Critical Thinking

Injections of ‘MOTS-c’ Can Make You Live Longer. If You Are a Mouse

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 03:24:15 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

The Homicidal Triad Seen on Crime Dramas Is Wrong

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:34:00 +0000

If you have a child who still wets the bed after the age of 5, and if you are a fan of crime dramas, you may be asking yourself some seriously dark questions about your kid’s future.

Episodic television crime dramas love to serve up outdated, simplistic but sensationalistic models of human psychology. Criminals with weird manifestations of OCD get easily profiled by preternaturally competent, fast-talking, genius-IQ law enforcement officers, who bring the perp to justice in 42 minutes tops. Real life this is not.

Handling Receipts at the Supermarket

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 18:18:08 +0000

I was startled by the comment from the shopper just behind me at the checkout counter in the supermarket. “You really shouldn’t be doing that!” Noting the quizzical look on my face, a further clarification was obviously needed. “I mean you shouldn’t be handling the receipt,” she went on. Indeed, I had taken the thermal paper receipt from the cashier and without looking at it tossed it in with the groceries. I now understood my fellow shopper’s concern.

Blue Light Vs. Red Light

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:34:54 +0000

There is an epic fight unfolding between the light side and the dark side of, no, not the Force, but the light spectrum itself. You will have seen the countless gadgets claiming to heal you with red light—the creepy masks full of LEDs, the therapeutic light boxes, even the full-body infrared saunas. Red light, we are told, has health benefits.

Let’s Rap About Rapamycin

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 13:54:52 +0000

Easter Island in the Pacific off the coast of Chile is famous for the giant stone statues that were erected by natives some 500-700 years ago. The thinking is that the statues were designed to honour eminent ancestors by providing a home for their spirits to inhabit. In the 1960s, Easter Island made it into headlines for a totally different reason. Soil samples were found to contain Streptomyces hygroscopicus, a bacterium that produces a chemical with antifungal activity.

AI Scribes in the Clinic: What Patients Should Know

Sophie Tseng Pellar BSc — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:16:13 +0000

The last time I went to the doctor, I was handed a form to sign. It was a consent form asking for my permission to allow the doctor to use an AI scribe during our appointment. I signed it without much hesitation, partly out of habit, partly out of an assumption that this is simply where healthcare is headed in the age of AI technology. Now, months later, after spending a semester conducting a health technology assessment on AI scribes for one of my courses, I realized that moment deserved more scrutiny.

Protein-Rich Bridges and Edible Houses

Eva Kellner B.A.Sc. — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

For most tourists in Prague, visiting the Charles Bridge is pretty much at the top of the sightseeing list. The medieval stone bridge, completed in the 15th century, was a part of the royal route – the path Bohemian kings took to the Prague Castle for their coronations. It also served as a key trade route, and now, is perhaps the most international place in Prague. Alongside its immense historical and cultural significance for the Czech Republic and the Bohemian Kingdom, there is one myth around its construction that may warrant some head scratching.

Whether Organic or Not, Put Fruit and Veggies On Your Grocery List

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 28 May 2026 23:57:10 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Aspartame: Not the Devil Incarnate but Not A Godsend Either

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 28 May 2026 23:43:46 +0000

Long before “wellness influencers” honed the art of spreading misinformation on the internet, the public was at the mercy of being befuddled by hoaxes through chain emails. Way back in the 1990s, I was the recipient of one of these from “Dr.” Betty Martini in which she described a speech given by one Nancy Markle at the “World Environmental Conference” in which she claimed that the artificial sweetener aspartame was the cause of multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, seizures, brain tumours, lupus and Alzheimer’s disease.

Talking to Animals… Telepathically? The Science Behind Pet Communication

Cici Chen — Thu, 28 May 2026 23:10:52 +0000

The Claim and How It Gains Credibility

Exaggerated Fears Over Cancer Biopsies Can Worsen Cancer

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Thu, 28 May 2026 22:54:23 +0000

Fear of the needle is not reserved to the vaccine hesitant; it extends to biopsies as well. In corners of social media where misinformation accumulates, influencers with an axe to grind against doctors are warning people to stay away from biopsies that help diagnose a cancer. “NEVER do a prostate biopsy, NEVER do a breast biopsy,” you will read, as the biopsy is said to spread the very cancer it is sampling.

The Science Behind the Quest for a Non-Peptide Oral Weight Loss Drug

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 21 May 2026 20:02:24 +0000

Not only does it have a tongue-twisting name, “orforglipron” has a complex molecular structure that made its synthesis very challenging. A massive effort by chemists at the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company finally resulted in a viable synthesis, but why this massive effort? Because the payoff also promises to be massive! Orforglipron is the first “small molecule” to act as an oral “GLP-1 agonist". Its discovery takes us on a long and winding journey.

Health Monitoring Has Come a Long Way, From Rolled-Up Paper to AI

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:14:04 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Remember Theranos, the company that promised to revolutionize longevity by making health data instantly available from blood collected from a finger prick, allowing for “alerts” to make lifestyle changes?

Alex Clark’s Right-Wing Wellness Podcast Reaches New Lows

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Thu, 14 May 2026 18:43:31 +0000

“Raw milk is better for your teeth than any of these toothpastes you’ll get.”

Why Did LLMs Steal Our Em-Dashes?

Lia Erisson — Fri, 08 May 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Upon ChatGPT's release in 2022, I realized that I wrote like AI. My sentences were long, my writing patterns were predictable, and my use of em-dashes was frequent. Initially, I was not concerned: if models are being trained to write like me, I must be doing a good job, right?