Articles by Sara Talpos's Profile | UNDARK Journalist

Interview: California Lawmaker Calls for a Peptide Working Group

Jun 20, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Should Americans have access to therapies that have not been fully vetted? Next month, an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh the question in the context of seven peptides marketed for benefits such as weight loss, tissue repair, and longevity. These particular peptides have not passed through the rigorous human testing required for drug approval.

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The hidden history of BPC-157, a favorite MAHA peptide

Jun 01, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| Flipboard

Culture 1 hour ago Red stripes declared U.K.’s oldest art after being dismissed as a natural phenomenon NBC News - By Elmira Aliieva • 1h The horizontal lines of red pigment are evenly spaced and arranged in a way that suggests “a deliberate and structured pattern,” according to a study.

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A Peptide, a Secretive Scientist, and a Debate Over Evidence

May 29, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In 1975, in a medical school classroom in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Predrag Sikiric had an idea that he has pursued for more than 50 years. His obsessive quest would take him from gastroenterology clinics to international scientific conferences, define his career as an academic, and capture the attention of global pharmaceutical companies. It would eventually become one part of the Make America Healthy Again movement’s effort to reform federal drug regulation.

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The Regulatory Loopholes Behind Prevagen’s Rise

May 07, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| MedShadow Foundation Blog

The heavily marketed memory supplement has faced years of scrutiny over its science. It still became one of the best-known brain health products in America. FACT CHECKED In 2007, a Wisconsin-based company, Quincy Bioscience, launched a product called Prevagen. It contains one main ingredient, apoaequorin, a protein originally isolated from bioluminescent jellyfish off the coast of Washington state.

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How some food additives bypass the FDA review process Original

Apr 24, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| AgDaily

Nearly 70 years ago, Congress amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit companies from using food additives before they have been rigorously vetted for safety. This change in the law, however, did not play out as the legislators intended. The Food Additives Amendment, passed in 1958, created two pathways. One was for food additives, which would undergo a safety review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Interview: Why Food Additives May Not Be FDA Reviewed

Apr 24, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Nearly 70 years ago, Congress amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit companies from using food additives before they have been rigorously vetted for safety. This change in the law, however, did not play out as the legislators intended. The Food Additives Amendment, passed in 1958, created two pathways. One was for food additives, which would undergo a safety review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Wait, So Are Peptides Legal Now?

Apr 23, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| Yahoo

Wait, So Are Peptides Legal Now?drasa - Getty Images "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Peptides are all anyone wants to talk about right now, and the conversation is about to get louder with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s push to make more of them available from specialized pharmacies.

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Interview: Sylvia Fogel on Rethinking Autism Research Original

Mar 19, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In 2010, Sylvia Fogel’s 2-year-old son developed an upper respiratory illness and soon lost his ability to speak, make eye contact, and relate with others. He screamed for long periods of time and could not be consoled. “Within, say, a few days — maybe max, two weeks — the child I knew was gone,” recalls Fogel. She was a psychiatrist on faculty at Columbia University at the time and was able to take her son to multiple specialists.

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Why the FDA Is Embracing Old Math for New Drugs

Mar 13, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| POZ

Clinical trials for a new drug can take years to complete, and cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars. New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aims to make that process faster and cheaper for some studies, by encouraging a tool called Bayesian statistics. The approach dates back more than 250 years, and proponents say its embrace by regulators is overdue, stalled at first by feuding camps of statisticians, then later by a lack of familiarity among trained professionals.

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Why the FDA Is Embracing Old Math for New Drugs

Mar 10, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Clinical trials for a new drug can take years to complete, and cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars. New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aims to make that process faster and cheaper for some studies, by encouraging a tool called Bayesian statistics. The approach dates back more than 250 years, and proponents say its embrace by regulators is overdue, stalled at first by feuding camps of statisticians, then later by a lack of familiarity among trained professionals.

