James' World 2

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For decades, clinical algorithms that were used to diagnose disease have included race as a variable. Over the past several years, growing recognition that this may lead to diagnoses being entirely missed or undertreated in certain racial groups has led some doctors and researchers to push to remove race from these algorithms. But change has come slowly to the medical system, in part because clinicians don’t fully know what the ramifications of changing algorithms that are so central to their work will be.

A new analysis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, estimated the impacts of removing race from spirometry, a test used to measure lung function. Historically, physicians in the U.S. expected Black people to have lower lung function, so algorithms that analyze spirometer data have corrected for this by using a different scale. The new study found that switching to a race-neutral equation would result in classifying the lung disease of nearly half a million Black Americans as more severe and increasing disability payments to Black veterans by more than $1 billion.

There are tradeoffs with changing such an important algorithm, but overall the new study “provides good support for the change from race-adjusted to global standards for pulmonary function test interpretation,” says Neil Schluger, a pulmonologist at New York Medical College, who was not involved with the research.

The spirometer is a device that measures the amount of air a person can blow in one breath—a gauge of how well that person’s lungs are functioning. The device has a long history of being used to legitimize racist views of lung function, says Lundy Braun, a historian at Brown University, who has written a book on the subject. Thomas Jefferson once speculated that Black people had different lung function than white people. So when spirometers—which were developed in Europe—were first used in the U.S., physicians here assumed their measurements differed by race, Braun says.

The idea persisted to the present day. But there’s been a growing recognition that “putting race into an algorithm is a flawed concept in that it is assuming something biologic about a person, even though we know that race is not representative of biological differences,” says Sidra Bonner, a general surgeon at the University of Michigan.

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Microwave ovens have long been a staple in kitchens worldwide, revolutionizing the way people cook and consume food. However, a small but growing movement is going microwave-free, driven by health risks and food quality concerns. 

Conversations on social media platforms reveal a sentiment that microwaves are unsafe. Individuals, confident in the health benefits of going microwave-free, share their personal experiences in testimonials, often accompanied by sentiments like “I’ve never looked back.” Some claim that microwave cooking depletes food of nutrients and harms health. 

But are these concerns legitimate? 

Microwave ovens rely on a unique form of non-ionizing radiation, known as “microwaves,” that are distinct from the ionizing radiation found in x-rays and other high-energy sources. According to Christopher Baird, a physicist at West Texas A&M University who specializes in electromagnetics, the microwaves in our kitchens are a form of electromagnetic radiation similar to radio waves.

“It’s exceedingly rare for a microwave oven to malfunction badly enough to harm a nearby human,” Baird says. “Even in those exceedingly rare cases, no damage is done beyond burns and surface nerve damage.”

The inception of the microwave

Microwave ovens are a staple in American kitchens, but that wasn’t always the case. Microwave ovens were initially conceived by Percy Spencer in 1945 after he observed heat-generating microwaves emitted by a magnetron during a radar experiment. His first attempt at converting this to a kitchen tool was colossal, towering at around six feet and weighing over 750 pounds—a far cry from modern models.

When wartime technology was adapted for domestic use following WWII, it resulted in smaller, more user-friendly microwave ovens in American kitchens. Subsequently, the ‘70s saw a notable shift in American eating habits. Food companies increasingly catered to busy families and individuals or those who preferred not to cook, expanding their offerings to frozen, microwavable dinners and snacks—a trend that increased Americans’ dependence on prepared, convenient foods. 

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“SEE AMERICA FIRST,” proclaimed an April 1, 1906, headline in the New York Times, encouraging American tourists to expand their vacation horizons beyond Europe. The slogan, debuted by Utah boosters a few months earlier to promote westward travel, received the Times’ enthusiastic endorsement: “In a fortnight the Far Easterner can really go Far West and see things worth seeing, see many scenic wonders by the way.”

Today, affordable flights to far-flung destinations abound, and it’s easy for the American traveler to again lose sight of how much beauty and diversity exists in their own backyard. The great American road trip has long offered a cure for such complacency, and this summer should be no different: About 75 percent of Americans are expected to travel by car.

Seeking inspiration for your own road trip? These roads are more than just pathways to some of the nation’s most compelling destinations—they’re unforgettable in their own right. With scenic vistas, roadside attractions, and historic curiosities aplenty, these routes call to mind another bygone travel slogan: Getting there is half the fun!

