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PaxilTablet640: Image obtained from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paxil,_June_2003.jpg In 2001, a famous clinical trial, Study 329, declared that the antidepressant Paxil was safe for adolescents. After a great deal of controversy, criticism,…

by Jordan Wilkerson figures by Brad Wierbowski The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a new wave of regulations, and they focus on one thing: methane. Due to the EPA’s recent proposal, we have been inundated with stories about…

Charles Darwin’s 1837 sketch of an evolutionary tree – the Open Tree Taxonomy’s tree has significantly more branches. Charles Darwin [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsIf asked what animal is genetically closest to a hippo, you might…

Standard packaging for a once-per-day oral birth control pill for women. [Monik Markus under a CC BY 2.0 license]Researchers in Japan have made a breakthrough in the search for a birth control pill for men after discovering that two commonly used…

by Mary E. Gearing figures by Shanon McArdel It’s hard to find a more controversial topic than sugar, which is never far from the media’s attention. From the recent hype surrounding That Sugar Film to the continued demonizing of high fructose corn syrup,…

Cells in your blood, like those shown in this microscope image, are coated in membranes that the body recognizes as non-foreign, preventing the immune system from attacking them. Cloaking nanoparticles in such membranes allows them to slip past the…

by Steph Guerra figures by Krissy Lyon Reproducibility in science is not very sexy. Because our scientific culture generally rewards innovation over cautiousness, replicating a study conducted by others will not get a researcher a publication in a…

by C. Rose Kennedy figures by Kaitlyn Choi What’s in a Flavor? The word “flavor” pervades our daily vocabulary, evoking associations of rich or vivid experiences beyond the experience of eating. Even in the literal context, the Flavor Extract…

by Matthew Schwartz A new danger is threatening the economic stability of the west coast of the United States and has the potential to cause a public health crisis. A massive harmful algal bloom has accumulated across most of the west coast and may be…

The experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland have produced many impressive results in recent years studying the nature of the fundamental particles and forces that govern the world around us. While it is better known…