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Why the FDA Is Embracing Old Math for New Drugs

Mar 10, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

Clinical trials for a new drug can take years to complete, and cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars. New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aims to make that process faster and cheaper for some studies, by encouraging a tool called Bayesian statistics. The approach dates back more than 250 years, and proponents say its embrace by regulators is overdue, stalled at first by feuding camps of statisticians, then later by a lack of familiarity among trained professionals.

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Do America's Top Health Research Officials Stick Around Too Long?

Mar 04, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos , Michael Schulson

| UNDARK

When Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, he had been in the role for 38 years. He had served under seven different presidents and overseen more than $100 billion of federal spending; a young infectious disease researcher beginning a Ph.D. program when Fauci took office could easily be a graying professor emeritus by the time he left.

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Do America’s Top Health Research Officials Stick Around Too Long?

Mar 04, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos , Michael Schulson

| mtr.cool

When Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, he had been in the role for 38 years. He had served under seven different presidents and overseen more than $100 billion of federal spending; a young infectious disease researcher beginning a Ph.D. program when Fauci took office could easily be a graying professor emeritus by the time he left.

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Do America's Top Health Research Officials Stick Around Too Long?

Mar 04, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos , Michael Schulson

| mtr.cool

When Anthony Fauci stepped down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2022, he had been in the role for 38 years. He had served under seven different presidents and overseen more than $100 billion of federal spending; a young infectious disease researcher beginning a Ph.D. program when Fauci took office could easily be a graying professor emeritus by the time he left.

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Interview: The Enduring Appeal of Alternative Medicine

Mar 02, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Lewis A. Grossman’s book, “Choose Your Medicine: Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in America,” was published over four years ago, but in many ways it seems to have anticipated the enthusiasm of today’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement for wellness products and opposition to their regulation. As Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

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How a Croatian Lab Spawned a Buzzy Peptide Now Popular With MAHA

Feb 03, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In the spring of 2024, Flynn McGuire started to notice glowing references online to an unapproved drug that proponents claimed could help the body heal more quickly. McGuire is a chief medical resident at University of Utah Health, where he works with patients rehabilitating from cancer and injuries, but he had never heard of the substance, called BPC-157. Colleagues he consulted hadn’t heard of it either. So he decided to conduct a formal review of the scientific literature in his field.

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How a Croatian Lab Spawned a Buzzy Peptide Now Popular With MAHA

Feb 03, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

In the spring of 2024, Flynn McGuire started to notice glowing references online to an unapproved drug that proponents claimed could help the body heal more quickly. McGuire is a chief medical resident at University of Utah Health, where he works with patients rehabilitating from cancer and injuries, but he had never heard of the substance, called BPC-157. Colleagues he consulted hadn’t heard of it either. So he decided to conduct a formal review of the scientific literature in his field.

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Interview: How Does Violent Pornography Affect Young People?

Jan 30, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Violent pornography is easily accessible on the internet, and some children encounter it before they even get to middle school. How does this influence their expectations when it comes to physical intimacy? How does exposure to such content influence students on college campuses, where sexual assault is common and often unreported? Young people may be particularly vulnerable, says Melissa de Roos, a forensic psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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Interview: How Does Violent Pornography Affect Young People?

Jan 30, 2026 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

Violent pornography is easily accessible on the internet, and some children encounter it before they even get to middle school. How does this influence their expectations when it comes to physical intimacy? How does exposure to such content influence students on college campuses, where sexual assault is common and often unreported? Young people may be particularly vulnerable, says Melissa de Roos, a forensic psychologist at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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Interview: How the U.S. Government Monitors Vaccine Safety

Dec 19, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In late November, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, made headlines with an email to his staff announcing that the agency had linked the Covid-19 shots to the deaths of a small number of U.S. children. A team of career employees, he explained, had reached this conclusion by analyzing deaths that had been reported to a government-run database. “This is a profound revelation,” Prasad wrote.

