Fatherhood, Skeptically

So recently, I was informed about an at home, urine-based gender determination test called IntelliGender. Think a pregnancy test but for determining if you are expecting a boy or a girl. As this was the first time I had heard of such a thing, I was curious as to how this test worked. I went into my investigation having no real reason to doubt the test; I was expecting to find the usual list of binding proteins, antibodies, and the like. However, I received quite a shock when I found nothing of the sort. This dive ended up being a really good exercise in skepticism so I thought I'd share the experience (and break an almost year-long hiatus to boot). My first step when investigating a product like this is to go to the product's page. See what the company has to say, what evidence they have to offer, etc. Even if a product is pseudoscience, they will generally have some links to a dense (but legitimate) study that only tangentially applies to their product or some manufactured stu

COVID-19. It's everywhere either literally or figuratively. If you're like a couple friends of mine who have been looking for some scientific perspective, you're probably worried about how you can protect your kids. I'd like to do what little I can to shed some light on that. Before I start, I'd like to make a little disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, or epidemiologist. If you have significant concerns of any form, you're best bet is to get it from the source. For the disease itself, I'll leave the important information to the CDC . Their info is likely to be the most robust and is concise enough for any level of understanding. They'll also keep it updated so it'll be the most relevant. Obviously, following their recommendations is probably your best bet. Though avoiding the disease should be your number one goal, the recorded cases in children have largely presented as mild. So unless your child is immunocompromised, they will likely weather t

With Halloween around the corner, my social media has been inundated with spooky (not that I mind, at all). Everything from kids costume adds, to Halloween memes, to invites to spooky events. It's a great time of year. Strangely, this year I've noticed a lot of posts about the poison candy myth; specifically, how it is completely false. It is totally understandable why parents would be concerned about their kids eating candy handed out by a stranger. But it is also understandable why so many folks get frustrated that this myth continues to get spread about. Because of this, I wanted to dive in on the origins of this myth and whether we should or should not be worried for our kids. As with many skeptical discussions, I think it is important to set forth some operational definitions; i.e. what qualifies as a Halloween poisoning? Well there are some isolated incidents of children's candy being poisoned. For example, in 1974, Ronald O'Bryan gave cyanide laced pixie sti

Today, were going to talk about a toxin. This may come as a surprise as toxin is one of the more common pseudoscience buzzwords. Truly, there seems to be an abundance of discussion in parenting blog circles about toxins. Ironically, many who espouse these beliefs themselves ingest an incredibly potent neurotoxin: alcohol. Now, to be clear, I too drink; in fact I am an avid brewer and self proclaimed beer connoisseur. But I am also a chemist so I am no stranger to just how dangerous a compound alcohol is. It may seem strange to be discussing an adult beverage on a blog about parenting. But it may surprise you just how deeply this drink affects our lives. Figure 1 : Ethanol Structure Humans have a long cultural history with alcohol. In fact, there is evidence  that we have been making some form of beer since 11,000 BCE (13,000 years ago). This makes some sense, as fermentation is an effective way to preserve the calories in grain. Furthermore, our ability to rapidly metabolize a

In my short tenure as a father I've seen my kids put pretty much everything in their mouths. More often than not the objects in question are decidedly less than edible. Because of this, I tend not to overly concern myself when they are eating actual food. That's not to say that I don't worry about my kids nutrition, I do. But when someone tries to tell me that I need to be concerned about my child eating GMOs because of some unexplained health effect, nondescript toxin, or wild industrial conspiracy I tend to brush their concerns off. This is especially the case because I have a degree in biochemistry; so when all these concerned parents spew myths about the safety of GMOs I know on a very fundamental level what factual mistakes they've made. That's not to say their whole process has been founded in wrong turns. Far from it, most parents start from a very appropriate place: wanting to give their child the best chance in life. I'd like to discuss today why GMOs