January 16, 2026 — Evidence is mounting that the word of the year for 2026 could well be nihilism. Nothing matters. Meaning is void. Science is suppressed. Nonsense is flooding the zone of public discourse. In the contention between signal and noise, noise often seems to be winning. Breaking American Institutions of Science We note with regret that the […]
December 22, 2025 — We’ve had a lot to write about this year and you, our readers, have been doing a lot of reading. This running commentary is simply a labor of love. We don’t sell advertising or anything else here, but we do take pleasure when you read what we write and we do pay attention. So with […]
December 8, 2025 — browser does not support iframeWe write a great deal here about obesity care. That phrase reflects the fact that obesity is a complex chronic disease typically requiring lifelong care. Not just a simple weight loss intervention. But most of the world is not thinking in those terms. And the research symposium last week at NIH […]
November 29, 2025 — “Basically, all the scientific leadership has been wiped out at the CDC. They’re all political people now who are running the CDC and determining what the public health message is going to be,” says Julie Rovner. She has been reporting on the CDC for four decades now and has never seen anything like this. Leadership […]
June 15, 2025 — The previously unquestioned American leadership in science is evaporating. Groundbreaking medical research is stopping abruptly. Research institutes at NIH are disappearing. As this unfolds, the response of many people in supposed roles of scientific leadership has been to duck and take cover. Tell us when it’s over and we can get back to work. Yes, […]
April 29, 2025 — Is this a grand finale? Or a requiem? In The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology yesterday, a new 21-year analysis of outcomes from the Diabetes Prevention Program memorialized an epic study. Even after 21 years, the Diabetes Prevention Program yielded a 24% reduction in the cumulative risk of developing type 2 diabetes, along with detailed outcomes […]
April 19, 2025 — This is an odd way of making America healthy. In fact, the recent, chaotic actions of the new administration seem destined to do precisely the opposite by slashing research and censoring scientists who labor long and hard to advance medical knowledge. A new letter in Lancet puts it bluntly: “In the setting of stalling life […]
April 17, 2025 — The author of some of the most compelling scientific research on ultra-processed foods, Kevin Hall, is leaving NIH because of censorship of his science at the agency. “I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about […]
April 2, 2025 — Yesterday was a profoundly sad day for people who care about American greatness in health. With a measure of gratuitous cruelty, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services slashed 10,000 jobs, wiping out a stunning breadth of health expertise at FDA, CDC, and NIH. Robert Califf, an international expert in clinical research and cardiovascular […]
November 30, 2023 — For the last two days, we have been both observing and participating in an NIH meeting on pharmacotherapy for obesity in children and youth that has been quite a pleasant surprise. Scientists, clinicians, parents, and young persons came together in a stimulating exchange of ideas. Perhaps the most notable dialogue focused on a desire to […]
