May 23, 2024
(Nature) – The participants had shared details about their experiences — such as how their work and relationships were affected — under the assurance that the information would be shared with others only in an anonymized form. But before the … Read More
May 22, 2024
(Wired) – The experimental device has given Arbaugh, now 30, a sense of independence. Before, using a mouth-stick required someone to position him upright. If he dropped his mouth-stick, it needed to be picked up for him. And he couldn’t … Read More
May 20, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – Reid received the device, called ARCex, as part of a 60-person clinical trial. She and the other participants completed two months of physical therapy, followed by two months of physical therapy combined with stimulation. The results, … Read More
May 20, 2024
(Axios) – Marijuana could get easier to study following the Biden administration’s move to reclassify it as a less dangerous drug, but scientists say research barriers won’t entirely disappear. Why it matters: Even as most Americans live in states that … Read More
May 16, 2024
(Bloomberg) – For the first time, Noland Arbaugh explains how Elon Musk’s brain implant, which allows him to control a computer with his thoughts, has changed his life. Noland Arbaugh still doesn’t quite know what happened. He doesn’t know many … Read More
May 15, 2024
(NPR) – Clinical trials have inspired optimism in the drug for its potential to help the millions of Americans who experience PTSD. Accounts from some of those who’ve participated in the trials describe the treatment as transformational. But new and … Read More
May 15, 2024
(Reuters) – Neuralink’s disclosure last week that tiny wires inside the brain of its first patient had pulled out of position is an issue the Elon Musk company has known about for years, according to five people familiar with the … Read More
May 14, 2024
(Vanity Fair) – The UNC coronavirologist who has collaborated on gain-of-function research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Shi Zhengli, told congressional investigators that he has long worried about biosafety protocols inside China. Though he thinks it’s far more likely … Read More
May 14, 2024
May 13, 2024
May 10, 2024
(Nature) – After more than four years of deliberations, US officials have released a policy that outlines how federal funding agencies and research institutions must review and oversee biological experiments that could potentially be misused or spark a pandemic. The … Read More
May 10, 2024
May 9, 2024
(New York Times) – Artificial intelligence is giving machines the power to generate videos, write computer code and even carry on a conversation. It is also accelerating efforts to understand the human body and fight disease. On Wednesday, Google DeepMind, … Read More
May 9, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Neuralink encountered a problem with the implant in its first human patient, Noland Arbaugh, that reduced the amount of data it could capture from his brain, according to a blog post the company published on Wednesday. … Read More
May 9, 2024
(Axios) – Biosecurity experts say AI-driven “biosurveillance” could help spot the next pandemic or biological attack. The big picture: An initial surge of concern over the threat from AI-generated superbugs and bioweapons has begun to ebb as AI’s advantages in … Read More
May 8, 2024
(Axios) – More than 100,000 Black women are expected to be enrolled in the largest-ever study of cancer risk and outcomes in this high-risk group, the American Cancer Society announced Tuesday. Why it matters: Despite major gains in the past … Read More
May 8, 2024
(Reuters via Yahoo!) – Google Deepmind has unveiled the third major version of its “AlphaFold” artificial intelligence model, designed to help scientists design drugs and target disease more effectively. In 2020, the company made a significant advance in molecular biology … Read More
May 8, 2024
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 7, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The experiment, at the University of Florida, is an attempt to create a large animal starting only from stem cells—no egg, no sperm, and no conception. A week earlier, “synthetic embryos,” artificial structures created in a … Read More
May 3, 2024
(The Atlantic) – Currently, recreational cannabis is legal for adults over the age of 21 in 24 states, which are home to more than half of the U.S. population. According to a recent Harris poll, about 40 percent of Americans … 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 3, 2024
(Beatrice Institute Podcast) – As a bioethicist and Catholic deacon-in-training, Dr. Michael Deem has spent years in the medical trenches as well as in theological and philosophical research. Michael Deem joins Grant in this episode to answer questions such as, … Read More
May 2, 2024
(Nature) – In the never-ending quest to discover previously unknown CRISPR gene-editing systems, researchers have scoured microbes in everything from hot springs and peat bogs to poo and even yogurt. Now, thanks to advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI), they … Read More
May 1, 2024
(Nature) – It turned out that Zimmer-Harwood, a PhD student at University of Oxford, UK, had nothing to worry about. Neither he nor any of the 35 other people who participated in the ‘challenge’ trial actually got COVID-19. The study’s … Read More