American Council on Science and Health

Rural America has too few physicians, and the shortage is likely to worsen as older doctors retire and too few new graduates take their places. New research suggests that where physicians attend medical school matters surprisingly little; what matters far more is where they grew up and, especially, where they complete their residency and fellowship training. How do you keep them down on the farm? In this case, “you” are newly minted physicians, and “the farm” stands in for working in rural areas.

Scroll through TikTok, Instagram, or Reddit and you'll quickly find a familiar argument: Which is the better sleep aid—melatonin or magnesium? One camp insists melatonin is the body's natural sleep hormone, the obvious choice for insomnia. The other claims magnesium calms the nervous system, relaxes muscles, producing deeper, more restorative sleep. But the questions misses the point entirely: what's actually disrupting your sleep?

In the summer of 1982, the McMullin family gathered for what should have been an ordinary celebration—swimming, games, food, laughter, and children racing around with siblings and cousins. Then everything changed. Twenty-two-month-old Nicholas was found at the bottom of the pool by an older child. He did not recover. One enduring truth Lisa McMullin, Nicholas’s mother, has shared is a mindset common among families who suffer this kind of loss: most people believe it could never happen to them.

What was the first chemical reaction harnessed by humans? That was undoubtedly fire. And the second? That would be fermentation, the process by which yeasts and bacteria convert carbohydrates into alcohol, organic acids, and carbon dioxide. Evidence for the use of fire dates back hundreds of thousands of years. At first, it was likely natural fires started by lightning that were kindled; later, ignition of tinder was achieved with sparks from flint stones or the rubbing together of sticks.

CBD and THC have been studied to death, but chemists are still finding new things to say about the surprisingly simple reaction that connects them. A new study published in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry takes a close look at the acid-catalyzed conversion of CBD into THC, examining why different reaction conditions produce different THC isomers.

What is Myopia Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a mismatch in which light rays focus in front of, rather than on, our retina. As a result, while close-up objects remain clear, distant objects appear blurry. August has been declared Myopia Month not to celebrate it, but to highlight the rising rates of myopia among the young. In a more agrarian time, 150 years ago, the incidence of myopia was roughly 20%; today in parts of the world the incidence is upwards of 90%.

Motion sickness has plagued travelers for centuries, yet the standard remedies remain largely unchanged—often leaving users drowsy, dry-mouthed and unfocused. A new drug in late-stage trials targets the root cause: a sensory mismatch between what the eyes see and what the inner ear senses. The brain interprets this conflict as possible poisoning and triggers vomiting. In a Phase 3 boat-trip study, it cut vomiting rates from 44% on placebo to 18%.

When nature calls, we rarely think about the science and public policy behind the sanitary sewer system. We should. In elementary school, I was struck by a 1554 engraving showing residents of a European city emptying chamber pots onto the street. Gross, but also, to a kid, funny. The image oversimplifies pre-industrial sanitation. Cities relied on latrines, cesspits, and “night soil” collectors, who often sold the waste as fertilizer. But these systems buckled as cities grew.

As more EVs are used, there will certainly be more EV battery fires. A friend who has been a volunteer firefighter forever and is scared of nothing is scared of these. Are his fears reasonable? Read on. A friend of mine has been a volunteer firefighter for 48 years. He doesn't scare easy. He estimates that he's helped put out 500 fires, running into burning buildings some of the time. That doesn't faze him either.

I was called one for criticizing RFK Jr. That sent me down a rabbit hole of research. Image: McGill Office for Science and Society I’ve been called a few choice names before, but “muckraker” was a new one. This was hurled at me after a talk I gave in which I had criticized RFK Jr.’s scientific acumen, and it was clear from the tone that this was not meant as a compliment. There was no further interaction with the accuser, but his comment did trigger a curiosity about the origin of the term.