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.
- 8 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.
- 8 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 during pregnancy, why the developing fetus is uniquely vulnerable, and how to read the evidence on lead, mercury, and air pollution.
- 8 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, and a careful reason not to overclaim.
- 8 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.
- 8 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.
- 7 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.
- 7 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.
- 8 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.
- 8 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.
- 8 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.
- 7 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.
- 8 min readautism · environment · methods
The mercury in the fish
What fifteen years of studying Jamaican children with and without autism taught us about how to measure an environmental exposure and how to know when you've measured it well.