You may or may not have already heard about the recent study published in the “Food and Chemical Toxicology” journal, linking genetically modified (GM) maize with aggressive tumour formation and premature death.

A much anticipated report from the largest such study in its field, the INTERPHONE analysis provided too much ammunition for the shock-title hungry newspapers to resist…

“This house believes that complementary and alternative medicine does more harm than good”. That was the motion of yesterday’s debate, as proposed by Simon Singh. Supporting him was Prof. Michael Baum; opposing him were Prof. George Lewith and Prof. David Peters. Get ready for a debate high on fallacies, low on logic, and with hot tempers!

More bad news for drinkers -and this time it’s even for low to moderate drinkers! Even small quantities of alcohol consumed each day are significantly associated with an increased risk in cancer development, and may contribute up to 13% of the cancer incidents in Britain!

Er, no, not really. It has not been shown conclusively yet. Research findings are currently conflicting. Nevertheless, that was the reassuring headline in many “newspapers”, acting fast to be the bearers of such a happy and relieving message: drink more coffee -it’s good for you! It’s approved by science!

Ah, yes, the very accurate [/sarcasm] and always interesting “What Doctors Won’t Tell You” (WDDTY) web site, that well of misinformation, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation of pretty much everything related to science, has once again done it! They declare: “Cancer: Nuclear workers exposed to same radiation levels as Hiroshima”. And as the mighty Le Canard Noir (from Quackometer) proceeds to dissection, he concludes that “it is so wrong that it could not be wronger if it tried. Everything about it is nonsense. It is so short, yet chocka with misinformation.”

Good afternoon my loyal readers. The web crawl in the scientific blogosphere is about to begin! Fasten your seatbelts! This instalment includes the not-so-far-fetched possibility of restoring a real-life Mammoth; research reporting on the dangers of vitamin overdose; mishandling of probabilities on the evolution of life “debate”; and putting the blame for an unfortunate student suicide on Richard Dawkins…

A new study appeared online yesterday at the Pigment Cell and Melanoma medical journal on the high risks associated with tanning (be it sun tanning or indoors tanning). Read and protect yourselves!