June 2, 2025
(Slate) — All the effort was for a microplastics blood test, the first designed to be taken at home. Testing human blood for microplastics is a relatively new thing. Until this home test came out, the process could be done … Read More
June 2, 2025
(ABC News) — It comes as the U.S. surpassed 1,000 measles cases for the 1st time in 5 years. Most counties in the United States have seen a decline in childhood measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates over the last … Read More
June 2, 2025
(Washington Post) — Tactics used to make AI tools more engaging can drive chatbots to monopolize users’ time or reinforce harmful ideas. It looked like an easy question for a therapy chatbot: Should a recovering addict take methamphetamine to stay … Read More
June 2, 2025
(Daily Mail) — A controversial amendment allowing assisted suicide is making its way through the Illinois state legislature as representatives snuck the measure into a bill on sanitary food preparation. Illinois House Majority Leader Robyn Gabel, a Democrat representing Evanston, … Read More
June 2, 2025
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 5, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
May 30, 2025
(New York Times) – Days after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that Covid shots would be removed from the federal immunization schedule for children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated advice that largely counters Mr. … Read More
May 30, 2025
(New York Times) – Dr. Robert K. Jarvik, the principal designer of the first permanent artificial heart implanted in a human — a procedure that became a subject of great public fascination and fierce debate about medical ethics — died … Read More
May 30, 2025
(Washington Post via MSN) – Some of the citations that underpin the science in the White House’s sweeping “MAHA Report” appear to have been generated using artificial intelligence, resulting in numerous garbled scientific references and invented studies, AI experts said … Read More
May 30, 2025
(NPR) – The nasal spray contains an experimental monoclonal antibody meant to reduce the Alzheimer’s-related inflammation in Walsh’s brain. He is the first person living with Alzheimer’s to get the treatment, which is also being tested in people with diseases … Read More
May 30, 2025
(The Guardian) – I’ve thought a lot about why I’m writing this. I know that I’m repelled by the kind of spiritual vultures who might scour Max’s story for shareable aphorisms, and that ideally, I’d like to slap them with … Read More
May 30, 2025
(The Hedgehog Review) – What a psychotherapist learned during his chats with a large language model. Under intellectual, logical, and ethical pressure, Claude began producing responses that mimicked the structure of introspection. It examined its own phrasing. It noted its … Read More
May 30, 2025
(Wired) – I’ve covered Google’s AI Overviews since its messy rollout last year, when screenshots of absurdly wrong answers started popping up at the top of search results and going viral on social media. Still, when I first saw images … Read More
May 30, 2025
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 392, no. 18, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
May 29, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Artificial intelligence that listens and summarizes your conversations can be deployed during doctor’s appointments. But WSJ contributor Laura Landro explains why some experts say it’s only the beginning of how it can be used across medicine. … Read More
May 29, 2025
(Axios) – China is now setting the pace in life sciences R&D, conducting more clinical trials than the U.S. and licensing new discoveries to American companies. The big picture: China has become a linchpin in global drug development, the result … Read More
May 29, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – We tried to direct an AI film with Veo and Runway. The tools are magic. The process is madness. Welcome to the premiere of “My Robot & Me.” Please silence your phones, chew your popcorn quietly … Read More
May 29, 2025
(The Verge) – Healthcare company Kaiser Permanente dealt with a system outage on Wednesday that forced its hospitals and pharmacies to fill out prescriptions with pen and paper and slowed down services at other parts of the company. (Read More)
May 29, 2025
(Wired) – Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future. THE UNITED STATES … Read More
May 29, 2025
(The Register) – So much for buttering up ChatGPT with ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ Google co-founder Sergey Brin claims that threatening generative AI models produces better results. “We don’t circulate this too much in the AI community – not just … Read More
May 29, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – A string of startups are racing to build models that can produce better and better software. They claim it’s the shortest path to AGI. Ask people building generative AI what generative AI is good for right … Read More
May 28, 2025
(The Guardian) – Robert F Kennedy Jr has threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in the world’s leading medical journals, which he branded “corrupt”, and to instead create alternative publications run by the state. “We’re probably going to stop … Read More
May 28, 2025
(NBC News) – Most people who take dietary or herbal supplements do so on their own, not under a doctor’s advice. From 1995 through 2020, supplement-related liver failure requiring U.S. patients to be waitlisted for transplants increased eightfold, according to … Read More
May 28, 2025
(UPI) – France’s National Assembly approved a measure that would legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia if signed into law. The French lawmakers passed the measure, dubbed the “right to die” law, on a 305-199 vote during the measure’s first reading … Read More
May 28, 2025
(Gizmodo) – A new Omicron offshoot is spreading fast across Australia and Asia, prompting renewed concerns about the covid-19 pandemic. As we enter the colder months in Australia, covid is making headlines again, this time due to the emergence of … Read More
May 28, 2025
(NPR) – A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors … Read More