“[The law] essentially ends your ability to combat bad ideas put out by public health because you have this looming power that over you that essentially can end your career,” says Jay Bhattacharya.

Many scientists lobbying for the deregulation of agricultural biotechnology ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs) in the European Union have either direct or indirect interests in commercialising and marketing new genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Malone points out that the most effective way to avoid the kinds of policy fiascos the U.S. government finds itself in on a regular basis is to create completely separate problem-solving groups that do not interact with each other.

The new agents of persecution are not jackbooted secret police thugs instilling fear, but almond milk latte-swigging university officials imposing unpleasant consensus. George Orwell’s vicious O’Brien has yielded to Ken Kesey’s passive-aggressive Nurse Ratched.

For some reason, a group of scientists and the National Science Foundation, which is funding their research, feel it would be wise to make lettuce and spinach express proteins from pathogens by giving these plants the mRNA blueprints to work with.

Why is the FDA focusing on homeopathic medicines that are far safer than the pharmaceutical drugs they approve? We can infer some answers. The FDA gets a large part of its funding from drug company user fees, and for this reason sees Big Pharma as its client.

We thought we needed to bring structure and form and mathematics — and then you had this crazy shift in which the economists understood there was a ton of money to be made by giving lawyers useful narratives and we sold our soul.

Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist.