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“Did states enacting permissive firearm laws after 2010—when McDonald v Chicago was decided by the US Supreme Court—subsequently experience higher rates of pediatric firearm mortality?” Do State gun laws in the US have a connection to the deaths of children and adolescents? Featured article: *Faust, J. S., Chen, J., Bhat, S., Otugo, O., Yaver, M., Renton, B., Chen, A. J., Lin, Z., & Krumholz, H….
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*Capraro, V., Globig, L., Rausch, Z., Rathje, S., Wormley, A. S., Olson, J., … Van Bavel, J. J. (2025, May 15). A consensus statement on potential negative impacts of smartphone and social media use on adolescent mental health. PsyArXiv. [PDF] [Cited by] “The impact of smartphones and social media use on adolescent mental health remains widely debated. To clarify expert opinion, we convened over 120…
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Wildfires are in the news literally every day. Fire seasons are starting earlier and ending later. In recent times, Canada, Greece, Brazil, Hawaii, Chile, Oregon, and California–among many other places–have faced record-breaking and devastating fires. Featured article: *Cunningham, C. X., Williamson, G. J., & Bowman, D. M. J. S. (2024). Increasing frequency and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8(8), 1420-1425….
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Does discrimination happen based on how people talk and sound? Based on accents, word choice, enunciation, emotion, etc.? In the United States, people can be judged harshly because they do not sound “American” or do not speak what a person may consider is “standard English”, or because they (often women) show emotion through voice and actions in a way considered inappropriate (but not when a…
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“… Dishonesty in politics is a long-standing tradition. Many politicians have clearly benefitted from telling voters what they want to hear or what they want to believe, and history is filled with examples of politicians lying to cover up crime and corruption.” “Dishonesty in politics is important because it poses a threat to electoral accountability. Citizens who can detect political lies are more safeguarded against…
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“Ultra-processed foods … encompass a broad range of ready to eat products, including packaged snacks, carbonated soft drinks, instant noodles, and ready-made meals. These products are characterized as industrial formulations primarily composed of chemically modified substances extracted from foods, along with additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance, and durability, with minimal to no inclusion of whole foods.” “Analyses of worldwide ultra-processed food sales data and consumption…
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Opioids are commonly prescribed and used for the management and treatment of muscle pain in humans. Research is showing, however, that they work no better for muscle pain than other safer treatments. While opioids can be effective, for instance, for “short-term relief of other types of severe pain, such as right after surgery and with broken bones” (Dr. Hance Clarke, medical director of the pain…
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Does drinking alcohol have any positive health outcomes? In particular, some past studies have implied that moderate drinking could have some benefit. A journal article that reviewed past research says “no.” Moderate drinking has no health benefits. “This systematic review and meta-analysis of 107 cohort studies involving more than 4.8 million participants found no significant reductions in risk of all-cause mortality for drinkers who drank…
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Featured article: *Woolf SH, Wolf ER, Rivara FP. (2023). The New Crisis of Increasing All-Cause Mortality in US Children and Adolescents. JAMA. Published online March 13, 2023. “Although life expectancy in industrialized countries has lengthened over the past century, increases in US life expectancy ceased after 2010, a trend attributed to rising mortality rates among individuals aged 25 to 64 years. Although midlife mortality rates…
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There has been vigorous debate for more than 20 years about whether nuclear energy can be considered a viable option to help mitigate/prevent warming global temperatures as a result of a changing climate. Can nuclear power be considered a low-carbon energy source? In this featured article, Nikolaus Muellner, et al. evaluate “the climate protection potential of nuclear power” and also factor in “the needed uranium resources.”…
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