During my 25-year-career in drug discovery research, when I told people what I did for a living, I ran into the same response over and over: "How can you work for such an evil industry?" 

Yet, after even brief discussions of what the jobs in profession were really like— that being, a fierce devotion to finding treatments for the worst diseases in the face of an overwhelming array of nearly impossible obstacles—virtually everyone I spoke with changed their opinions. 

First of all, let me state that my conscience is perfectly clear:

However, unlike yours truly, if you have an impure mind I suggest you take it up with Merriam-Webster.

Having dispensed with that trivial distraction, can someone please explain to me what is going on below? 

I really need to quit starting all of these things with "just when you think..." because I'm starting to sound like a cliche. 
But sometimes, there are just no alternatives. My apologies.

Because just when you think things can't get any (stranger, dumber, crazier...) something like this comes around. I seriously doubt I will need to use the cliche again. This cannot be topped. It's impossible. Just like the "science" that is behind it.

At least there some good news: The vegans in Britain are sure gonna be happy, since the country won't be eating much meat. Thanks to a bunch of fine minds on the European Commission, sick cattle will no longer be treated with medicine. Nope—just homeopathy. I don't think the cows are gonna as happy.

Columbia University and seven other schools make up the prestigious Ivy League. But, sometimes things change and standards drop. It may be time to create a new group of schools, the Poison Ivy League, and perhaps Columbia should be its first member. 

Today's opinion piece in USA today is entitled "Columbia medical faculty: What do we do about Dr. Oz?" has a title that ends with a question mark. And well it should.