Tag Archives: science

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 …

Politico reports: The Biden administration is racing against the dropping temperatures to convince more Americans to get the updated Covid-19 booster shot amid low uptake numbers driven by confusion over the shot, declining cases and profound pandemic fatigue. By the end of last week, the administration expected between 13 and 15 million people out of 283.4 million Americans aged 12 …

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 …

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, …

Space.com report: NASA is just days away from slamming a spacecraft into an asteroid 7 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth. The agency’s long-awaited Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will impact with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Monday (Sept. 26), if all goes according to plan. The DART mission launched on Nov. 23, 2021 on top of a …

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 …

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 …

USA Today reports: Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk seniors, according to a large study published Wednesday. The results from a 109,000-patient Israeli study are likely to renew questions about the U.S. government’s use of Paxlovid, which has become the go-to treatment …

Via press release from the White House: During my time as Vice President, I worked closely with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the United States’ response to Zika and Ebola. I came to know him as a dedicated public servant, and a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades at the forefront of some of our most dangerous and …

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 …

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 …

Reuters reports: Scientists advising the World Health Organization (WHO) on monkeypox say the window is closing to stop its spread, with cases currently doubling every two weeks, raising concerns that it will take several months for the outbreak to peak. WHO Europe has forecast just over 27,000 monkeypox cases in 88 countries by Aug. 2, up from 17,800 cases in …

Reuters reports: A case of polio has been identified outside New York City and confirmed by federal health officials, the New York State Health Department said on Thursday in what would be the nation’s first known case of the disease in at least thirty years. The CDC, which confirmed the case, has said no cases of polio have originated in …

The Washington Post reports: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s preeminent infectious-diseases expert who has served as the face of the coronavirus pandemic response for more than two years, will retire by the end of President Biden’s term after more than 50 years in government, he confirmed Monday to The Washington Post. “By the time we get to the end of …

Via press release: The international NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe so far. U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled the image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, during a White House event on Monday 11 July. The image – which focuses on a spot in the …

Axios reports: Pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration on Monday asking to sell a birth control bill over-the-counter, rather than via prescription. If approved, it would be the first ever birth control pill to be available over-the-counter in the U.S. The application was submitted just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. …