Interesting Things, Week 3 - Transgender Health, PFAS, Lemon Water, and more
Another week of science and health
We’re now into the third week of the Interesting Things newsletter, and I’m interested to know what you’re all thinking about receiving my brain thoughts into your inbox once a week. Are you enjoying these? What could be improved? Let me know in the comments below!
For those who’ve been following me on Twitter for a while, you’ll know it’s been a tumultuous time recently. I personally absolutely love Twitter, and seeing Elon Musk take a hammer to what was until now a really useful and fun resource has just been depressing.
But hope springs anew, and despite the ongoing strife of Twitter there are now a half-dozen other places you can find me if you’re interested! I’m on Bluesky as gidmk, Threads and Tiktok as gidmkhealthnerd, and I’ve been on Mastodon for a while now. Come say hi.
Also, for those of you who’ve signed up for paid subscriptions - thanks so much. I’ve got a few fun things coming up for anyone whose paying for Substack, going to announce the first one next week. If you want to be involved, feel free to pay, but don’t stress if you don’t want to there’ll still be plenty of fun stuff for free subscribers as well.
On to the science!
Forever Chemicals, PFAS, and drinking water
There’s been a huge media splash about PFAS, which are potential human health concerns, being found in drinking water across the US. I had a look at the research behind these scare stories on Twitter and Tiktok, and can say that the reality isn’t nearly as scary as the headlines would have you believe.
Bad Science Getting in the Way of Healthcare for Transgender People
There’s a lot of bad science in the transgender space, most of it being used to deny healthcare to people who identify as trans. A friend and I took a long look at a very bad study, and explained why this research doesn’t really support the arguments against providing healthcare to trans kids.
Predicting The Future
A great mathematician that I follow from the UK, Kit Yates, has just written a book about predicting the future. I cannot recommend it entirely, as I haven’t finished the thing yet (I am SO BUSY right now), but it seems great from what I’ve gotten through so far.
Lemon Water is Useless for your Health
My newest post for paid subscribers is out, looking at lemon water and your health, and why adding a squeeze of lemon probably doesn’t make water into a magical panacea. It’s a great post, more incentive to sign up for a paid subscription ;)
And that’s the science for the week! Hope you enjoyed, and leave your suggestions below.