medicine - Stephen Ornes

Research Has a “Trash Island.” Some Are Trying to Clean it Up.

artificial intelligence, medicine, Recent Work / Stephen Ornes

Bad science can do lasting damage. A study falsely connecting COVID-19 to 5G wireless technology, for instance, was quickly retracted for its sloppy methods and unearned conclusions, though not before causing a wave of conspiracy theories. This past March, a controversial 2017 study suggesting sepsis could be treated with vitamin C—a sign of hope in the battle […]

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God is my co-investigator

medicine, nutrition, Recent Work / Stephen Ornes

Religious fasts offer opportunities for reflection, penitence and good data about human dietary needs. Unlike laboratory rats, humans can’t be easily coerced into a new diet. Nutrition studies have had to grapple with that fact from the very start, which is why some of the earliest research was conducted in prisons, where Victorian researchers could

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Blockchain beyond Bitcoin

medicine, Physics, Recent Work, Tech / Stephen Ornes

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to Bitcoin, a volatile digital currency that’s untethered to any specific institution or country (1). (Satoshi Nakamoto was quickly revealed to be a pseudonym; the true identity of the inventor or inventors remains unknown.) In the years that followed, the value of Bitcoin has soared, plummeted, and soared

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Riding a Wave of Sound

cancer research, medicine, Physics, Recent Work, Tech / Stephen Ornes

One way to get drugs through the blood-brain barrier: smuggle them across using sound waves. The blood-brain barrier, a name given to the tightly packed vascular cells in the brain’s capillaries, keeps the central nervous system remarkably free of most pathogens. But that defense is a major challenge for delivering drugs that treat brain disorders.

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