Tech
Trump’s Tylenol Directive Could Actually Increase Autism Rates, Researchers Warn
For decades, the discussion around autism has been a hotbed of misinformation, misinterpretation, and bad science, ranging from the long-discredited link between the neurodevelopmental condition and vaccines, to newer claims that going gluten-free and avoiding ultra-processed foods can reverse autistic traits.
On Monday night, this specter arose again in the Oval Office, as President Donald Trump announced his administration’s new push to study the causes of autism with claims that the common painkiller Tylenol, otherwise known as acetaminophen, can cause the condition. The FDA subsequently announced that the drug would be slapped with a warning label citing a “possible association.”
David Amaral, professor and director of research at the UC Davis MIND Institute, was among those watching in dismay as the president launched into a diatribe about Tylenol, repeatedly warning pregnant women not to take it, even to treat fevers.
“We heard the president say that women should tough it out,” says Amaral. “I was really taken aback by that, because we do know that prolonged fever, in particular, is a risk factor for autism. So I worry that this admonition to not take Tylenol is going to do the reverse of what they’re hoping.”
The speculation surrounding Tylenol stems from correlations drawn by some studies that have touted an association between use of the painkiller and neurodevelopmental disorders. One such analysis was published last month. The problem, says Renee Gardner, an epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, is that these studies often reach this conclusion because they don’t sufficiently account for what statisticians describe as “confounding factors”—additional variables related to those being studied that might influence the relationship between them.
In particular, Gardner points out that pregnant women needing to take Tylenol are more likely to have pain, fevers, and prenatal infections, which are themselves risk factors for autism. More importantly, given the heritability of autism, many of the genetic variants that make women more likely to have impaired immunity and greater pain perception, and hence use painkillers like acetaminophen, are also linked to autism. The painkiller use, she says, is a red herring.
Last year, Gardner and other scientists published what is widely regarded within the scientific field as the most conclusive investigation so far on the subject, one which did account for confounding factors. Using health records from nearly 2.5 million children in Sweden, they reached the opposite conclusion to the president: Tylenol has no link to autism. Another major study of more than 200,000 children in Japan, published earlier this month, also found no link.
Doctors are worried that Trump’s claims will have adverse consequences. Michael Absoud, a paediatric neurodisability consultant and a researcher in pediatric neurosciences at King’s College London, says he fears that pregnant women will start using other painkillers with a less well-proven safety profile.
Gardner is concerned that it will also lead to self-blaming among parents, a flashback to the 1950s and 60s, a time when autism was wrongly attributed to emotionally cold “refrigerator mothers.” “It’s making parents of children with neurodevelopmental conditions feel responsible,” she says. “It harks back to the early dark days of psychiatry.”
Tech
Best HelloFresh Coupons and Promo Codes for December 2025
Leveraging meal kit coupons is the extreme couponing of our times—a capitalism hack-a-thon right up there with trial yoga classes and attempting to cancel your Adobe subscription. Meal kits like HelloFresh have always been a better deal than they get credit for, even at full price: It’s actually hard to recreate meal kit meals for less than you can get the recipes delivered to your home. But it’s especially worth it when you can find a HelloFresh coupon, promo code, or discount at more than half off.
I’ll admit I wasn’t that sold on HelloFresh when I first tried it most of a decade ago. It was useful, it got me out of my staid routines, but I wasn’t impressed with the selection. It felt a little basic. But lately? Honestly, it’s kinda cosmopolitan these days, after expanding to a dozen countries and absorbing the supply networks from multiple other meal plans. When I last tested the HelloFresh meal kit (7/10, WIRED Recommends), I was surprised to find myself cooking credible home renditions of ramen, ponzu-plum beef stir fry, and Southwest-accented pork roasts. And when I’m able to pick up a HelloFresh discount code, it’s generally less than I’d spend on groceries anyway. So it’s a good moment to try out a lifestyle where the food comes in the mail.
Get 50% Off and up to 10 Free Meals as a New HelloFresh Customer
Right now, new and returning customers can take advantage of a HelloFresh discount code offering 50% off your first meal kit box plus a free item each week. Enter your email as part of the signup process, and you’ll be auto-subscribed to an email with even more offers for both new and existing customers. Plus, new customers can get up to 55% off and extra free breakfasts, desserts, and other items with other secret discounts.
HelloFresh Student and Discount: 55% Off, Free Shipping, Plus Extra 15% Off Education Discounts Available via UNiDAYS
HelloFresh meal kits are pretty amenable to dorm life when ordering the ready-to-eat meals—or just saving time during grad school instead of ordering pizza, by letting the Internet do your shopping and meal planning. But student budgets tend to be tight, of course. And so there are steeply discounted HelloFresh coupon codes specifically for students. Follow the link here for a HelloFresh education promo code offering 55% off your first box, free shipping, and a continuing discount of 15% off for the first year.
Discounts also apply to teachers who’ve never tried HelloFresh. Educators and school employees can get up to 12 free meals spread out across 3 boxes, plus free shipping. Click here for the HelloFresh promo code, or go here for more information about educator discounts.
Note that the student and educator discounts don’t combine with any other HelloFresh discounts or promotions.
Special Hero Discount for Military, Veterans, and Healthcare Workers
Military discounts are a long tradition in America. HelloFresh also offers hero discount programs for first responders, health professionals, and military personnel. Heroes also get excellent discounts that include 55% off the first order, free shipping, and 15% off for the first year of HelloFresh delivery boxes.
