McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS)

09/22/2026

Colloquially, the weather people on TV in the Czech Republic are called rosničky - which translates to little green frog. It turns out that the nickname is not totally random.

While animal behavior has been used in the past to track weather patterns, it is best to leave the weather forecasting to the experts with the computers.

Read more on our website 🐸
https://mcgill.ca/x/5DB

As is typical in many language courses, we recently started the weather unit in my Czech class. Aside from learning weather-related vocabulary, my instructor – who is always privy to a fun fact – taught us that in Czech, TV weather reporters are called rosnička. This name does not translate to ...

09/21/2026

Could your morning coffee be doing more than just helping you wake up? ☕️

A major new study followed more than 130,000 people for over 40 years to investigate the relationship between caffeine consumption and cognitive health. 🧠

The findings add an interesting new chapter to the ongoing coffee debate, and may give coffee drinkers one more reason to enjoy their daily cup.

Read our full breakdown on the website.
https://mcgill.ca/x/5DX

Coffee is everywhere, and so are the debates around it. Does it stunt growth? Ruin sleep? Boost performance? There’s no shortage of caffeine discourse. But today’s topic is one worth paying attention to: a major new JAMA study examining whether long-term caffeine consumption is linked to dementi...

09/20/2026

“Barbie Peptide,” the viral nickname for melanotan II, has been promoted on the internet for performing miracles. This alluring compound, said to pigment the skin without exposure to ultraviolet light, increase sexual arousal, and decrease one’s appetite, has yet to gain approval to go on the market.

However, that has not stopped “wellness influencers” on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook from recommending it.

Get the full scoop on our website in Dr. Joe’s article. 💉
https://mcgill.ca/x/5Dm

“Barbie Peptide.” Why “Barbie” and why “peptide?” Barbie, the iconic little polyvinyl chloride (PVC) doll with the bronzed skin, svelte waistline and sexy figure first appeared in toy stores in 1959. Little surprise that social media influencers have now named a drug that is supposed to ...

09/17/2026

Criminal activity seems to be underway… Dr. Joe investigates 🔍

09/16/2026

Year-round, we can expect to see yellow bananas on grocery store shelves, piles of avocados, copious amounts of apple varieties, and the list goes on.

But what if we only cooked with ingredients made available to us at farmer’s markets? I did some digging, and as it turns out, eating seasonally doesn’t just benefit the environment, but also our health.

Get the full story on our website 🍓🍉🍒🍎🍏🥭🫐🍌

https://mcgill.ca/x/5RA

At the beginning of summer, I experienced an unfortunate reality check. While fantasizing about sunbathing in the park accompanied by an abundant summer picnic, I reveled over my famous watermelon-feta salad. This salad, I told my friend, would make an appearance on the next warm day. Foolishly expe...

09/15/2026

Is sitting the new smoking? 🪑🚬

We all spend hours sitting at our desks, studying, working, or scrolling on our phones. But prolonged sedentary time may be doing more to our health than we realize.

Research links excessive sitting with cardiometabolic disease, some cancers, and premature mortality, even among people who exercise regularly.

The good news? You don’t have to spend your day at the gym. Taking short movement breaks, walking for a few minutes, or simply changing your posture throughout the day can help.

Read the full article to learn what happens in the body when we sit for too long and why being physically active doesn’t necessarily cancel out prolonged sitting.

https://mcgill.ca/x/5aR

Have you ever spent hours at your desk, studying, working, or scrolling on your phone, only to realize you barely moved all day? We often assume that sitting is harmless, especially compared to obvious risks like smoking, but over the past decade there have been increasing concerns about whether sit...

09/13/2026

A recent paper published in Nature Medicine, linking pesticide exposure to early-onset colorectal cancer, has caused quite the stir. Dr. Joe breaks down this study, and posits that there are far more plausible candidates for the cause of early-onset colorectal cancer than exposure to pesticides. Think processed meat, high sugar intake, and obesity.

The bottom line? There are too many holes for the study to be of any practical significance.

Get the full story on our website.
https://mcgill.ca/x/5aB

09/11/2026

If cancer takes years to develop and is considered a disease of aging, how can kids get cancer? 🧬🧒

Childhood cancers are different from most adult cancers. They can arise with fewer DNA mutations and often involve changes in how genes are switched on and off.

And no, parents aren’t to blame. Childhood cancer is often random and unpredictable.

09/11/2026

In 2018, headlines announced scientists had discovered a new organ: the interstitium. That wasn't quite true. The fluid-filled space between our cells was already known. What was new was seeing, with fresh imaging tech, how large and interconnected these pockets could get.

That distinction didn't survive contact with the press, or with everyone eager to use it. Acupuncturists claimed it proved their practice works. Osteopaths folded it into theories about fascia. And one of the pathologists behind the original discovery, Neil Theise, decided it was biological proof that the entire universe is connected.

This is a story about how science gets stretched past recognition. Sometimes by outsiders selling nonsense. Sometimes by the researchers themselves.

Read the full piece on our website.
https://mcgill.ca/x/5aL

Science is elastic. Its findings can be stretched to sell useless gadgets and to sow mistrust. Often, this distortion of the truth is done outside of academia by merchants of doubt, spiritual influencers, and credulous entrepreneurs who do not understand that the most important lesson in research is...

09/05/2026

AI Doctors are popping up everywhere but they do not care about your health. 👩🏻‍⚕️🧑🏻‍⚕️👨🏽‍⚕️

Some predatory YouTube channels publish videos of “doctors” giving medical advice. But who’s really behind these videos? AI. 🤖

It’s all a ploy for people to make money off of the advertisements that play alongside these videos. 💵💰

These videos are flooding the internet, and praying upon the most vulnerable targets, the elderly.

Share this with someone who needs to know what’s really behind these “doctors.” 🧠💡