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By Christopher Douglas Perhaps one of the strangest instances of fake news that proliferated in the final months of the 2016 election was the conspiracy known as “Pizzagate.” Supposedly, a D.C. restaurant housed a pedophilia ring involving members of the Democratic Party, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. Podesta’s emails—released by WikiLeaks, and probably …

by ERASMUS DENMARK is one of the least religious countries in the world; a poll has found that barely one in five Danes considers faith to be a really important factor in daily life. Yet as of this week, it looks as though Denmark may be one of the very few countries in the Western …

By Sara Reardon Like ivy plants that send runners out searching for something to cling to, the brain’s neurons send out shoots that connect with other neurons throughout the organ. A new digital reconstruction method shows three neurons that branch extensively throughout the brain, including one that wraps around its entire outer layer. The finding may …

By Mitch Weiss SPINDALE, N.C. (AP) — From all over the world, they flocked to this tiny town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lured by promises of inner peace and eternal life. What many found instead: years of terror — waged in the name of the Lord. Congregants of the Word of …

By Roger Harrabin The UN’s new climate chief says she’s worried about President Donald Trump – but confident that action to curb climate change is unstoppable. President Trump said he’d withdraw from the UN climate deal and stop funding the UN’s clean energy programme. But former Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa told BBC News that the …

By Jonathan Foley and Christine Arena President Trump’s decision to constrain and muzzle scientific research signals an important milestone. The War on Science has shifted into high gear. This is a fight for our future, and scientists as well as citizens had better prepare for what is coming next. At his confirmation hearings last week, …

By Steven Novella An excellent article in ProPublica by David Epstein discusses the problem of doctors not adhering to the best evidence-based standards. The full article is worth a read, and I won’t just repeat it here, but I do want to highlight a few points which align well with what I have been writing here …

By Jackson Landers Don’t try to eat anything bigger than your own head. That’s good advice for most living things, but a group of creatures called the dragonfishes found an evolutionary way to break that rule. A pair of scientists have discovered how the dragonfishes are able to swallow prey that is almost as big …

By Sheila Kaplan WASHINGTON — Case 7682299: Aug. 1, 2010. A mother gives her toddler three homeopathic pills to relieve her teething pain. Within minutes, the baby stops breathing. “My daughter had a seizure, lost consciousness, and stopped breathing about 30 minutes after I gave her three Hyland’s Teething Tablets,” the mother later told the …

By Maarten Rikken Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people between the ages of 15 and 24, and for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning students the risk is much higher. In a new JAMA Pediatricsstudy, Julia Raifman and colleagues, report that state-enacted laws that legalize same-sex marriage were linked to a …

By Mike Wall Advocates of Pluto’s planethood are about to fire another salvo in the decade-long debate about the famous object’s status. Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission, which performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto in July 2015, will officially propose a new definition of “planet” next month, at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science …

By Kavin Senapathy A West Virginia grassroots network is calling on lawmakers to not allow religious or philosophical vaccine exemptions for children attending public school or state-regulated child care centers. “West Virginia is in trouble,” Meredith Snead, a concerned native of the state who is spearheading the effort, told me of Senate Bill 359. “No …