December 26, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Intelligence Council’s work on Covid-19 origins complied with all of the Intelligence Community’s analytic standards, including objectivity,” the spokeswoman said. But an investigation by The … Read More
December 24, 2024
(Daily Mail) – A retired NHS scientist has sensationally revealed that IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe, whose work led to the world’s first test tube baby, used sperm from ‘lots’ of medical staff without keeping records of the children they fathered. … Read More
December 23, 2024
(404 Media) – Anthropic created an AI jailbreaking algorithm that keeps tweaking prompts until it gets a harmful response. New research from Anthropic, one of the leading AI companies and the developer of the Claude family of Large Language Models … Read More
December 20, 2024
(Nature) – More than 100 clinical trials put stem cells for regenerative medicine to the test. It’s a turning point for a field beset with ethical and political controversy. The study is one of more than 100 clinical trials exploring … Read More
December 19, 2024
(Science) – A brace of new studies probes benefits and risks for an understudied group Profound feelings of unity, transcendence, ineffability, and awe—as well as improved mental health. Those were among the testimonials in a recent survey of 233 people … Read More
December 18, 2024
(Nature) – Paper on hydroxychloroquine led by French researcher Didier Raoult is second-most-cited study ever to be withdrawn. A study that stoked enthusiasm for the now-disproven idea that a cheap malaria drug can treat COVID-19 has been retracted — more … Read More
December 18, 2024
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics (vol. 45, no. 6, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 17, 2024
(Science) – Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds A 2020 paper that sparked widespread enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment was retracted today, following years of campaigning by scientists who … Read More
December 17, 2024
(CNN) – A group of 38 scientists working in nine countries has sounded an alarm about the potential creation of mirror bacteria — synthetic organisms in which the molecular structure found in nature is reversed and could put humans, animals … Read More
December 13, 2024
(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) – Scientists say mirror image versions of life are possible: organisms built on molecules that, for example, don’t use the normal “right-handed” DNA of life on Earth, but a synthesized “left-handed” DNA instead. Although the capability … Read More
December 13, 2024
(Aeon) – What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’ [TED-Ed video] After decades of experimenting on animal brains, the US neurosurgeon Robert J White proposed executing a ‘whole body transplant’ on a rhesus monkey … Read More
December 13, 2024
(NPR) – “The for-profit sector is focusing on conditions, such as sickle cell disease, such as cancer, which are commercially viable because there are just enough people with them,” Urnov says. The problem is, “that leaves 99.5% of folks outside … Read More
December 10, 2024
(Undark) – New dialogues are emerging about what comes next in biology, 25 years after completion of a draft of the human genome. In today’s world, post-genomic is built on two important ideas: that, as previously mentioned, doing genomics is … Read More
December 10, 2024
(Gizmodo) – While the exact fate of the misplaced samples is still unknown, they likely pose no danger to the public, government officials have said. A research facility in Australia is in hot water over losing track of its viruses. … Read More
December 9, 2024
Journal of Medical Humanities (vol. 45, no 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 6, 2024
(Reuters via U.S. News & World Report) – An animal testing laboratory at Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain technology company was found to have “objectionable conditions or practices” by the Food and Drug Administration, which cited the company and urged it … Read More
December 6, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The UK is seen as a global leader in regulating reproductive technologies. Some worry that onerous paperwork is causing embryos to be wasted. IVF is a success story for embryo research. But today, valuable embryos that … Read More
December 6, 2024
(Live Science) – Dozens of people in the United States have caught bird flu from animals this year, but there’s no evidence that the viral disease has spread from one person to another. However, a single mutation in the virus … Read More
December 6, 2024
Nursing Ethics (vol. 31, no. 8, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 4, 2024
(UPI via MSN) – In 2006, Wolfgang Jäger was in his 30s when a skiing accident left the young Austrian wheelchair-bound from a spinal cord injury. Fast-forward to today, where an innovative deep-brain stimulation technique is helping the 54-year-old Jäger … Read More
November 27, 2024
(Medscape) – About a third of people eligible for glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medications for weight loss via the products’ labels would have been excluded from the clinical trials that supported their safety and effectiveness, thereby creating … Read More
November 27, 2024
(Nature) – By changing how contracts are done, institutions can move away from exploitative research practices. Historically, the people and institutions that carry out research related to Indigenous peoples have assumed that they own those data — they can share … Read More
November 27, 2024
(Associated Press) – The family placed flowers by a pair of weathered cowboy boots, as people quietly gathered for the memorial of the soft-spoken tribal chairman who mentored teens in the boxing ring and teased his grandkids on tractor rides. … Read More
November 26, 2024
(New Scientist) – Reperfusion technologies that can reanimate human brains are raising the possibility that death could be a reversible condition, even hours after a cardiac arrest That was when something incredible happened. The cortex turned from grey to pink. … Read More
November 26, 2024
(Wired) – Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Neuralink, announced on Tuesday that it is launching a study to test its implant for a new use: allowing a person to control a robotic arm using just their thoughts. “We’re excited to … Read More