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Interview: How the U.S. Government Monitors Vaccine Safety

Dec 19, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

In late November, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, made headlines with an email to his staff announcing that the agency had linked the Covid-19 shots to the deaths of a small number of U.S. children. A team of career employees, he explained, had reached this conclusion by analyzing deaths that had been reported to a government-run database. “This is a profound revelation,” Prasad wrote.

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Why Lab-Grown Brain Cells Might Never Become Conscious

Dec 12, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

It’s been more than a decade since scientists first started publishing papers on neural organoids, the small clusters of cells grown in labs and designed to mimic various parts of the human brain. Since then, organoids have been used to study everything from bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, to tumors and parasitic infections.

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Why Lab-Grown Brain Cells Might Never Become Conscious

Dec 12, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

It’s been more than a decade since scientists first started publishing papers on neural organoids, the small clusters of cells grown in labs and designed to mimic various parts of the human brain. Since then, organoids have been used to study everything from bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, to tumors and parasitic infections.

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How One Neuroscientist Is Trying to Rewrite the Human Mind

Nov 22, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Flipboard

Do Dogs Understand Time? Here’s Everything You Need To Know About A Dog’s Sense Of Time If you have ever wondered how your dog seems to know exactly when dinner should arrive or why they sit by the window moments before you pull into the …

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How Memories Might Be Used to Help Heal the Brain

Nov 04, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos , Tibi Puiu

| ZME Science

As a new Ph.D. student in 2011, Steve Ramirez and his mentor performed a groundbreaking experiment in the field of memory manipulation. They placed a mouse in a small distinctive box and administered a mild electrical shock to its feet. When the rodent was placed in the box a second time, it froze up — anticipating another shock. From there, the young neuroscientists placed the mouse in a different box, one where nothing bad had happened.

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Sara Talpos

Nov 04, 2025 |

By Tibi Puiu , Sara Talpos

| ZME Science

In a new book, Steve Ramirez explores the potential of memory manipulation to ease depression and other afflictions.

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How Memories Might Be Used to Help Heal the Brain

Oct 29, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

As a new Ph.D. student in 2011, Steve Ramirez and his mentor performed a groundbreaking experiment in the field of memory manipulation. They placed a mouse in a small distinctive box and administered a mild electrical shock to its feet. When the rodent was placed in the box a second time, it froze up — anticipating another shock. From there, the young neuroscientists placed the mouse in a different box, one where nothing bad had happened.

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How Memories Might Be Used to Help Heal the Brain

Oct 29, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| mtr.cool

As a new Ph.D. student in 2011, Steve Ramirez and his mentor performed a groundbreaking experiment in the field of memory manipulation. They placed a mouse in a small distinctive box and administered a mild electrical shock to its feet. When the rodent was placed in the box a second time, it froze up — anticipating another shock. From there, the young neuroscientists placed the mouse in a different box, one where nothing bad had happened.

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Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Made Healthier?

Oct 01, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| AgDaily

In 2019, nutrition scientist Kevin Hall and his colleagues published eye-popping results from a unique experiment. For four weeks, study participants stayed in a hospital ward at the National Institutes of Health, splitting their time on two different diets: one high in minimally processed foods, the other high in ultra-processed foods (UPFs), products that contain factory-made ingredients and additives not found in a typical home kitchen.

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Sara Talpos, Undark | AGDAILY

Oct 01, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| AgDaily

When it comes to ultra-processed foods, experts say it’s important to study all of their properties to better understand which ones cause people to overeat.

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Interview: Can Ultra-Processed Foods Be Made Healthier?

Sep 19, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In 2019, nutrition scientist Kevin Hall and his colleagues published eye-popping results from a unique experiment. For four weeks, study participants stayed in a hospital ward at the National Institutes of Health, splitting their time on two different diets: one high in minimally processed foods, the other high in ultra-processed foods, products that contain factory-made ingredients and additives not found in a typical home kitchen.

