Month: November 2018

Enlarge / Members of Harvey Washington Wiley's "poison squad" voluntarily dined on borax and formaldehyde to test the safety of these once-common food preservatives. (credit: FDA/Public domain)

As you gathered to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday last week—avoiding romaine lettuce potentially contaminated by E. coli—we hope you remembered to give thanks for the landmark 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the first regulatory law to enforce food safety standards in America, along with the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

It was known as "Dr. Wiley's Law," in honor of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who served as chief chemist of the US agriculture department at the time and proved a tireless crusader for consumer protection. He even recruited several of his young male employees to ingest common chemical food additives to test their safety, dubbed the "Poison Squad." The story of his decades-long fight is the subject of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum's fascinating new book, The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.

Blum has a soft spot for stories about scientists who challenged the status quo—people who were also complicated, obsessive, and difficult personalities. "I'm not sure you can change the world unless you're all of those things," she says. Her first book, Love at Goon Park (2002), focused on psychologist Harry Harlow, who studied the effects of neglect on primates in his lab and went on to revolutionize how we think about the value of love and affection. Ghost Hunters (2007) explored William James' quest to find scientific proof of life after death in the late 19^th century.

Enlarge (credit: Beth O'Briant / Flickr)

At the beginning of 2018, we launched Ars Pro, our $25/year ad-free subscription service—and we've improved it continually ever since. In the last 10 months, we removed all tracking scripts for subscribers, added PayPal support, and introduced Classic View, an old-school way to browse the front page.

For $50/year, Ars Pro++ readers get all of these benefits along with an additional "clean reading mode" and a free YubiKey 4 (a $40 value).

And all subscribers, regardless of level, get to support quality journalism in an era when online advertising alone isn't enough to keep the lights on.

Loyal readers, you have asked for more merch... with Ars logos... and, err, Moonsharks!

Just in time for Cyber Monday, our creative director, Aurich Lawson, has delivered the latest in the Ars line of "fashion-forward" accessories that are taking Silicon Valley by storm. Want to sport your stuff in a full-zip Ars hoodie? Down your coffee in an Ars-branded mug? Wear an Arsified shark on your chest? Now you can—and at a discount.

While the new designs are here to stay, today only: all Ars merchandise is two dollars off its regular price. Pick up a handsome mug for just $11 (small) or $14 (large) or outfit the whole family in Ars T-shirts for $18 each. It's a holiday miracle!