۲ݮƵ

Subscribe to the OSS Weekly Newsletter!

Concerns About Cookware Chemistry

21 Jan 2022

Like most chemists, I like to cook.  After all, what is cooking but the appropriate mixing of chemicals?  In the lab we use flasks and beakers, but how do we equip our kitchen?  Tiffany's in New...

Benzene Jitters

19 Jan 2022

At one time it was used as an aftershave because of its sweet smell.  It was even used to decaffeinate coffee.  Oh my, how times change!  Today we worry about a few parts per billion of benzene in...

Non-smoker’s lung cancer and the hidden link

31 Dec 2021

The link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer is widely acknowledged. But not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer and not everyone who gets lung cancer is a smoker. How does one contract the...

What is really meant by “evidence-based medicine”?

31 Dec 2021

That’s an interesting question. What else could medicine be based on if not on evidence? Well, it could be based on conjecture, hearsay, wishful thinking, anecdote or just plain flim-flam. Indeed,...

Do the holidays cause heart attacks?

23 Dec 2021

This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer

Is there any point in drinking oxygenated water?

23 Dec 2021

Oxygen is critical for life and that also makes is susceptible to chicanery. If oxygen is so essential that the brain is permanently injured after just four minutes of deprivation, then surely more...

Cancer’s Sweet Tooth

17 Dec 2021

To the surprise of many, however, cancer cells are defective at producing the very fuel they need to grow and spread, but manage to overcome the innate “disability” and out-compete normal healthy...

Is it true that pine nuts can cause a lasting taste disturbance?

17 Dec 2021

In 2001, a Belgian physician experienced two episodes of bitter, metallic taste that lasted for several days and noted that both had occurred after he had eaten pine nuts. He mentioned this to a...

Pineapple for Eye Floaters: Sweet Deal or Pipe Dream?

11 Dec 2021

Shadow puppetry can be beautiful to look at, but when it’s happening inside our eyeballs, it’s an annoyance. One of the banes of getting older is the appearance of apparitions in our vision. In...

Pages

Back to top