Science

The Hill reports: Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut, said she believes in extraterrestrial life in an interview with The Guardian published Sunday. “Aliens exist, there’s no two ways about it,” Sharman told the newspaper. “There are so many billions of stars out there in the universe that there must be all sorts of different forms of life,” she said. “Will …

The Associated Press reports: More companies could begin making an easy-to-use version of an opioid overdose antidote under a deal announced Thursday by New York’s attorney general. Under the agreement, Emergent BioSolutions will no longer enforce a contract that had allowed it to be the only company to develop a nasal spray version of the drug nalmefene for use as …

Yahoo News reports: The Pentagon is advising members of the military not to use consumer DNA kits, saying the information collected by private companies could pose a security risk, according to a memo co-signed by the Defense Department’s top intelligence official. The memo provides little details on how genetic profiles could endanger security, other than noting that potential “inaccuracies” in …

The Associated Press reports: Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America. The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement known as a foot. Some land surveyors use what’s known as the U.S. survey foot. Others use the definition that’s more accepted by the broader world: the international …

Bloomberg Law reports: A judge in Albany, N.Y., upheld a state law boosting vaccine requirements, dismissing a case brought by parents who don’t want their children vaccinated and say the measure violates their religious rights. Under the law, parents are required to have their children vaccinated before they can attend school or day care, unless they have a medical condition …

The Guardian reports: The worldwide surge in deadly measles outbreaks is showing no sign of abating, with nearly 10 million cases and 142,000 deaths last year, according to new estimates, and three times more cases reported so far this year than at the same stage in 2018. Most of those dying are small children, and thousands more suffer harm including …

The New York Times reports: About 80,000 babies and toddlers die of AIDS each year, mostly in Africa, in part because their medicines come in hard pills or bitter syrups that are very difficult for small children to swallow or keep down. But on Friday, the Indian generic drug manufacturer Cipla announced a new, more palatable pediatric formulation. The new …

The New York Daily News reports: Victory is in sight. City officials say they are on the cusp of the once unthinkable — ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic as new medicines and treatment drove down the number of new cases to a 17-year-low in 2018, Health Department stats show. And officials say it’s all thanks to the emergence of a new …

Time Magazine reports: The American Medical Association is calling for an immediate ban on all electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. The group adopted the sweeping stance Tuesday at a policy-making meeting in San Diego. It aims to lobby for laws, regulations or legal action to achieve a ban, but the industry is sure to fight back. The AMA cited the …

USA Today reports: Drug-resistant “superbugs” infect 2.8 million people and cause more than 35,000 deaths each year, underscoring the enormous public health threat of germs in what one official describes as a “post-antibiotic era,” according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The report, which analyzes electronic health records and other data, shows an infection every 11 …

Courthouse News reports: Scientists around the world – 11,000 of them from 153 nations – have declared a state of climate emergency, calling on the world to make urgent and meaningful changes to avoid serious and unknown consequences. The scientists made their declaration Tuesday in the journal Bioscience, on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference held in …

Reuters reports: In many U.S. cities, tanning salons appear to cluster in neighborhoods where more gay and bisexual men live, according to a study that suggests this might be one reason for higher skin cancer rates among sexual minority men. The odds of living near a tanning salon were twice as high in areas where at least 10% of households …

The Washington Post reports: NASA made history Friday morning when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger. The all-female spacewalk — the first of its kind “in human history,” the agency said — began at 7:38 a.m. Eastern time as the two American astronauts set their suits to battery …

NBC News reports: Gilead Sciences, the drug giant behind the blockbuster HIV prevention pill Truvada, won FDA approval on Thursday to market Descovy — a medication already used by those who have HIV — as its next-generation prevention drug. The final approval follows an August vote in favor of Descovy as a pre-exposure prophylaxis medication, or PrEP, by an FDA …

CNBC reports: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people to stop vaping THC products as the death toll from a mysterious lung disease rises with no signs of abating. The vaping-related illness has sickened 805 people across 46 states and one territory, the CDC said Friday. One person died in Oregon this week, bringing the death toll …

Axios reports: Public health officials on Thursday urged Americans to get their seasonal flu vaccine early this year, in case the U.S. follows Australia’s season in which the virus hit many people early. While public health officials admit the vaccine is not 100% effective, there’s growing research showing that the vaccine reduces the severe and sometimes deadly complications from the …

USA Today reports: The world’s oceans and mountains are in peril, and so are we, according to a major new report from United Nations climate scientists released early Wednesday. The “Special Report on Oceans and the Cryosphere” offers a bleak picture. It warns that the world’s oceans have reached or are nearing critical tipping points: Oceans have gotten warmer, more …

Fascinating deep dive from the New York Times: Though the situation may seem improbable to some, anti-vaccine sentiment has been building for decades, a byproduct of an internet humming with rumor and misinformation; the backlash against Big Pharma; an infatuation with celebrities that gives special credence to the anti-immunization statements from actors like Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Alicia Silverstone, …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Members of Mainers for Health and Parental Rights, the group opposing the vaccine law passed this year by the Democratic-led Legislature, were in Augusta on Wednesday to turn in 78,000 valid signatures — more than the 63,000 signatures required to suspend the law and put the people’s veto challenge on the ballot — to Secretary …

The New York Times reports: Walmart said on Friday that it would end sales of e-cigarettes at its United States locations. The decision comes amid growing medical concerns about the effects of vaping. In recent months, mysterious vaping-related illnesses have been on the rise. Medical authorities said on Thursday that the number of vaping-related lung illnesses had risen to 530 …