Science

The New York Times reports: Starship, the gargantuan rocket under development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, launched on Thursday morning to make a fourth attempt to get to space and back. The previous three flights of the vehicle all ended in explosions, but each got farther than the last. Such progress is regarded as success in SpaceX’s break-it-then-fix-it approach to engineering …

CBNC reports: Boeing launched its first Starliner flight with astronauts on Wednesday, beginning a crucial final flight test of the long-delayed spacecraft. The launch took off at 10:52 a.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida with two NASA astronauts aboard. Starliner is carried by an United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket and bound for the International Space Station. Wednesday’s liftoff comes …

NPR reports: A panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration on the use of the psychedelic MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder found on Tuesday that the available evidence fails to show that the drug is effective or that its benefits outweigh its risks. It represents a major setback for proponents of the drug and its sponsor Lykos Therapeutics, …

Politico reports: The Biden administration is setting up new tripwires for Donald Trump at America’s premier health research agency to safeguard against political interference if Trump wins in November. The White House fears Trump could try to advance an ideological agenda at the National Institutes of Health, like the ones he’s suggested on everything from vaccines to diversity policies. In …

The Washington Post reports: After more than a year and a half, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin launched another space tourism mission, the first since the company suffered an engine failure on a flight that ended with the capsule’s emergency escape system blasting it away from the rocket booster, which crashed in the West Texas desert. On board the flight is …

The New York Times reports: With Pride events scheduled worldwide over the coming weeks, U.S. officials are bracing for a return of mpox, the infectious disease formerly called monkeypox that struck tens of thousands of gay and bisexual men worldwide in 2022. A combination of behavioral changes and vaccination quelled that outbreak, but a majority of those at risk have …

USA Today reports: A new set of COVID-19 variants, nicknamed FLiRT, has been detected in wastewater surveillance, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From April 14 through April 27, the variant, labeled KP.2, makes up about 25% of the cases in the United States, according to the CDC. Megan L. Ranney, dean of the Yale …

NBC News reports: The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of independent advisers will on June 4 deliberate whether they should recommend approval for the first MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, Lykos Therapeutics said on Monday. This would be the first FDA panel of outside experts to review a potential new PTSD treatment in 25 years. In support of its …

Sky News reports: Measles cases nearly doubled globally between 2022 and 2023, researchers say. There were 321,582 cases worldwide in 2023 – an 88% increase from the previous year, when 171,153 cases were recorded. Total cases for 2024 look on track to at least match last year’s numbers, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some countries could now lose …

Mother Jones reports: New Hampshire could soon beat Florida—known for its anti-vaccine Surgeon General—when it comes to loosening vaccine requirements. A first-in-the-nation bill that’s already passed New Hampshire’s state House, sponsored only by Republican legislators, would end the requirement for parents enrolling kids in child care to provide documentation of polio and measles vaccination. New Hampshire would be the only …

NBC News reports: Boston Dynamics unveiled Wednesday a new version of its humanoid robot, “Atlas,” that the company says is “designed for real-world applications.” Like many of its previous announcements, the company released a video of its robot in action. “In the months and years ahead, we’re excited to show what the world’s most dynamic humanoid robot can really do …

The New York Post reports: O.J. Simpson’s brain will be incinerated, not investigated, The Post has learned. The body of the killer and former NFL great is expected to be cremated Tuesday in Las Vegas — with no plans to donate his brain for research despite multiple requests from scientists, a rep for his estate told The Post. The family …

ABC News reports: The most recent outbreak of measles is threatening the United States’ elimination status, according to a new CDC report published Thursday. The first measles vaccine was introduced in 1963 and, thanks to a yearslong and highly effective vaccination campaign, measles was considered eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, meaning the disease is no longer constantly present. Despite …

Fierce Biotech reports: After more than a year in the works, Roche and Eli Lilly have taken a step closer to delivering their blood test designed to aid in the diagnosis of earlier cases of Alzheimer’s disease. The FDA has granted their work a breakthrough designation to help accelerate its development. Roche’s Elecsys plasma assay searches for and quantifies phosphorylated …

The Hill reports: Mpox cases have been elevated since October, with an average of roughly 200 monthly cases detected per month, spurring efforts to avoid a summer surge like what was seen in 2022. Recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed a startling difference between the first quarter of 2023 and 2024, with the first …

NBC News reports: Weather permitting, millions of people in Mexico, 15 U.S. states and eastern Canada will have the chance to see the moon slip between Earth and sun, temporarily blocking the sun’s light. The total solar eclipse will be visible along a “path of totality” that measures more than 100 miles wide and extends across the continent. Along that …

Reuters reports: The White House on Tuesday directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a growing lunar race among nations and private companies. The head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy instructed the space agency …

Ars Technica reports: Meet ANYmal, a four-legged dog-like robot designed by researchers at ETH Zürich in Switzerland, in hopes of using such robots for search-and-rescue on building sites or disaster areas, among other applications. Now ANYmal has been upgraded to perform rudimentary parkour moves, aka “free running.” Human parkour enthusiasts are known for their remarkably agile, acrobatic feats, and while …

The New York Times reports: The third try was closer to the charm for Elon Musk and SpaceX, as the company’s flight test of the mammoth Starship rocket launched on Thursday and traveled almost halfway around the Earth before it was lost as it re-entered the atmosphere. The flight achieved some key milestones in the development of the vehicle, which …

CBC News reports: SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket, by far the most powerful ever built, blasted off on its third test flight Thursday morning. The test aimed to boost the unpiloted upper stage into space on a sub-orbital hop to a controlled re-entry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The giant rocket’s 33 Raptor engines, gulping 40,000 pounds of liquid …