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Lifting the Veil on America's Addiction Rehab Industry

Aug 22, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In her new book, “Rehab: An American Scandal,” journalist Shoshana Walter delves deeply into the nation’s drug treatment industry and finds it sorely lacking. The book traces the journeys of four individuals enmeshed in the system — two people working toward recovery, a physician, and a bereaved mother — and offers insight into just how difficult it can be for vulnerable people and their families to find high-quality treatment for opioid addiction.

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Do Indoor Pools Really Need to Close for Lightning?

Jul 15, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Across the country, pools close when lightning is in the area. For outdoor pools, the rationale is clear: About 10 to 15 people are killed by lightning in the United States each year, and the vast majority of fatalities and injuries occur outdoors, particularly around bodies of water. But should indoor pools close, too? Both the American Red Cross and the national YMCA organization say they should, over concerns that lightning’s electrical current could travel through a building and zap swimmers.

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Via the False Claims Act, NIH Puts Universities and Their Researchers on Edge

Jul 14, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| POZ

Earlier this year, a biomedical researcher at the University of Michigan received an update from the National Institutes of Health. The federal agency, which funds a large swath of the country’s medical science, had given the greenlight to begin releasing funding for the upcoming year on the researcher’s multi-year grant. Not long after, the researcher learned that the university had placed the grant on hold.

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Interview: How a Hearing-Loss Grant Got Cut in the Fight Over DEI

Jul 11, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

A few years ago, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders issued a call for proposals aimed specifically at researchers from diverse backgrounds. The funding opportunity seemed like a good fit, said Uri Manor, a scientist at the University of California San Diego who qualified for the award because he studies the biology of the inner ear and has a disability, severe-to-profound hearing loss. Manor applied, and in 2023 received a prestigious five-year grant.

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Via the False Claims Act, NIH puts universities on edge

Jun 18, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Tech News Tube

Tech News Tube is a real time news feed of the latest technology news headlines.Follow all of the top tech sites in one place, on the web or your mobile device.

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Via the False Claims Act, NIH puts universities on edge

Jun 18, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Ars Technica

A funding pause at Michigan illustrates the uncertainty around new language in NIH grant awards. Earlier this year, a biomedical researcher at the University of Michigan received an update from the National Institutes of Health. The federal agency, which funds a large swath of the country’s medical science, had given the green light to begin releasing funding for the upcoming year on the researcher’s multi-year grant.

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Via the False Claim Act, NIH Puts Universities on Edge

Jun 17, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Earlier this year, a biomedical researcher at the University of Michigan received an update from the National Institutes of Health. The federal agency, which funds a large swath of the country’s medical science, had given the greenlight to begin releasing funding for the upcoming year on the researcher’s multi-year grant. Not long after, the researcher learned that the university had placed the grant on hold.

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Counting the Potential Casualties of the One Big Beautiful Bill

Jun 16, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| POZ

Earlier this month, the growing tension between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk exploded into public view when Musk took aim at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The legislation, which calls for sweeping changes to taxes and spending, is currently before the Senate. Somewhat lost in the hullabaloo was a new analysis by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.

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Counting the Potential Casualties of the One Big Beautiful Bill

Jun 11, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Last week, the growing tension between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk exploded into public view when Musk took aim at the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The legislation, which calls for sweeping changes to taxes and spending, is currently before the Senate. Somewhat lost in the hullabaloo was a new analysis by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.

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Seeking New Foods, Scientists Look to Bacteria, Algae, and More

Jun 02, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Portside

Seeking New Foods, Scientists Look to Bacteria, Algae, and More Published June 2, 2025 AS A TEENAGER growing up in Nigeria, Helen Onyeaka was obsessed with microorganisms. The tiny lifeforms, which include bacteria and yeast, can be grown quickly and in huge quantities. Onyeaka wondered if that abundance could be harnessed to feed people in conflict zones where children were suffering from malnutrition, their distended stomachs a clear sign of protein deficiency.

