Science

CNET reports: The revolution is being televised, live from space. The below live video feed is coming direct from Elon Musk’s 2008 Tesla Roadster, which is currently somewhere high, high above us. On Tuesday afternoon, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX successfully launched Falcon Heavy, the new most powerful rocket currently in use worldwide, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The payload …

Space.com reports: SpaceX’s giant new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is set for its risky first test launch today (Feb. 6) from the historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window stretches from 1:30 to 4 p.m. EDT (1830 to 2100 GMT). SpaceX’s current Falcon 9 rocket launches cargo to the International Space Station and lofts …

CBS News reports: Federal health officials say at least 16 more children died of the flu over the past week and more states are reporting high levels of illness. In a briefing Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the flu outbreak is responsible for at least 53 child deaths so far this season. “Hospitalizations are now the …

The Washington Post reports: Four years after the United States pledged to help the world fight infectious-disease epidemics such as Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dramatically downsizing its epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out, U.S. government officials said. The CDC programs, part of a global health security initiative, …

CNBC is reporting that CDC head Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald resigned this morning. Yesterday multiple outlets reported that she purchased stock in a global Big Tobacco company after Trump appointed her to the post. After assuming the CDC leadership July 7, Fitzgerald bought tens of thousands of dollars in new stock holdings in at least a dozen companies later that month as …

The Associated Press reports: The moon is putting on a rare cosmic show Wednesday. It’s the first time in 35 years a blue moon has synced up with a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse. Hawaii and Alaska have the best seats, along with the Canadian Yukon, Australia and Asia. The western U.S. should have good viewing, too, along with …

The Associated Press reports: For the first time, researchers have used the cloning method that produced Dolly the sheep to create two healthy monkeys, bringing science an important step closer to being able to do the same with humans. Since Dolly’s birth in 1996, scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals, including dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo …

The Associated Press reports: A particularly deadly flu virus has reportedly become widespread in 46 states across the country, according to the recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “This is a feature of this year’s flu — not only did it start early, but it seemed to occur all over the country more or less …

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. …