Writing

Essays and explainers

Longer-form writing translating research (the ERAJ autism work in Jamaica, stroke outcomes across borders, and methodological questions that shape what a study can actually answer) into language for readers outside the field.

August 22, 20267 min readresearch methods · biomarkers · clinical trials
Validation and qualification: what a biomarker has to earn
Biomarker validation and qualification answer different questions. What context of use means, and why a reliable measurement can still be the wrong endpoint.
August 11, 20267 min readepidemiology · causal inference · research methods
Bradford Hill viewpoints: what they can and cannot settle
The Bradford Hill criteria explained: what Hill's nine viewpoints were for, why he warned against checklist use, and how they are applied today.
August 8, 20269 min readpediatric research · clinical trials · research methods
How safety trials in children are designed
Pediatric trials are not adult trials with smaller doses. How federal risk categories, assent rules, and pediatric extrapolation shape what gets studied.
August 4, 20268 min readstroke · evidence · research methods
Why time still matters in acute stroke care
The 2026 stroke guideline widened treatment windows using advanced imaging. Why elapsed time still shapes outcomes, and what the trials measured.
August 1, 20268 min readepidemiology · study design · research methods
Case-control or cohort: how design shapes the answer
Case-control and cohort studies sample in opposite directions, and that single choice decides what each design can measure. A plain explanation of both.
July 28, 20267 min readenvironmental health · metabolomics · methods
What metabolomics can show about environmental exposure
Metabolomics measures the small molecules exposure leaves behind. What the method can reveal about environmental exposure, and where it falls short.
July 21, 20268 min readenvironmental health · child development · methods
Mercury in fish and child development: the evidence
Fish carries methylmercury, a neurotoxicant, and nutrients tied to better child development. Here is what the research shows, and why studies disagree.
July 18, 20267 min readgut-brain axis · microbiome · evidence
The gut-brain axis: what the evidence supports, and what it does not
The gut-brain axis links the microbiome to the brain through nerves, immunity, and metabolites. What research establishes, and what stays unproven.
July 14, 20267 min readenvironment · epidemiology · methods
The exposome explained: measuring a lifetime of exposures
The exposome is the sum of a person's lifetime exposures. What the concept means, how researchers measure it, and why it is reshaping environmental health.
July 11, 20267 min readstroke · outcomes · methods
How do we measure stroke recovery? The modified Rankin Scale, and what it can and cannot capture
The modified Rankin Scale is the most common outcome measure in stroke trials. What its 0 to 6 grades mean, why reliability is hard, and what it misses.
July 7, 20268 min readresearch methods · epidemiology · scientific literacy
Relative risk versus absolute risk: how to read a scary health headline
Relative risk vs absolute risk: why a headline that says a risk doubled can still mean almost nothing, and the questions to ask of any health study.
July 4, 20268 min readenvironmental health · prenatal exposure · epidemiology
Prenatal exposure to environmental contaminants: what the evidence supports, and what it does not
How researchers study environmental exposures in pregnancy, why the fetus is vulnerable, and how to read the evidence on lead, mercury, and air pollution.
June 30, 20268 min readenvironmental health · gene-environment interaction · methods
Detoxification genes and toxic metals: what gene-environment research can and cannot show
Two children can face the same environmental exposure and carry very different internal doses. Detoxification genes are part of why, without overclaiming.
June 27, 20268 min readresearch methods · biostatistics · scientific literacy
What a p-value actually tells you, and what it does not
A p-value is one of the most misread numbers in science. Here is what it actually measures, what it does not, and how to read it without overclaiming.
June 23, 20268 min readenvironmental health · child neurodevelopment · epidemiology
Autism and the environment: what studies can and cannot show
Autism and environmental exposures: what epidemiology can and cannot establish, why association is not causation, and how genes and environment interact.
June 20, 20267 min readenvironmental health · child neurodevelopment · heavy metals
Manganese and the developing brain: an essential nutrient that can also harm
Manganese is a nutrient the body needs and a neurotoxin in excess. What the evidence shows about manganese exposure and child brain development, explained.
June 16, 20267 min readenvironmental health · biomarkers · methods
How do you measure a metal in a child's body? What biomarkers can and cannot tell us
Blood, urine, hair, and even teeth each keep a different record of metal exposure. A look at how researchers measure exposure in children and how they read it.
June 13, 20268 min readepidemiology · methods · causation
Why correlation is not causation: confounding and how epidemiologists actually decide
What confounding means in epidemiology, why correlation is not causation, and how researchers use study design and Bradford Hill viewpoints to weigh evidence.
June 9, 20268 min readstroke · methods · evidence
Thrombectomy for large-core stroke: what the recent trials actually show
For years a large stroke core ruled out thrombectomy. A wave of randomized trials overturned that. Here is what the evidence shows, and what it does not.
June 6, 20268 min readenvironment · pediatric · methods
Arsenic in drinking water: what the evidence says about children and health risk
An evidence-based explainer on arsenic in drinking water: where it comes from, the 10 ppb standard, and what the carcinogen and child-development evidence shows.
June 2, 20267 min readenvironment · pediatric · methods
Lead exposure in children: the sources, and what the evidence shows
How researchers measure childhood lead exposure, where children encounter it, and what the evidence does and does not establish about effects on development.
March 18, 20268 min readautism · environment · methods
The mercury in the fish
What fifteen years studying Jamaican children with and without autism taught us about how to measure an environmental exposure, and know it's measured well.