This program is open to nurses, hospital employees, EMTs, active military, veterans, and first responders. First responders include law enforcement, 911 dispatch, and firefighters. Click here to see if you’re eligible, or follow this link for more information about HelloFresh hero discounts.
Note that the hero discounts don’t combine with any other HelloFresh promo codes.
Give $40, Get $10 With the HelloFresh Referral Program
Already a HelloFresh subscriber? You’re still eligible for discounts if you pass along subscription information to your friends. Here’s how: Send your friends a $40 discount for their own affordable meal kits. Once they sign up using your HelloFresh referral code, you’ll also get a $10 credit on your next delivery.
These discounts stack. So if you sign up multiple friends with your referral code, you get multiple $10 discounts. Check out the HelloFresh meal kit referral program here.
Take Advantage of HelloFresh Come Back Offers
Some of these discounts are only available to new HelloFresh customers. But there’s a hack to getting discounts anyway. After you pause or cancel your subscription, check your inbox after the next few days or weeks. Often, you’ll get HelloFresh coupon codes for discounts.
Typical HelloFresh “come-back” offers after a canceled subscription include: $100 to $180 off (spread out over several meal boxes), free shipping on the first box (after re-subscribing), free items such as dessert, breakfast, or an extra protein per meal, or a free meal box is offered after a break. Typical retention offers, for when customers try to cancel, include: 40% off the next box, if you decide not to cancel, or 25% off the next two meal kits. None of this is failsafe, of course, offers vary for each customer. But as with magazine subscriptions, sometimes canceling, or trying to cancel, will lead to a good discount offer from a company eager to keep your business.
When to Save the Most on HelloFresh Subscriptions
HelloFresh almost always has some sort of deal going, whether to bring in new customers with an especially choice HelloFresh coupon, or bring back previous customers with HelloFresh discount codes and retention offers. But summer tends to be one of the times they offer the steepest discounts, including 10 free meals across several boxes, complimentary appetizers, free ready-made items, or free shipping on select boxes.
The other big times for HelloFresh coupon codes are around Black Friday and the end of the year. HelloFresh often launches limited-edition holiday meal boxes and themed meal kits, not to mention discounts for returning customers looking to cook more at home as part of New Year’s resolutions.
Tech
Could You Use a Rowboat to Walk on the Seafloor Like Jack Sparrow?
But you already know about this, because Fg is what normies call an object’s “weight,” and for a given volume, weight depends only on the density. Now, if you dropped these blocks in a lake, obviously the styrofoam would float and the steel would sink. So clearly it has something to do with density.
What if you had a block of water with the same volume? If you could somehow hold this cube of water, it would feel pretty heavy, about 62.4 pounds. Now, if you place it carefully in a lake, will it sink or bob on the surface like styrofoam? Neither, right? It’s just going to sit there.
Since it doesn’t move up or down, the total force on the block of water must be zero. That means there has to be a force counteracting gravity by pushing up with equal strength. We call this buoyancy, and for any object, the buoyancy force is equal to the weight of the water it displaces.
So let’s think about this. The steel block displaces the same amount of water, so it has the same upward-pushing buoyancy force as the block of water. But because it’s denser and has more mass, down it goes.
In general, an object will sink if the gravitational force exceeds the buoyancy force, and it will float if the buoyancy force exceeds the gravitational force. Another way of saying that is, an object will sink if it’s denser than water and it will float if it’s less dense.
And right in the middle an object will neither sink nor rise to the surface—we call that neutral buoyancy. Humans are pretty close to neutral because our bodies are 60 percent water. That’s why you feel weightless underwater—the buoyancy force pretty much offsets the gravitational force.
Avast! Hold on there, matey. Aircraft carriers are made of steel and weigh 100,000 tons, so why do they float? Can you guess? It’s because of their shape. Unlike a block of steel, a ship’s hull is hollow and filled with air, so it has a large volume relative to its weight.
But what if you start filling it with cargo? The ship gets heavier, which means it must displace more water to reach that equilibrium point. In general, when you launch a boat or ship into the water, it’ll sink down until the weight of the water it pushes aside equals the boat’s total weight.
Tech
The Ricoh GR IV, the Cult Favorite Pocket Camera, Just Got Way Better
When I reviewed the GR III, I wrote about how much I liked snap focus mode, which allows you to set a predetermined focus distance regardless of the aperture. I set up my GR III to use autofocus when I half-pressed the shutter and snap when I quickly pressed, so that snap focus fired off the shot at my predetermined focus distance (usually 1.5 meters).
All that remains, but there is also now a dedicated letter, Sn, on the mode dial that sets the camera in Snap Focus mode, which allows you to dial in not only the distance you want focus at, but also the aperture you want to lock in. You can control the depth of field as well. I rather enjoyed this new mode and found myself shooting with it quite a bit.
Should You Get One?
The GR IV debuted at $1,497, which is significantly more than the GR III’s $999 price at launch. Is it worth the extra money? If you have a GR III and are frustrated by the autofocus, I think you will like the upgrade. It’s significant and, if you have the money, well worth it.
If you have any desire to use your pocket camera for video, this is not the one for you. See our guides to pocket cameras and the best travel cameras for some better, hybrid photo- and video-capable cameras. If you want an APS-C sensor that legitimately fits in your pocket, offers amazing one-handed control, and produces excellent images, the the Ricoh GR IV is for you.
Personally, I am holding out for the GR IVx, which will hopefully, like the GR IIIx, be the same camera with a 40mm-equivalent lens. At the time of writing, Ricoh would not comment on whether there will be a GR IVx.
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