Alaska Highway, Alaska

In the early days of World War II, fears of a potential attack on the Territory of Alaska spurred military officials to create the Alaska Highway. In just nine months, more than 10,000 members of the Army Corps of Engineers completed over 1,500 miles of roadway, a pace no doubt motivated by a healthy dose of competition. Take the 95th Regiment: an under-equipped unit of Black engineers who staked their paychecks on a bet with their white counterparts that they could finish a bridge in five days. It only took them three and a half, and not because of slapdash workmanship—the Sikanni Chief River Bridge was the first permanent structure on the highway and stood for half a century before arson destroyed it in 1992.

On the way to the permafrost of the Alaskan tundra, eagle-eyed motorists may spot caribou, moose, and grizzly bears along the road. Those keen on eyeing bald eagles should plan a stop near the Canadian border at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge. Its wetlands serve as a pit stop for 180 species of migratory birds, including America’s national bird, on their springtime journey towards the ice fields and glaciers at the road’s northernmost reaches. Drivers who opt to follow their wingbeats north can check out a very different type of air travel at Mukluk Land in Tok, Alaska. The junkyard-turned-amusement park is home to “Santa’s Rocket Ship” (a futuristically styled bus straight out of “The Jetsons”) as well as Skee-Ball, miniature golf, and— what else?—the world’s largest mukluk (a sealskin boot).

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About 75 percent of Americans are expected to travel by car this summer. Taking the scenic route along such roadways as Highway 101, seen above in Del Mar, California, can make the trip even more worthwhile. Art Wager/Getty Images

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The U.S. is bracing for another summer of powerful storms and wildfires, on the heels of an unusually warm winter and spring, and the monthly shattering of ocean heat records. Beyond the now-annual threat of smoke that last year blanketed the nation, a thickening haze of lies also looms—about everything from global warming and wildfire smoke to abortion and racism. To break through the dense fog of propaganda on media and social media, those who value scientific integrity will need to expose and rip apart the increasingly interconnected fantasies spun by the anti-reality industry.

With the presumptive Republican presidential nominee falsely calling climate change a “hoax” invented by China, a former tobacco and coal lobbyist brazenly lying to Fox News viewers that last summer’s dense wildfire smoke posed “no health risk,” and an Alabama court redefining frozen embryos as “children,” the consequences of indulging decades of antiscientific agitprop are clear. Conservative think tanks and lobbying groups have spent tens of millions to push false messaging and draft restrictive laws around abortion. The false messaging has included lies about its prevalence, basic biology, and reality in women’s lives. To energize far-right voters, these groups have attacked transgender health care with the same playbook, yielding more than 400 anti-trans laws in 2024 alone. They’ve demonized vaccines and masks, minimized harms from tobacco and wildfire smoke, and denied the realities of climate change and COVID. In the classroom, where many anti-reality crusaders have long fought against the teaching of evolution, they’ve expanded to banning books about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, while attacking global warming education.

Overcoming the mounting harm from the parade of con artists gaslighting the public won’t be easy. More scientists and journalists must help clarify how right-wing ideologues have twisted science and weaponized anti-reality. Ongoing efforts, though, are already revealing the radical motives of such extremists, who share sophisticated ploys, influencers, and, often, deep-pocketed funders.

Meredithe McNamara, a pediatrician at Yale School of Medicine, describes denying reality as one of the main “disinformation playbook” tactics: “The first move is, if you want to ban some sort of care or advance a toxic policy, then deny that the condition for which care is sought even exists, or make false claims about it,” she told me. Denying the existence of dangerous pregnancies or gender dysphoria, directly parallels the denial of COVID, systemic racism, and air pollution.

A 2020 analysis by the climate change-focused journalism site DeSmog revealed that climate denialists share extensive overlaps with those “spreading COVID misinformation, touting false cures, ginning up conspiracy theories and fomenting attacks on public health experts.” Activists affiliated with the Heartland Institute, an oil and gas industry–funded booster of climate denialism, repeatedly attacked COVID public health measures. Some have woven those threads into a wild conspiracy theory about a plot by “eco-radicals” to restrict personal freedoms. Conservative scholars at the even more influential Heritage Foundation, also funded by oil and gas magnates, have misleadingly portrayed COVID and climate models as highly sensitive to “assumptions,” and suggested that climate model advocates “often try to beef them up to satisfy an agenda.”

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Thomas Jackson/Getty Images

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