Science

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 …

The New York Times reports: NASA’s majestic new rocket soared into space for the first time in the early hours of Wednesday, lighting up the night sky and accelerating on a journey that will take an astronaut-less capsule around the moon and back. This flight, evoking the bygone Apollo era, is a crucial test for NASA’s Artemis program that aims …

NBC News reports: Covid outbreak at an American scientific research station in Antarctica has forced U.S. officials to temporarily halt all travel to the remote outpost. The National Science Foundation, which operates McMurdo Station on the southern tip of Antarctica’s Ross Island, announced new measures over the weekend to help control the outbreak. The agency confirmed that 10% of the …

From the study’s abstract: The rise in working-age mortality rates in the United States in recent decades largely reflects stalled declines in cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality alongside rising mortality from alcohol-induced causes, suicide, and drug poisoning; and it has been especially severe in some U.S. states. Building on recent work, this study examined whether U.S. state policy contexts may be …

The Associated Press reports: A spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away succeeded in shifting its orbit, NASA said Tuesday in announcing the results of its save-the-world test. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept. 26, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble …

ABC News reports: Most people suffering from long COVID are experiencing some trouble performing day-to-day activities, new federal data shows. As of Sept. 26, 81% of adults with ongoing symptoms of COVID lasting three months or longer — or four out of five adults — are experiencing limitations in their daily activities compared to before they had the virus. Patients …

Via press release from the CDC: With a potentially severe respiratory season ahead, about half of all US adults remain vulnerable to influenza (flu), according to new data released today by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). The new NFID survey of US adults found that only 49% plan to get a flu vaccine during the 2022-2023 flu season. …

The Washington Post reports: An experimental Alzheimer’s drug slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27 percent in a closely watched clinical trial, the sponsors of the medication said Tuesday, increasing the therapy’s chance for approval as soon as early next year. Japanese drugmaker Eisai and its American partner, Biogen, in a news release said the slowing of deterioration, compared with …

The New York Times reports: NASA officials express optimism that DART is not going to miss. “I’m highly confident that we are going to hit on Monday,” Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer said during a news conference last week, “and it will be a complete success.” NASA has succeeded at intentionally crashing spacecraft into celestial bodies before. For instance, …

The Associated Press reports: COVID-19 infection may significantly boost an older person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a new, large-scale study suggests. People 65 and older who contracted COVID were nearly 70% more likely overall to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s within a year of their infection, researchers report. The elderly fared even worse, with the risk of Alzheimer’s doubling in …

Via press release from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul: WHEREAS, a case of paralytic polio was identified on July 21, 2022, in an unvaccinated resident of Rockland County who had no international travel during the incubation period for polio; WHEREAS, the poliovirus that infected the Rockland County individual has been identified as a case of vaccine-derived poliovirus, the last of …

The Daily Beast reports: Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier” is “retreating”—or collapsing—at a rate that has stunned scientists to the point they claim the potential impact is “spine-chilling”. Scientists have been studying the Thwaites Glacier, which is approximately the size of Florida, in order to predict the impact of global sea rise levels. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature …

Orlando’s ABC affiliate reports: The second attempt to launch NASA’s Artemis I mission from Kennedy Space Center has been scrubbed for Saturday. The Artemis I mission management team tried to launch the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft Saturday afternoon. Artemis I will launch the SLS rocket – also called the mega moon rocket – and send …

CBS News reports: After months of tests, troubleshooting and repairs, engineers fueled the Space Launch System moon rocket for blastoff early Monday on NASA’s long-overdue Artemis 1 test flight, a critical mission to send an unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a 42-day mission beyond the moon and back. Running late because of stormy weather and troubleshooting to resolve an apparent …

The Verge reports: The ashes of Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek, will get sent into deep space on a rocket that memorializes her and several other Star Trek veterans. Nichols’ son, Kyle Johnson, donated her ashes after she died in July at age 89. Nichols’ ashes will head to space on …

The Washington Post reports: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s preeminent infectious-disease expert who achieved unprecedented fame while enduring withering political attacks as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response under two presidents, plans to step down in December after more than a half-century of public service, he announced Monday. Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious …

Via press release: A group of global experts convened by WHO has agreed on new names for monkeypox virus variants, as part of ongoing efforts to align the names of the monkeypox disease, virus and variants—or clades—with current best practices. The experts agreed to name the clades using Roman numerals. The monkeypox virus was named upon first discovery in 1958, …

NBC New York reports: There are new concerns about the potential spread of polio in New York, with the state health commissioner saying there could be “hundreds” of people infected as new evidence shows the virus has been found in samples from multiple counties. “Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic …

Spectrum New York reports: The polio virus has been detected in wastewater samples from early June in Rockland County and is genetically linked to a case confirmed last month in the area, New York state Department of Health officials said Monday. The polio cases are also genetically linked to samples from greater Jerusalem, Israel, but that “does not imply that …

The Associated Press reports: Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s newly appointed space chief said Tuesday. Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its …