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Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026
Each year I like to document the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine here on SBM – it’s a great reminder of the power of science to transform medicine. There is nothing like it in so-called “alternative medicine”, which is still peddling basically the same snake oil and energy nonsense of previous centuries, just with updated marketing. This year the prize goes...
The Brain is a Composite Organ
A new study published in Nature Neuroscience shows evidence that our brains are actually two organs combined into one composite organ.
AI Moral Decision-Making
LLM-based AI models are being increasingly used by physicians to assist clinical decision-making. What might their effect on medical moral reasoning be?
Body Integrity Dysphoria – A Rare and Informative Condition
A fifty-year-old man was admitted through the emergency room with extensive dry ice injuries to his left leg. For two days his doctors tried to save the leg, but the damage was too extensive, so eventually they had to perform a below-knee amputation. During this time the patient also suffered from small strokes due to fat emboli from the damaged leg. After...
Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine Six Years On
More than six years after the pandemic arrived and ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were first touted as COVID cures, the evidence shows more than ever that they don't work.
The NFL and Brain Injury
Last week I wrote about traumatic brain injury (TBI). By coincidence, the BMJ just published a study looking at a type of TBI called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repeated head injuries over a long period of time, even those not severe enough to cause an acute TBI. They were looking specifically at former NFL football players, because that...
Preventing Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects tens of millions of people worldwide each year with about 5 million deaths. For those who survive there is often permanent neurological impairment. TBI is therefore a serious public health issue that needs to be addressed. The largest international study of TBI was recently published in Nature Medicine, providing some insight into how best to approach the...
Trump’s Frontal Assault on Vaccines
On Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order full of antivax goals. It's a frontal assault on vaccines.
AI And Pseudoscience
We have to deal with artificial intelligence (AI). We cannot simply dismiss it or criticize it, and we certainly shouldn’t just embrace it without significant skepticism. But I feel it is necessary for any science communicator to do their best to become AI-literate – even if AI itself is not your field of communication. AI now touches everything. For example, increasingly people...
The CDC Has Been Hollowed Out
A new report from the NYT tells a chilling story of how the Centers for Disease Control has been hollowed out over the last 18 months under Trump and RFK Jr. We have been covering this story as it has been developing, but it is useful to take a look at where we are and the totality of the destruction that has...