• Why is oral phenylephrine still clogging pharmacy shelves?

    Last year an advisory committee to the US FDA concluded oral phenylephrine was ineffective as a nasal decongestant.

    The announcement followed decades of growing evidence suggesting the popular cold and flu medicine simply didn’t work.

    So why does an ineffective medicine still dominate our pharmacy shelves? And what is Australia’s regulator, the TGA, doing about it? 

    Read more… The Medical Republic, January 2024

  • Don't worry – Picking your nose doesn't cause Alzheimer's disease

    It's been a rough week for nose-pickers around the world, with a torrent of news headlines loudly declaring "scary evidence" has been found showing Alzheimer's disease is linked with a bit of finger-based nasal exploration. Turns out this link comes from a deeply speculative press release and, according to several neuroscientists New Atlas contacted, is "extremely unlikely."

    Read more… (New Atlas, November 2022)

  • How the media got its “tomato flu” coverage so very wrong

    Did you hear about a new virus sweeping through kids in India? It’s called “tomato flu,” and according to some reports we all should be very concerned. But it turns out “tomato flu” is not new, has potentially been around in some form for at least 15 years, and is probably just a relatively novel manifestation of a common childhood virus.

    Read more… (New Atlas, August 2022)

  • Bizarre study finds common parasite can make you more attractive

    Imagine a parasite has infected you and that parasite needs you to have sex to move to a new host. It would certainly be in that parasite’s interest to help you become more physically attractive to a mate and act more promiscuously. An extraordinary new study suggest that scenario may actually be playing out with one of the most common parasites in the world potentially manipulating its human host’s appearance to be more sexually attractive.

    Read more… (New Atlas, August 2022)

  • How a CIA trap for Bin Laden led to vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan

    A new study from a pair of European researchers has found a covert CIA plot to capture Osama Bin Laden in early 2011 led to significant drops in vaccination rates in Pakistan. The plot, using a fake vaccination campaign to capture children’s DNA samples in order to locate Bin Laden, was used in anti-vaccine propaganda in the following years.

    Read more… (New Atlas, May 2021)

  • The neuroscience of isolation: A trip to Antarctica can shrink your brain

    A striking new study has tracked the effects of extreme isolation on the brains of nine crew members who spent 14 months living on a remote research station in Antarctica. The study presents some of the first evidence ever gathered to show how intense physical and social isolation can cause tangible structural changes in a person’s brain, revealing significant reductions in several different brain regions.

    Read more… (New Atlas, December 2019)

  • Disproving the bystander effect: CCTV study finds people intervene in conflict more than expected

    For over half a century the field of social psychology has been dominated by the idea of the bystander effect. This phenomenon suggests when scenes of aggression or violence unfold in public spaces individuals not involved are unlikely to offer help or intervene, especially when more bystanders are present. A new study is challenging this long-held proposition, finding bystanders actually do intervene in the vast majority of violent incidents that unfold in public spaces.

    Read more… (New Atlas, June 2019)

  • The new gateway drug? E-cigarettes and their growing global prohibition

    San Francisco city officials recently proposed new legislation that would essentially ban the sale of all e-cigarettes in the city until the FDA conducts a thorough public health review allowing the products to be sold. The proposal is the first of its kind in the United States and questions both the overall safety profile of e-cigarettes, and whether vaping acts as a gateway for young people into using tobacco products.

    Read more… (New Atlas, March 2019)

  • The “honest” placebo: When drugs still work even though patients know they're fake

    A new study has found patients suffering from cancer-related fatigue displayed significant improvement in their symptoms after being given an inert placebo. All the subjects were told at the beginning of the study that the pills they were being given contained no active pharmacological ingredients, yet a notable placebo effect was still identified. This new study adds to a compelling growing body of work suggesting "honest" placebos could play a role in certain kinds of clinical treatments.

    Read more… (New Atlas, October 2018)

  • Inside the brains of psychopaths

    A team of scientists recently packed a mobile MRI scanner on the back of a tractor trailer and hauled it into a medium security prison with the goal of scanning a high volume of criminals that have been classified as psychopaths. This wasn't the first time researchers have trucked MRIs into prison to study the brains of psychopaths. We seem to be endlessly fascinated with understanding how psychopaths think and our growing insight into the neuroscience behind psychopathy is fundamentally altering ideas of personal responsibility and metal illness.

    Read more… (New Atlas, July 2017)