Science

Last night for World AIDS Day, HBO debuted Vice’s Countdown To Zero, which tracks the search for an HIV cure. Today HBO made the unusual move of making the entire show available on YouTube. Watch below.

For World AIDS Day, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta today reported on PrEP, which is the daily usage of Truvada as an HIV preventive. CNN’s piece characterized PrEP as “controversial” – when in fact it has been endorsed by the CDC and virtually all HIV/AIDS activists and organizations. So you can guess where this “controversy” is REALLY coming from. Watch below.

Last night President Obama issued his annual World AIDS Day proclamation which celebrates continuing advances and vows to pursue a cure for HIV. This afternoon the president follows up that message with a personal video. Watch below.

Vice today released a second trailer for their coming documentary about the continuing search for an HIV vaccine and cure. Today’s trailer features legendary HIV/AIDS activist Peter Staley. The film debuts on HBO on World AIDS Day, December 1st, at 9PM.

As The Friendly Atheist observes, creationists are going to have a “collective aneurysm” as today’s Google Doodle marks the 41st anniversary of the discovery of Lucy, “the most ancient early human — or hominin — ever found.” Lucy is believed to have lived over three million years ago, or about three million years longer than the world has existed according …

An interesting explanation of the Zeigarnik Effect and the most successful cures for pop music earworms.

Airing two weeks from tonight on HBO. Clip recap: Twenty years ago, HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Now, through advances in medication, it has become a largely manageable chronic disease – and there may finally be a cure on the horizon. VICE investigates recent breakthroughs in medical science to see how close we are to life without AIDS. Hosts Shane …

Reuters reports: Scientists seeking a cure for the AIDS virus have made an unexpected discovery with a drug designed to combat alcoholism which they say could be a critical part of a strategy to “wake up” and then kill dormant HIV hiding in the body. The drug, branded as Antabuse but also sold as a generic called disulfiram, was given …

Seeking to make HIV treatment less dependent on adhering to a daily dosing regimen, researchers have found that an injection of anti-viral medications every two months is just as effective. Pink News reports: The trial backed by Johnson & Johnson as well as GlaxoSmithKlein, tested whether an injected drug taken once every eight weeks could effectively suppress HIV. The head …

The widow of Robin Williams today disclosed that an autopsy revealed that the late comedian had suffered from a frequently misdiagnosed and rapidly advancing form of dementia. The New York Times reports: “It was not depression that killed Robin,” she told People. “Depression was one of let’s call it 50 symptoms, and it was a small one.” Mrs. Williams gave …

From CBS Los Angeles: If scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena are correct, a moderately-sized earthquake is expected within the next two-and-a-half years. JPL experts predict a possible 5.0 magnitude quake in Los Angeles, but say it very well could be stronger. JPL geophysicist Dr. Andrea Donnellan, along with seven other scientists, has been using radar and GPS …

A division of the US Department of Health and Human Services today issued a formal call for the end of so-called conversion therapy. Reuters reports: The report released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) comes less than a year after the Obama administration endorsed efforts to ban the practice, which aims to change a person’s …

According to Austrian researchers, people who prefer bitter tasting things like black coffee have a higher propensity to be sadistic, selfish, vain, and manipulative. The Independent reports: In the study, led by Professor Christina Sagioglou from Innsbruck University in Austria, 500 men and women were shown a list of foods with equal numbers of sweet, salty, sour and bitter items. They …

China is constructing what will be the world’s largest radio telescope. The Independent reports: Assembly of the five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, began in July and is expected to be completed in 2016. Once finished, the reflector dish of the telescope will be 500 metres in diameter, replacing Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, only 300 meters in diameter, as the …

Pioneering researcher Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who shared the Nobel prize for identifying the virus that causes AIDS, is retiring. She says she regrets not having found a cure, but believes a complete remission from HIV infection is within reach. Via Reuters: “I am personally convinced that remission…is achievable. When? I don’t know. But it is feasible,” she told Reuters at her …

Researchers at the UCLA School of Medicine today issued a press release in which they claim to be able to predict sexual orientation about 70% of the time using an “algorithm using epigenetic information from just nine regions of the human genome.” From the press release: “To our knowledge, this is the first example of a predictive model for sexual …

The New York Times reports: Everyone who has H.I.V. should immediately be put on antiretroviral triple therapy and everyone at risk of becoming infected should be offered protective doses of similar drugs, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday as it issued new H.I.V. treatment and prevention guidelines. The guidelines increase by nine million the number of people who should …

The Gates Foundation has donated nearly $6M to a promising HIV vaccine study underway at Florida Atlantic University. Via University Press: The vaccine, created by Scripps Research Institute professor Michael Farzan, has showed consistently effective results after being tested on lab animals. The grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will help fund his research for the next four …

“They’re lying about it. They’re just making up the amount of ice in the North and South Poles, they’re making up the temperatures, they’re lying and making up false charts and so forth. So what’s to stop them from making up something that happened on Mars that will help advance their left-wing agenda on this planet? OK so there’s flowing …

NASA set the web aflame this weekend with a promise that they would have a “major announcement” about Mars today. Sadly, the big reveal is not about little green men – but it IS fascinating. Via the Guardian: Liquid water runs down canyons and crater walls over the summer months on Mars, according to researchers who say the discovery raises …