May 13, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The world is at a startling demographic milestone. Sometime soon, the global fertility rate will drop below the point needed to keep population constant. It may have already happened. Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women … Read More
May 13, 2024
(Reuters) – Talks to draw up a global pact to help fight future pandemics have ended without a draft agreement by the expected deadline, but progress has been made, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Negotiators from the World … Read More
May 13, 2024
(NPR) – At one of the last functioning hospitals in Rafah, scenes of horror are conveyed in clinical descriptions as U.S. medical volunteers grapple with the effects of Israeli military operations and border closures after seven months of war in … Read More
May 10, 2024
(Undark) – For centuries, people have dreamed of a world without disease. The myriad medical breakthroughs in the 20th century — which included antibiotics and modern vaccines — made that utopian ideal feel tantalizingly close. Vaccination led to the global … Read More
May 10, 2024
(CNN) – The US Food and Drug Administration is considering a requirement for blood banks to use a new test that can detect the parasites that cause malaria in certain donors’ blood, and it’s seeking the opinion of its independent … Read More
May 10, 2024
(STAT News) – Twenty-seven years ago today, a 3-year-old boy in Hong Kong developed a sore throat, spiked a fever, and started to cough. Six days later, he was hospitalized; six days after that, he died of acute respiratory distress … Read More
May 10, 2024
May 8, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – There are plenty of people like Sun who want to use AI to preserve, animate, and interact with lost loved ones as they mourn and try to heal. The market is particularly strong in China, where … Read More
May 7, 2024
(NPR) – While countries routinely collect child mortality data, very little is known about the lives — and premature deaths — of sex workers’ children. Sometimes there are no records of these kids’ births or deaths. “They could be born … Read More
May 7, 2024
(Axios) – A new report calls on all levels of government to strengthen U.S. biodefense measures and urges policymakers to codify parts of a national strategy to address an array of biological threats. Why it matters: Threats in the form … Read More
May 3, 2024
(Axios) – China leads the U.S. as a top producer of research in more than half of AI’s hottest fields, according to new data from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) shared first with Axios. Why it … Read More
May 1, 2024
(Associated Press) – The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post … Read More
April 29, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – Almost all keyboard apps used by Chinese people around the world share a security loophole that makes it possible to spy on what users are typing. The vulnerability, which allows the keystroke data that these apps … Read More
April 26, 2024
(Associated Press) – Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released Wednesday. … Read More
April 24, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The frenzy to build data centers to serve the exploding demand for artificial intelligence is causing a shortage of the parts, property and power that the sprawling warehouses of supercomputers require. The lead time to get … Read More
April 23, 2024
(Nature) – In the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, video footage has shown drones penetrating deep into Russian territory, more than 1,000 kilometres from the border, and destroying oil and gas infrastructure. It’s likely, experts say, that artificial intelligence (AI) … Read More
April 23, 2024
(Nature) – A virulent strain of the monkeypox virus has gained the ability to spread through sexual contact, new data suggest. This has alarmed researchers, who fear a reprise of the worldwide mpox outbreak in 2022. Evidence from past outbreaks … Read More
April 23, 2024
(ABC News) – Haiti’s health system has long been fragile, but it’s now nearing total collapse after gangs launched coordinated attacks on Feb. 29, targeting critical infrastructure in the capital and beyond. The violence has forced several medical institutions and … Read More
April 22, 2024
(Reuters) – Eating disorders remain a “huge” issue in climbing, Olympic gold medallist Janja Garnbret said, even as new regulations meant to stop dangerously underweight athletes competing came into effect earlier this month. The International Federation of Sport Climbing announced … Read More
April 22, 2024
(New York Times) – Twenty-three top Chinese swimmers tested positive for the same powerful banned substance seven months before the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 but were allowed to escape public scrutiny and continue to compete after top Chinese officials … Read More
April 22, 2024
(Associated Press) – The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, … Read More
April 19, 2024
(Associated Press) – The World Health Organization has approved a version of a widely used cholera vaccine that could help address a surge in cases that has depleted the global vaccine stockpile and left poorer countries scrambling to contain epidemics. … Read More
April 19, 2024
(BBC) – Sammy [not her real name] is an unlikely drug trafficker. She is one of what international law enforcement agencies estimate could be thousands of online sales representatives, working for illicit Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical companies producing and smuggling … Read More
April 19, 2024
(The Guardian) – The World Health Organization has raised concerns about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which has an “extraordinarily high” mortality rate in humans. An outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths or killing of … Read More
April 18, 2024
(New York Times) – Nearly 1.5 million teenage girls in some of the world’s poorest countries will miss the chance to be protected from cervical cancer because the drugmaker Merck has said it will not be able to deliver millions … Read More
