Science

CBS News reports: Legendary astronaut John Young — who twice ventured into space in pioneering two-man Gemini capsules, orbited the moon and then walked on its cratered surface before commanding two space shuttle missions, including the program’s maiden flight — has died, ending one of the most storied careers in space history. NASA said he died Friday night following complications …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: With no explanation, the White House has terminated members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS amid widespread discontent with President Trump’s approach to the epidemic. After six members of PACHA resigned in June, the White House on Wednesday terminated the remaining 16 members without explanation via a letter from FedEx. Scott Schoettes, …

The New York Post reports: A space satellite launch sparked a brief UFO scare in Los Angeles Friday night after startled viewers gawked at an unidentifiable streak of light soaring across the night sky. Observers flooded Twitter with pictures and videos of the strange vessel and they speculated that aliens were finally making their long-awaited debut. “Anyone else see that …

NBC News reports: Life expectancy in the United States fell for the second year in a row in 2016 — and it’s clear the epidemic of drug overdoses is at least in part to blame, government researchers said Thursday. Overall life expectancy for a baby born in 2016 fell to 78.6 years, a small decline of 0.1 percent, the National …

The Washington Post reports: A California man who planned to launch himself 1,800 feet high Saturday in a homemade scrap-metal rocket — in an effort to prove that Earth is flat — said he is postponing the experiment after he couldn’t get permission from a federal agency to conduct it on public land. Instead, Mike Hughes said the launch will …

The Associated Press reports: U.S. regulators have approved the first drug with a sensor that can track whether patients have taken their medicine. The Abilify pill was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 to treat schizophrenia, and the sensor technology was approved for marketing in 2012. The FDA said in a statement Monday that the digitally-enhanced …

The Associated Press reports: Bill Gates says he’s giving $50 million to help fight Alzheimer’s disease. The Microsoft co-founder said Monday that the donation to the Dementia Discovery Fund is personal and not through his charitable foundation. The London-based private fund is backed by government, charities and pharmaceutical firms and seeks new treatments for the progressive, irreversible neurological disease. Gates …

Bloomberg reports: In the event of a dirty bomb or a nuclear meltdown, emergency responders can safely tolerate radiation levels equivalent to thousands of chest X-rays, the Environmental Protection Agency said in new guidelines that ease off on established safety levels. The EPA’s determination sets a level ten times the drinking water standard for radiation recommended under President Barack Obama. …

HIV Plus Magazine reports: After hundreds of other experts and HIV organizations have already signed on to a pledge that recognizes that people living with HIV whose treatment has brought their viral load to an undetectable level — which is nearly half of all HIV-positive people in the U.S. — cannot transmit HIV to any other person, the Centers for …

Via press release: More than two million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in the United States in 2016, the highest number ever, according to the annual Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The majority of these new diagnoses (1.6 million) were cases of chlamydia. There were also …

Reuters reports: Makers of generic AIDS drugs will start churning out millions of pills for Africa containing a state-of-the-art medicine widely used in rich countries, after securing a multi-million dollar guarantee that caps prices at just $75 per patient a year. Global health experts hope the deal will help address two looming problems in the HIV epidemic – the rising …

The Associated Press reports: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft disintegrated in the skies above Saturn early Friday in a final, fateful blaze of cosmic glory, following a remarkable journey of 20 years. Confirmation of Cassini’s expected demise came about 7:55 a.m. EDT. That’s when radio signals from the spacecraft — its last scientific gifts to Earth — came to an abrupt halt. …

Space Flight Insider reports: A large rock will fly past Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers). Asteroid 3122 Florence, named after modern nursing founder Florence Nightingale, is the largest object to make a close-encounter since NASA began tracking near-Earth objects (NEO) in the 1990s. “While many known asteroids have passed by …

The Verge reports: Eclipse day is finally here. Science experiments will happen, animals will freak out, and you won’t get a good picture without the right filter. But before all that, how do we actually watch this thing on the internet? First things first: find out what time the eclipse is for you. Input your zip code and it’ll tell …

Politico reports: Last year was Earth’s warmest on record, according to an international climate report issued Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that documents other record-breaking global warming trends of 2016. The report is the most comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change released by the Trump administration, and it could make it easier to refute efforts …

The Telegraph reports: Scientists have hailed a “breakthrough” technology capable of regrowing damaged organs and healing serious wounds with the single touch of a penny-sized pad. The new device uses nanochips to reprogramme skin cells which then generate any type of cell necessary for medical treatment. The non-invasive procedure takes less than a second and in laboratory trials was found …

Space.com reports: A whimsical parody of the Bonnie Tyler song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” highlights the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse that will be visible from the contiguous United States. Created by the Warby Parker eyeglass company, a music video for the fake song includes dancers dressed as the sun and the moon, dramatically prancing around an empty school …

The Independent reports: The world will almost certainly reach a tipping point and bring about unstoppable, destructive climate change, according to a new study. There is a 90 per cent chance that the world’s temperature will rise 2C, to 4.9C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, despite measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s at that point …

The Guardian reports: Tesla and Space X chief executive Elon Musk has pushed again for the proactive regulation of artificial intelligence because “by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late”. Speaking at the US National Governors Association summer meeting in Providence Rhode Island, Musk said: “Normally the way regulations are set up is when a bunch …

Newsweek reports: Toxic waste produced by one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters will be dumped into the sea, according to the head of the Japanese company tasked with cleaning up the radioactive mess, despite protests from local fishermen. Takashi Kawamura, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), told foreign media that nearly 777,000 tons of water tainted with tritium, …