Office for Science and Society - Separating Sense from Nonsense

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.

Seeing Turmeric in a New Light

Angelina Lapalme — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 02:56:47 +0000

As you could probably tell by spending two minutes in my presence, I love chemistry. It’s part of who I am. To some people, that might get a little annoying, but I promise I know to tone down the chemistry nerdiness depending on my audience. While learning the technical information is great and all, what really excites me is seeing chemistry in action, especially when it catches me by surprise.

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Episodic television crime dramas love to serve up outdated, simplistic but sensationalistic models of human psychology.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.

How PCOS Became PMOS

Sophie Tseng Pellar BSc — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

When scientists discover they've been wrong about a disease, changing their minds is only half the battle. The other half is updating everything that came from that misunderstanding: the textbooks, the guidelines, the assumptions people carry around, and sometimes even the name of the disease itself.

That's exactly what's happening with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which has officially been renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS).

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.

The Case of the Missing Coffee Cup

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

Where did the coffee cup go?

It is a demonstration that never fails to draw oohs and ahhs from students. Pour a small amount of acetone into the bottom of a beaker and drop in a foamed plastic coffee cup. It instantly seems to melt into the liquid and within seconds just vanishes.

Shedding Light On the Magical Finale of Phantom of the Opera

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 22:25:50 +0000

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.

“It’s a de Kolta chair!”

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.