July 23, 2024
(Wired) – As Russia has tested every form of attack on Ukraine’s civilians over the past decade, both digital and physical, it’s often used winter as one of its weapons—launching cyberattacks on electric utilities to trigger December blackouts and ruthlessly … Read More
July 23, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – The drug middlemen that promise to control costs have instead steered patients toward higher-priced medicines and affiliated pharmacies—steps that increase spending and reduce patient choice, a House investigation found. The pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, have devised … Read More
July 23, 2024
(Vox) – The cash’s impact on health was a little more straightforward: it didn’t seem to do much. Despite detailed data, including blood samples from some participants and nutritional intake, “We find essentially no evidence of improvements in physical health … Read More
July 23, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The White House’s voluntary AI commitments have brought better red-teaming practices and watermarks, but no meaningful transparency or accountability. One year ago, on July 21, 2023, seven leading AI companies—Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft,and OpenAI—committed … Read More
July 22, 2024
(The Atlantic) – One way is to talk about abortions as lifesaving health care, which more women have been doing. Another model is to talk about it not as a women’s issue, but as a family issue. This is the … Read More
July 22, 2024
(Associated Press) – Wide-eyed piglets rushing to check out the visitors to their unusual barn just might represent the future of organ transplantation – and there’s no rolling around in the mud here. The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted … Read More
July 22, 2024
(Axios) – The CrowdStrike internet meltdown that wrecked havoc with some health systems’ procedures and billing on Friday could be a harbinger of future threats and disruptions to medical facilities, experts said. Why it matters: The U.S. health system is … Read More
July 22, 2024
(NBC News) – There’s mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners may be linked to heart disease and other possible health risks. Scientists say the findings are far from definitive, however, with some leading researchers calling for better-designed clinical trials investigating the … Read More
July 22, 2024
(New York Times) – New research from the Data Provenance Initiative has found a dramatic drop in content made available to the collections used to build artificial intelligence. For years, the people building powerful artificial intelligence systems have used enormous … Read More
July 22, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Women without children, rather than those having fewer, are responsible for most of the decline in average births among 35- to 44-year-olds during their lifetimes so far, according to an analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current … Read More
July 19, 2024
(New York Times) – Spain has become dependent on an algorithm to combat gender violence, with the software so woven into law enforcement that it is hard to know where its recommendations end and human decision-making begins. At its best, … Read More
July 19, 2024
(Bloomberg via MSN) – Health systems around the world cancelled procedures and resorted to using handwritten records in the wake of a global digital outage that roiled vital resources from air travel to emergency services. General practitioners in the UK’s … Read More
July 19, 2024
(CBS News) – The Microsoft Crowdstrike outage that hit health care systems, as well as airlines, banks and other business around the world Friday, is impacting hospitals and clinics in Massachusetts. Mass General Brigham, one of the largest health care … Read More
July 18, 2024
(NBC News) – A booming unregulated market is creating risks for consumers, who may not know what they’re getting. Indeed, with the rise in popularity, there has also been a growing number of alarming reports of people being sickened by … Read More
July 18, 2024
(The Hill) – Most of Generation Z is turning to TikTok to seek health advice, citing quick responses and free advice, a recent survey found. The poll, conducted by Zing Coach, found 56 percent of Gen Z respondents use TikTok … Read More
July 18, 2024
(Vox) – If you believe the ads, energy drinks turn ordinary schnooks like you and me into lean, mean, git-her-done machines. They promise to give you wings, unleash the beast, make you the boss of time, and enable the crushing … Read More
July 18, 2024
(Aeon) – Selfishness channels ambition, envy drives competition, pride aids the win. Does it take a bad person to be a good athlete? Globally, there are 567 track and field athletes currently ineligible to compete in the sport due to … Read More
July 18, 2024
(Newsweek) – China’s fertility rate, or births expected per woman during her lifetime, amid the rising cost of living in major cities and shifting cultural attitudes toward having children, is 1.0. This puts the country in the company of neighboring … Read More
July 18, 2024
(Wired) – This week, we examine the trend among generative AI chatbots to flirt, stammer, and try to make us believe they’re human—a development that some researchers say crosses an ethical line. These voice bots are starting to sound a … Read More
July 17, 2024
(New York Times) – A large new study provides some of the strongest evidence yet that vaccines reduce the risk of developing long Covid. Scientists looked at people in the United States infected during the first two years of the … Read More
July 17, 2024
(Axios) – Four years after health workers were forced to reuse masks and other supplies to get through the dark days of the pandemic, the idea of recycling personal protective equipment is going mainstream. Why it matters: It’s evidence of … Read More
July 17, 2024
(The Guardian) – When Yang Li* turned 30, she gave herself three years to decide whether or not she wanted to have children. But as the years ticked by, working a busy job in Beijing, Yang felt none the wiser … Read More
July 17, 2024
(CNN) – Searing heat may have played a role in the infections of five workers who fell ill last week while culling a large flock of chickens infected with the H5N1 virus in Colorado, health officials said Tuesday. “At the … Read More
July 17, 2024
(Wired) – Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are in shortage, and telehealth startups are selling “compounded” versions. A WIRED investigation looks at how easy it is to order these meds online. They’re the Taylor Swift Eras Tour of pharmaceuticals: Supply is … Read More
July 16, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Government support helps China’s generative AI companies gain ground on U.S. competitors, but political controls threaten to weigh them down As American tech giants pull ahead in the artificial-intelligence race, China is turning to an old … Read More
