Science

Tampa’s NBC affiliate reports: A Florida resident died after being infected by a rare amoeba last week, health officials say. According to a WFTX report, Charlotte County health officials said the unidentified male patient likely contracted Nagleria fowleri after rinsing out his sinuses with tap water. Eric Milbrandt, director of the marine laboratory at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, said the …

Reuters reports: On at least four occasions since 2019, Elon Musk has predicted that his medical device company, Neuralink, would soon start human trials of a revolutionary brain implant to treat intractable conditions such as paralysis and blindness. Yet the company, founded in 2016, didn’t seek permission from the FDA until early 2022 – and the agency rejected the application, seven current …

Axios reports: A new U.S. government assessment that COVID-19 likely originated from a lab leak in China has ignited yet another round of political furor around the issue, adding to many Republicans’ anger over how the pandemic was handled even as many scientists remain convinced the virus most likely originated naturally. Department of Energy scientists concluded in a “low confidence” …

USA Today reports: Three measles cases have been identified in Kentucky and are linked to the large, two week-long revival on the campus of Asbury University, a Christian school in Wilmore. Thousands of people from all over the country and globe attended the religious service – which captured the attention of social media users worldwide as the revival went viral …

Stanford Medicine’s Scope Blog reports: According to trends in male reproductive health data, sperm quality and testosterone levels have declined over the last few decades, sounding alarm bells for Michael Eisenberg, MD, a professor of urology at Stanford Medicine. It’s made him wonder: Should we be concerned about other differences in men’s reproductive health? In a study published Feb. 14 …

The Associated Press reports: Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships will no longer be forced to abstain from sex to donate blood under federal guidelines to be proposed in coming days, ending a vestige of the earliest days of the AIDS crisis. The planned relaxation of restrictions by the Food and Drug Administration follows years of pressure by blood …

Reuters reports: Once the stuff of science fiction, lab-grown meat could become reality in some restaurants in the United States as early as this year. Executives at cultivated meat companies are optimistic that meat grown in massive steel vats could be on the menu within months after one company won the go-ahead from a key regulator. Cultivated meat is derived …

NBC News reports: The only HIV vaccine in a late-stage trial has failed, researchers announced Wednesday, dealing a significant blow to the effort to control the global HIV epidemic and adding to a decadeslong roster of failed attempts. Known as Mosaico, the trial was the product of a public-private partnership including the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical giant Janssen. It …

The Verge reports: Is Boston Dynamics slowly preparing to put its bipedal robots to work? In a glossy new video, the company has shown off its prototype Atlas robot tossing planks and tool bags around in a fake construction site. It’s a notable change in messaging from the Hyundai-owned company, which has never previously emphasized how its bipedal machines could …

The Washington Post reports: A rapidly growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio — largely involving unvaccinated children — is fueling concerns among health officials that more parent resistance to routine childhood immunizations will intensify a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases. More than a third of parents with children under 18 — and 28 percent of all adults — now say parents …

Florida Politics reports: Contending that its role in whether to empanel a statewide grand jury is largely “ministerial,” the Florida Supreme Court has given the go-ahead for a statewide investigation into whether vaccine manufacturers committed any wrongdoing in the development, marketing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has been increasing its skepticism of the vaccines …

Via press release from NASA: NASA’s InSight mission has ended after more than four years of collecting unique science on Mars. Mission controllers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California were unable to contact the lander after two consecutive attempts, leading them to conclude the spacecraft’s solar-powered batteries have run out of energy – a state engineers …

The Hill reports: New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the bivalent COVID-19 booster shot was effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and emergency room visits. Reports released by the CDC Friday offer some of the first evidence of the booster’s effectiveness against hospitalizations and medical encounters. The boosters were especially effective in adults …

The Washington Post reports: A study released Wednesday by the National Center for Health Statistics found that more than 3,500 Americans died of long-covid-related illness in the first 2½ years of the pandemic. While those deaths represent a small fraction of the 1 million deaths from the coronavirus, they reinforce the danger of ignoring the lingering symptoms that many patients …

Yahoo News reports: The U.S. Department of Energy announced a breakthrough in nuclear fusion on Tuesday that puts the world one step closer to harnessing an abundant energy source free from carbon emissions and long-lived radioactive waste. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed that scientists achieved a reaction that created more energy than was used — known as a net …

STAT News reports: This Wednesday will mark two years since nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. A study released Tuesday by the Commonwealth Fund shows that in those two years, the Covid vaccines have averted over 3 million deaths in the U.S. The CDC estimates that …

CBS News reports: The U.S. Department of Energy said Sunday it would announce a “major scientific breakthrough” this week, after media reported a federal laboratory had recently achieved a major milestone in nuclear fusion research. The Financial Times reported Sunday that scientists in the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) had achieved a “net energy gain” from an experimental fusion …

Space.com reports: NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft returned to Earth on Sunday after nearly a month in space. Artemis 1’s uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California Sunday around 12:40 p.m. Orion launched atop a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on Nov. 16, kicking off the highly anticipated Artemis 1 mission. The …

Axios reports: The Food and Drug Administration is weighing a series of moves to make it easier for gay and bisexual men and other individuals to donate blood amid a nationwide blood shortage. The FDA is considering easing blood donor screening restrictions for men who have sex with men that originated during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s. An option …

Houston’s ABC affiliate reports: After five years of testing and research, the University of Houston is announcing a breakthrough that could be a powerful, life-saving tool against the opioid epidemic. It’s a vaccine that stops fentanyl from getting into the brain. If the drug does not get into the brain, there are no effects. There are no euphoric effects, and …