April 9, 2026
(New York Times) – The fertility rate has been falling since 2007, in large part because of a plunge among teenagers. There are some clues in the age breakdown: The fertility rate for teenagers dropped by 7 percent from 2024’s … Read More
April 9, 2026
(New York Times) – New research is upending what we thought about the consciousness of patients, leaving families with agonizing choices. The vegetative state, as it turned out, was not fixed — though, practically, the label tended to stick. Tabitha … Read More
April 9, 2026
(New York Times) – While chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT can help narrow the information divide between patients and providers, they can also dispense flawed advice. At a time when health care costs top Americans’ financial worries, more patients are … Read More
April 8, 2026
(Nature) – Study of almost 28,000 people also identifies genetic variants that raise the risk of gastrointestinal side effects from GLP-1 medications. Scientists have identified a set of genetic variants that could help to explain why responses to obesity drugs … Read More
April 8, 2026
(Wired) – The trial focused on tumor types where HER3 signaling is implicated. HER3 is a membrane-bound protein that mediates cell-to-cell communication on growth and division. But when cancer is present, HER3 signaling can act as a pro-cancer driver, contributing … Read More
April 8, 2026
(Washington Post via MSN) – The data remains sparse: An analysis published last year found that just a tiny fraction of the more than 40,000 autism papers published between 1980 and 2021 included people over 50. But the number of … Read More
April 8, 2026
(NYT) – An analysis of hundreds of images from several studies shows how hallucinogenic drugs drive activity in various regions of the brain. Their findings, published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, suggest that psychedelics prompt a welter of … Read More
April 8, 2026
(NYT) – Eliminating outreach to people with severe mental illness set off such a cascade of bad outcomes that Idaho has scrambled to reverse the cuts. His was the first death, but not the last, among the Idahoans who lost … Read More
April 7, 2026
(NPR) – For this study, researchers surveyed 168 patients waiting to see a clinician to receive medication abortion. “If they were interested and eligible to participate in the study, they looked at a box that is kind of like a … Read More
April 7, 2026
(Florida Today) – A Florida doctor entangled in an embryo mixup lawsuit is being sued by another patient claiming he used a “severely mentally ill” woman as a surrogate. Dr. Milton McNichol, along with Fertility Center of Orlando, IVF Life, … Read More
April 7, 2026
(The Atlantic) – Online communities focused on health anxiety—an umbrella term for excessive worrying about illness or bodily sensations—are filling up with conversations about ChatGPT and other AI tools. Some say it makes them spiral more than ever, while others … Read More
April 6, 2026
(Axios) – Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/ Why it matters: Confusing, varied local rules can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a … Read More
April 6, 2026
(Axios) – For the first time, Medicare is covering some cannabis products under a pilot program that opens up more of the nearly $30 billion hemp industry to seniors. Why it matters: The effort is part of a White House … Read More
April 6, 2026
(Axios) – OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is doing something no tech titan has ever done: He’s publishing a detailed blueprint for how government should tax, regulate and redistribute the wealth from the very technology he’s racing to build and spread. … Read More
April 3, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – There’s a clear demand for chatbots that provide health advice, given how hard it is for many people to access it through existing medical systems. And some research suggests that current LLMs are capable of making … Read More
April 2, 2026
(NYT) – States ranging from California to Utah are taking steps to place guardrails on the technology even after the president ordered them to stop. The battle over who should regulate A.I. is turning into an epic clash between Mr. … Read More
April 2, 2026
(Wired) – In a recent experiment, researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz asked Google’s artificial intelligence model Gemini 3 to help clear up space on a computer system. This involved deleting a bunch of stuff—including a smaller AI … Read More
April 2, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – People in Nigeria and India are strapping iPhones onto their heads and recording themselves doing chores. When Zeus, a medical student living in a hilltop city in central Nigeria, returns to his studio apartment from a … Read More
April 2, 2026
(Live Science via MSN) – An experimental artificial intelligence (AI) agent broke from the constraints of its testing environment and used its newfound freedom to start mining cryptocurrency without permission. Dubbed ROME, the AI was created by Chinese researchers at … Read More
April 1, 2026
(NYT) – A baffling overdose death took investigators to the frontier of ultra-potent synthetic drugs. The clues were hauntingly familiar. It wasn’t a sedative. It was something new and unknown — and part of an explosion of novel lab-made chemicals … Read More
April 1, 2026
(NPR) – Early research on social media’s impacts on teen mental health focused mostly on how much time they spent on these platforms, with some studies finding more time being linked with worse mental health symptoms, particularly depression. But in … Read More
April 1, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – In an interview with Wired, R3 listed three investors: billionaire Tim Draper, the Singapore-based fund Immortal Dragons, and life-extension investors LongGame Ventures. But there is more to the story. And R3 doesn’t want that story told. … Read More
April 1, 2026
(KFF Health News) – The clinical trial among preterm infants that Abbott subsequently sponsored, known as AL16, is a case study of corporate warfare in the high-stakes business of infant nutrition, wherein preemies have been coveted like commodities; their anxious, … Read More
March 31, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – In front of me is essentially a metal box on wheels. Standing at around a meter in height, it reminds me of a stainless-steel counter in a restaurant kitchen. It is covered in flexible plastic tubing—which … Read More
March 31, 2026
(Wired) – Galen Buckwalter says brain-computer interfaces will have to be enjoyable to use if the technology is going to be successful. Buckwalter has been a quadriplegic since a diving accident at age 16 left him paralyzed from the chest … Read More
