Bob Park’s What’s New: July 18, 2025
No, Bob Park — the physicist who wrote the What’s New newsletter for years — did not write this. Instead, I am imagining what Park would have said were he alive today. The opinions are mine and not necessarily those of Bob Park (but they should be).
What’s New, by Bob Park
Friday, July 18, 2025
1. ALUMINUM IN VACCINES DOES NOT CAUSE AUTISM
A paper published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports on a study of over a million children in Denmark between 1997 and 2018. It concludes “This nationwide cohort study did not find evidence supporting an increased risk for autoimmune, atopic or allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders associated with early childhood exposure to aluminum-adsorbed vaccines.” Aluminum has been a target of anti-vaxers, but this study shows there is no correlation between aluminum in vaccines and diseases like autism. That’s one less thing to worry about.
2. CHEMTRAILS? SHOW ME THE EVIDENCE!
“Chemtrails” are the latest front in the Republican War on Science. Some politicians, such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, claim chemicals are being released by high-flying jet airplanes to cause geoengineering. There is one thing lacking in this conspiracy theory: evidence. Take a look at the research article cited above about aluminum in vaccines, and then ask yourself where is a similar study about these so-called chemtrails? Where’s the evidence? Without evidence, all you have is a conspiracy theory. Evidence is how scientists judge what is true or false. Show me the evidence! Did I repeat the word “evidence” enough to make my point?
3. FIRST THE DIRECTOR, THEN THE ACADEMIC COUNCILS, THEN…
According to a report in the journal Nature, the National Institutes of Health will soon “disinvite” dozens of scientists who were chosen to join the advisory councils of its various institutes. Each institute has an academic council, and it functions similar to a company’s board of trustees, offering advice on the overall direction of the institute. These are not just “grant reviewers,” but key members of the institute leadership. Apparently NIH staff have been told to replace academic council members with people “who are aligned with the priorities of the administration of US President Donald Trump.” This is one more front on the continuing Republican War on Science. Essentially, NIH is being destroyed from the top down.
4. HIDE THE EVIDENCE
The Trump administration announced this week that it will not publish the most recent national climate assessment on government websites. Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe said “this document was written for the American people, paid for by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselves safe in a changing climate, as the disasters that continue to mount demonstrate so tragically and clearly.” I guess the idea is that if you hide the evidence, the problem goes away. Meanwhile, the world gets warmer and warmer.
5. JOIN US IN ANTI-SCIENCE OR WE QUIT
If you think there’s not a Republican War on Science, then consider this. According to the website bloomberg.com, Energy Secretary Chris White said that “we will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA [International Energy Agency] operates or we will withdraw.” The IEA’s sin: it promotes green energy. What is White really saying? Let me rephrase his quote: “We will do one of two things: we will insist that the IEA stop using science to forecast energy use and climate change risk, or we quit.” Perhaps I was too kind to White. I rephrase again, more accurately: “We will do one of two things: we will insist that the IEA join the USA in rejecting science and promoting anti-science nonsense, or we quit.” Yes, Virginia, there is a Republican War on Science.