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Amid Turbulence, the NIH's Jay Bhattacharya Era Begins Original

May 27, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 82 days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, dozens of people gathered in a Washington D.C. townhouse to celebrate Jay Bhattacharya, who had recently been confirmed as director of the National Institutes of Health, the world’s top agency for biomedical research.

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Interview: Why Autistic women have been overlooked for decades

Apr 29, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Popular Science

Image: Getty Images This article was originally featured on Undark. It’s been more than 30 years since the award-winning film “Rain Man,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, put a spotlight on autism — or, more specifically, on a specific type of autism characterized by social awkwardness and isolation and typically affecting males.

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Interview: Why Autistic Women Have Been Overlooked for Decades

Apr 25, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

It’s been more than 30 years since the award-winning film “Rain Man,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, put a spotlight on autism — or, more specifically, on a specific type of autism characterized by social awkwardness and isolation and typically affecting males. Yet as far back as the 1980s, at least one prominent autism researcher wondered whether autism’s male skew might simply reflect the fact that autistic females were, for some reason, going undiagnosed.

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Interview: Why Autistic Women Have Been Overlooked for Decades

Apr 25, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| EIN News

It’s been more than 30 years since the award-winning film “Rain Man,” starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, put a spotlight on autism — or, more specifically, on a specific type of autism characterized by social awkwardness and isolation and typically affecting males. Yet as far back as the 1980s, at least one prominent autism researcher wondered whether autism’s male skew might simply reflect the fact that autistic females were, for some reason, going undiagnosed.

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Authors of ‘In Covid’s Wake’ Detail How Pandemic Politics Failed Public

Mar 13, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Children's Health Defense

By Sara Talpos In March and April of 2020, more than 50,000 people in the U.S. died from the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Doctors were forced to guess at which treatments might work, while hospitals reported shortages of face masks and other personal protective equipment. On March 19, 2020, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was the first to issue a statewide stay-at-home order. Most other states soon followed suit. For more than three years, the country remained under a .

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Interview: Did Scientists and the Media Get Covid All Wrong?

Mar 07, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

In March and April of 2020, more than 50,000 people in the United States died from the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Doctors were forced to guess at which treatments might work, while hospitals reported shortages of face masks and other personal protective equipment. On March 19, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was the first to issue a statewide stay-at-home order. Most other states soon followed suit. For more than three years, the country remained under a .

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How Elon Musk Blurs the Lines of Free Speech

Feb 21, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Truthdig

Over time, social media has evolved to function as something of a town square, where Americans come to chat, share information, and organize. Unlike actual town squares, however, these platforms are private enterprises mostly controlled by a handful of billionaires, and they have become powerful gatekeepers for information, including about public health. As private entities, technology behemoths like Meta and X are free to decide what content can and cannot appear on their sites.

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Interview: How Elon Musk Blurs the Lines of Free Speech

Feb 14, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| UNDARK

Over time, social media has evolved to function as something of a town square, where Americans come to chat, share information, and organize. Unlike actual town squares, however, these platforms are private enterprises mostly controlled by a handful of billionaires, and they have become powerful gatekeepers for information, including about public health. As private entities, technology behemoths like Meta and X are free to decide what content can and cannot appear on their sites.

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We May Be Eating Microbes Soon, and That’s a Good Thing

Feb 02, 2025 |

By Sara Talpos

| Mother Jones

This story was originally published by Undark and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. As a teenager growing up in Nigeria, Helen Onyeaka was obsessed with microorganisms. The tiny lifeforms, which include bacteria and yeast, can be grown quickly and in huge quantities. Onyeaka wondered if that abundance could be harnessed to feed people in conflict zones where children were suffering from malnutrition, their distended stomachs a clear sign of protein deficiency.

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Articles by Sara Talpos

How some food additives bypass the FDA review process Original

Interview: Sylvia Fogel on Rethinking Autism Research Original

Amid Turbulence, the NIH's Jay Bhattacharya Era Begins Original

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