Science

Axios reports: The Centers for Disease Control on Wednesday alerted doctors to be on the lookout for a deadly new strain of mpox spreading through parts of Africa while U.S. officials committed $424 million to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the epicenter of the outbreak. The so-called clade I virus is more virulent and deadly than the …

The New York Times reports: Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire and former New York City mayor, is giving $600 million to the country’s four historically Black medical schools, which account for a significant percentage of all medical degrees awarded to Black doctors. Through his charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mr. Bloomberg is giving $175 million each to Meharry Medical College in …

NBC News reports: The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Guardant Health’s blood test, called Shield, to screen for colon cancer. The test isn’t meant to replace colonoscopies, but is generating enthusiasm among doctors who say it has the potential to boost the dismal rate of screenings for the second-highest cause of cancer death in the United States. Shield …

CNN reports: Two shots a year of a drug currently used to treat HIV infections were dramatically effective at preventing infections in a study among young women and adolescent girls in Africa. The twice-yearly injection of the drug lenacapavir can provide total protection against HIV infections, demonstrating 100% efficacy in Phase 3 trial data released by drugmaker Gilead and published …

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug donanemab, expanding the limited treatment options for the mind-wasting disease in the U.S. The agency approved the treatment, which will be sold under the brand name Kisunla. Eli Lilly’s drug slowed Alzheimer’s progression by 35% over 18 months compared with a placebo, according to a late-stage …

Ars Technica reports: The US government will pay Moderna $176 million to develop an mRNA vaccine against a pandemic influenza—an award given as the highly pathogenic bird flu virus H5N1 continues to spread widely among US dairy cattle. The funding flows through BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, as part of a new Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) …

ABC News reports: A study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published Wednesday found that multivitamins won’t help extend your life, with researchers reporting, “multivitamin use to improve longevity is not supported.” The study analyzed data from nearly 400,000 adults over 20 years. Participants had a median age of 61.5 years old and were generally healthy, with no history …

Today in extremely creepy robotics: A group of Japanese researchers say they have figured out a way to bind “engineered skin tissue,” grown in a lab, to moveable solid objects, including the bodies and even faces of humanoid robots. The team was led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, a pioneer in a field that sounds like …

USA Today reports: Boeing and NASA are once again “adjusting” the return home of two astronauts from the International Space Station on the Starliner spacecraft. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were scheduled to stay at the ISS for just a week after docking there June 6. Now they aren’t expected to make the trip back to Earth until at least …

Via press release from NASA: Although there are no known significant asteroid impact threats for the foreseeable future, hypothetical exercises provide valuable insights by exploring the risks, response options, and opportunities for collaboration posed by varying scenarios, from minor regional damage with little warning to potential global catastrophes predicted years or even decades in the future. During the exercise, participants …

The Guardian reports: A blood test that draws on artificial intelligence can predict who will develop Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before symptoms arise, researchers say. The test is designed to work on equipment already found in many NHS laboratories and, if validated in a broad population of people, could be made available to the health service within two …

Axios reports: The plan from the House Energy and Commerce Committee would establish a new oversight process for certain risky pathogen research proposals and transfer power from NIH to a “public, independent oversight entity” to review, approve or reject and oversee the experiments. It also would incorporate national security or intelligence reviews into the NIH’s existing grant approval process, add …

The New York Times reports: A committee of independent advisers to the FDA voted unanimously on Monday that the benefits outweigh the risks of the newest experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s afflicts more than six million Americans. It has no cure, and there is no treatment or lifestyle modification that can restore memory loss or reverse cognitive decline. The …

ABC News reports: Moderna’s combo flu and COVID vaccine provided a strong immune response in older adults, with levels comparable to getting the flu and COVID shots separately, according to the company’s results from a late-stage clinical trial. There are still multiple steps required before the shot would become available. Moderna would need to apply to the FDA for approval, …

Reuters reports: Dairy cows infected with avian flu in five U.S. states have died or been slaughtered by farmers because they did not recover, state officials and academics told Reuters. Reports of the deaths suggest the bird flu outbreak in cows could take a greater economic toll in the farm belt than initially thought. Farmers have long culled poultry infected …

Reuters reports: Boeing’s new Starliner capsule and its inaugural two-member NASA crew safely docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, meeting a key test in proving the vessel’s flight-worthiness and sharpening Boeing’s competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The rendezvous was achieved despite an earlier loss of several guidance-control jet thrusters, some of them due to a helium propulsion leak, …

NYU’s Langone Health News reports: Experts at NYU Langone Health who focus on the spread of contagious rashes document the first reported case in the United States of a sexually transmitted fungal infection that can take months to clear up, even with treatment. The first report, which published online on June 5 in the journal JAMA Dermatology, describes a man …

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, …