making judges gatekeepers who ensure the reliability and relevance of expert testimony and the underlying research. A recent Second Circuit decision raises a harder question: how deeply may a judge examine the science when evaluating an expert’s methodology before determining the scientific dispute itself? The answer could reshape how courts translate epidemiological evidence into legal proof.

Peer review in reputable journals gives scientific claims an authority that commercial speech rarely enjoys. But what happens when scientists carry that halo of authority out of the laboratory and into the marketplace, publicly attacking products while enjoying protections their manufacturers do not? The Scientific Seal of Approval Publication in a peer-reviewed journal is a key component of the scientific process and progress.