/oss/taxonomy/term/185/all en /oss/article/health/bugs-our-guts <p>The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S.</p> Tue, 11 Dec 2018 16:28:46 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7482 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/farm-pharmacy-wading-through-muddied-waters-antibiotic-resistance <hr /> <p><em>One of the mandates of our Office is to foster students’ skills in communicating science. We encourage students to submit articles and we publish the ones that we consider to be well written. These pieces are totally the work of students and the opinions expressed are their own.</em></p> Mon, 19 Feb 2018 20:35:57 +0000 Simona Bene Watts, şÚÁϲ»´ňěČ Writing Centre, Communicating Science 6926 at /oss /oss/article/news-quackery/taking-bite-out-crocodile-hype <p>You’ve got to give it to the quacks. They are often clever people. And very adept at making mountains out of molehills. One of the latest miracles out there is, believe it or not, crocodile blood. Well, not exactly crocodile blood, but a substance supposedly isolated from it, which they have named “The Antidote.”</p> Sat, 29 Jun 2013 13:22:08 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1973 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-drugs-health-news/antibiotics-linked-childhood-obesity <p>A newly published study in JAMA Pediatrics indicates that children who had had four or more courses of antibiotics by age two were at a 10% higher risk of being obese by age five.  Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the Bloomberg School of Public Health examined the records of more than 64,500 children between 2011 and 2013. The children were followed until the age of five.</p> Thu, 02 Oct 2014 01:14:46 +0000 Ariel Fenster PhD 2201 at /oss /oss/article/environment-health-toxicity/we-need-rational-discussion-about-pesticides-without-rhetoric <div> <p style="text-align:justify"> </p> </div> Mon, 13 Oct 2014 02:58:30 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2204 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-food-health-news/cherry-picking-cranberry-juice-data <p>Cranberry juice manufacturers are adept at cherry-picking data. Of course this is not a unique pursuit. Be it milk, or blueberries or pomegranates or artificial sweeteners or beef or turmeric or bottled water or virtually any other food or beverage that is on the market, its producers scour the scientific literature for any study that can be used as promotional material. And given the vast number of scientific papers that are published, something can always be found and relatively insignificant data can be seductively exaggerated.</p> Fri, 17 Oct 2014 14:38:45 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2205 at /oss /oss/article/environment-health/citrus-greening <p>You have probably never heard of the Asian citrus psyllid. But this insect, no bigger than the head of a pin, could be the reason that within a couple of years you will not be drinking orange juice or eating oranges from the U.S. The insect spreads a bacterium, which is harmless to humans and animals, but is devastating to citrus trees. Infected trees suffer from what has been called “citrus greening” because they produce green, misshapen fruit that is bitter and inedible. Once infected, the trees die within a few years.</p> Tue, 20 Oct 2015 10:52:46 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2292 at /oss /oss/article/health-history/helicobacter-pylori <p>The 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology was awarded to Australian Drs. Robin Warren and Barry Marshall for demonstrating that most ulcers are caused by a bacterium and can be cured with antibiotics. Their discovery had a huge impact on the practice of medicine, virtually eliminating surgery for ulcers. The idea that ulcers are caused by a bacterium met a great deal of resistance at first because traditional wisdom maintained that bacteria could not survive the acid conditions of the stomach.</p> Mon, 02 Jul 2012 18:05:12 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1707 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/could-food-babe-once-be-right-track <p>Even a clock that doesn’t work is right twice a day. A blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn. And the Food Babe sometimes flirts with the truth. She has organized ridiculous petitions against azodicarbonamide in Subway rolls and caramel coloring in beverages. But now she has taken up the scimitar to wield against antibiotics in animal feed. Her target once again is Subway and she wants the company to use only meat from animals grown without antibiotics. Of course her knowledge about antibiotics is the same as about all other scientific matters, which is basically zero.</p> Wed, 15 Feb 2017 20:05:12 +0000 Joe Schwarcz 1450 at /oss