Industrial agriculture freed many people to pursue lives their parents and grandparents could never have. It made America modern. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Many of the most eloquent people I have ever met work in lab coats every day. — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
We are inhabited by as many as ten thousand bacterial species; these cells outnumber those which we consider our own by ten… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
When people say they prefer organic food, what they often seem to mean is they don't want their food tainted with pesticides… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Many climate scientists say their biggest fear is that warming could melt the Arctic permafrost - which stretches for thousands of miles… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Why do people refuse to vaccinate their children against measles or whooping cough? In many cases, because they have never seen measles… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
There are many theories about the best way to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere - some are ludicrous, others are at… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
If caught early, Lyme is easily treated with antibiotics. But activists, and many researchers, have long contended that tens of thousands of… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Although it may seem callous to say so, millions of Americans are lucky that Magic Johnson was infected with H.I.V. There is… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
'Meat' is a vague term and can be used to refer to many parts of an animal, including internal organs and skin.… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
I moved from Moscow to Rome with my family and two bicycles in 1998, and spent a lot of that year- and… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
The most blatant forms of denialism are rarely malevolent; they combine decency, a fear of change, and the misguided desire to do… — Michael Specter Copy Share Image
Until the Nineteen-Eighties, when Deng Xiaoping designated the area as China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen had been a tiny fishing village. Suddenly, eleven… — Michael Specter Copy Share
There are people who could watch a hurricane like Sandy blow out of the Atlantic every other day and blame it on anything but… — Michael Specter Copy Share
We're lying ourselves into believing things are untrue, like organic food will solve all our problems, or vitamins will make us healthy, or we… — Michael Specter Copy Share
I started to write about science and medicine at the 'Washington Post,' in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. — Michael Specter Copy Share
Clearly, some of the reason people embrace alternatives and reject vaccines is that they are angry and mistrustful of government and of pharmaceutical conglomerates.… — Michael Specter Copy Share
The numbers matter: underreporting of Lyme disease obscures the true burden of the illnesses, on individuals as well as on health-care systems. It also… — Michael Specter Copy Share
There is a major problem with reliance on placebos, like most vitamins and antioxidants. Everyone gets upset about Big Science, Big Pharma, but they… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Denialist arguments are often bolstered by accurate information taken wildly out of context, wielded selectively, and supported by fake experts who often don't seem… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Your dollar cheeseburger isn't a dollar if you factor in what it's going to cost in health care. — Michael Specter Copy Share
To suggest that organic vegetables, which cost far more than conventional produce, can feed billions of people in parts of the world without roads… — Michael Specter Copy Share
The history of agriculture is the history of humans breeding seeds and animals to produce traits we want in our crops and livestock. — Michael Specter Copy Share
With a hundred and seventy-eight machines to sequence the precise order of the billions of chemicals within a molecule of DNA, B.G.I. produces at… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Be sceptical, ask questions, demand proof. Demand evidence. Don't take anything for granted. But here's the thing: When you get proof, you need to… — Michael Specter Copy Share
Nobody celebrates when they avoid an illness they never expected to get. — Michael Specter Copy Share
