Tag Archives: science

MA May End Religious Vax Exemptions For Students

Axios reports: Beacon Hill is wading into the tumultuous territory of school vaccine requirements as lawmakers vet proposals to tighten school precautions against future outbreaks. The Public Health Committee meets Wednesday to consider a handful of vaccine bills, including legislation to completely eliminate the state’s religious exemption option and to standardize the student vaccine exemption system. Vaccine mandates for children …

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Voice Study: Bisexual Men Sound The Most Masculine

Science news outlet PsyPost reports: Research published in the Journal of Sex Research aimed to determine whether listeners could detect if a man is bisexual from his voice alone. The findings indicate that people are not able to determine if a man identifies as bisexual based on his voice alone. Additionally, when people listened to the voices of gay, straight, …

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India Celebrates Successful Launch Of Moon Mission

The New York Times reports: India is on its way back to the moon after a rocket lifted off from Sriharikota, a launch site off the country’s East Coast, on Friday afternoon local time. The mission, Chandrayaan-3, is largely a do-over after the country’s first attempt at putting a robotic spacecraft on the surface of the moon nearly four years …

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Webb Telescope Offers Stunning Image On Anniversary

Via press release from NASA: From our cosmic backyard in the solar system to distant galaxies near the dawn of time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered on its promise of revealing the universe like never before in its first year of science operations. To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, NASA has released Webb’s image of …

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REVIEW: Lab-Grown Chicken Meat Tastes Like Chicken

The Associated Press reports: When I told friends and family I was reporting on the first chicken meat grown from animal cells, their first comment was “Eww.” Their second comment was: “How does it taste?” The short answer (you’ve probably heard this sentence before in other contexts): Tastes like chicken. The longer answer, which folds in the “Eww” response, is …

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FDA Issues Guidance For Psychedelic Drug Trials

Axios reports: Federal regulators are laying out guidance for psychedelic drug trials for the first time, in a move that could encourage the mainstreaming of substances like magic mushrooms and LSD as behavioral health treatments. Psychedelics are turning into a multi-billion industry and gaining widespread acceptance after decades of concerns about recreational use of the products — and the high …

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Sends “Postcard” From Mars

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports: After completing a major software update in April, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took a last look at “Marker Band Valley” before leaving it behind, capturing a “postcard” of the scene. The postcard is an artistic interpretation of the landscape, with color added over two black-and-white panoramas captured by Curiosity’s navigation cameras. The views were taken …

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Pew Research: 21% Still Oppose COVID Vaccinations

Pew Research reports: With the U.S. national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic now at an end, Americans have sorted themselves into three groups based on their vaccination decisions. Roughly a third of U.S. adults (34%) are enthusiastic about the vaccines and up-to-date, being fully vaccinated and having gotten a recent booster shot. A similar share of the public …

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NIH Begins Trial On mRNA-Based Universal Flu Vaccine

CNBC reports: Patients are now enrolling in an early stage clinical trial to test a universal flu vaccine based on messenger RNA technology, the National Institutes of Health announced Monday. Scientists hope the vaccine will protect against a wide variety of flu strains and provide long-term immunity so people do not have to receive a shot every year. Messenger RNA, …

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FDA Loosens Restrictions On Gay/Bisexual Blood Donors

The Associated Press reports: Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can donate blood in the U.S. without abstaining from sex, under a federal policy finalized Thursday by health regulators. The Food and Drug Administration guidelines ease decades-old restrictions designed to protect the blood supply from HIV. The agency announced plans for the change in January and said this week …

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UK Study: HIV Drug Shows Promise Against Dementia

Fierce Biotech reports: An HIV drug from GSK or ones like it could have new therapeutic potential against neurodegenerative disease, findings in mice suggest. In a report published April 26 in Neuron, scientists from the University of Cambridge described how they established a link between microglia and autophagy in the etiology of dementia and Huntington’s disease. They also showed that …

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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit Files For Bankruptcy

The BBC reports: British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the US after failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business. The company, based in California, announced last week that it would cut 85% of its 750-strong workforce. …

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Elon Musk Joins Letter Calling For Pause In AI Research

The Verge reports: A number of well-known AI researchers — and Elon Musk — have signed an open letter calling on AI labs around the world to pause development of large-scale AI systems, citing fears over the “profound risks to society and humanity” they claim this software poses. The letter, published by the nonprofit Future of Life Institute, notes that …

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CDC Issues Warning On Drug-Resistant Fungus

NPR reports: The fungus Candida auris is becoming a more dangerous public health care threat, as the number of drug-resistant cases jumped in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. The national public health agency is calling C. auris an urgent threat because of its resistance to medications. It can cause serious illness and death in people …

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Study Points To “Raccoon Dogs” As Origin Of COVID

The Atlantic reports: Many scientists have stood by the notion that this outbreak—like most others—had purely natural roots. But that hypothesis has been missing a key piece of proof: genetic evidence from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, showing that the virus had infected creatures for sale there. This week, an international team of virologists, genomicists, and evolutionary …

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Study: Half Of Men Are Neither Grower Nor Show-er

The Daily Beast reports: Alonso Isa and a group of urologists from Spain set out to answer a question that few have asked scientifically: Is shower and grower even a thing? They concluded that these categories were real, but two extreme ends of a spectrum. Most men, the researchers found, fall into a middle gray area. By measuring flaccid and …

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Meta Study: Children Of LGBTQ Parents Have Outcomes As Good Or Better Than Those Of Heterosexual Parents

The Hill reports: A new study found that children of same-sex parents have home lives and outcomes that are as good or better than those of heterosexual couples. The research, published in the BMJ Global Health journal, analyzed 34 studies across countries where same-sex marriage is legal. In the study, they compared the development of children who were raised by …

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Florida Man Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba After Rinsing His Sinuses With County Tap Water [VIDEO]

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 …

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FDA Rejected Musk’s Plan For Human Brain Implants

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 …

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Cereal Makers Object To FDA’s New “Healthy” Label Rule

CBS News reports: Some of the biggest makers of cereals, frozen and packaged food have submitted dozens of claims to the Food and Drug Administration objecting to new rules that would exclude food with high amounts of added sugar and salt from being labeled as “healthy” on packaging. Some manufacturers have even called the regulations unconstitutional, saying they violate companies’ …

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