20 years ago, a doctor published a study. It was completely made up, and it made us all sicker.

The entire study was fabricated.

Once upon a time, a scientist named Dr. Andrew Wakefield published in the medical journal The Lancet that he had discovered a link between autism and vaccines.

After years of controversy and making parents mistrust vaccines, along with collecting $674,000 from lawyers who would benefit from suing vaccine makers, it was discovered he had made the whole thing up. The Lancet publicly apologized and reported that further investigation led to the discovery that he had fabricated everything.


In the intervening years, millions have been spent on studying this further to see if there was anything that could connect autism and vaccines. This is what they found.

If you think science is a real thing, you could share this. I’ll owe you one.

Conservation

Viewers thought 100-year-old David Attenborough was finally ready to retire. They were wrong.

Culture

Intriguing 1909 painting blurs the lines between old-timey self-portrait and modern selfie

Life Hacks

‘Small-town guy’ shares how he was able to reboot his life, even in his late 50s

Science

Fascinating new research finally explains humans’ ‘morbid curiosity’