July 16, 2026
(New Yorker) – “What is it, Roschelle?” the orb asked. Cece recognized it as an Amazon Echo, often referred to as an Alexa. Roschelle had them all around the house—she bought the first ones when Cece and Zi were still … Read More
July 15, 2026
(The Guardian) – Scientists are trying to recreate the biology that lets animals survive months without food or water, in hopes of making deep-space travel possible Long-term space travel is bad for your health. Very bad. Being in space exposes … Read More
July 15, 2026
(Washington Post via Yahoo! News) – Over the past year, lawsuits have been piling up against AI companies in courts across the United States and abroad, alleging that chatbots encouraged people to harm themselves or provided advice on how to … Read More
July 15, 2026
(The Atlantic) – The expansion of genetic testing, though a success of modern medicine, nevertheless poses complex ethical questions for medical professionals. The ubiquity of genetic information has well outpaced scientific clarity about the implications, which means that a great … Read More
July 15, 2026
(New Scientist) – An experimental immunotherapy has beaten aggressive brain tumours in a handful of children, and a personalised version is now being tested on more patients The experimental treatment, called tumour-associated antigen (TAA) T-cell therapy, was given to 33 … Read More
July 15, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – Some donor-conceived people are finding hundreds of siblings. An international cap on donations could help prevent that. Other donor-conceived people who have been able to track down siblings have found they have tens or even hundreds … Read More
July 15, 2026
(Nature) – Sci-fi procedure generates immature human sperm from stem cells, nurturing them on a mouse’s kidney. It sounds like science fiction: collecting a person’s blood cells, engineering them so they eventually transform into immature sperm, and then incubating them … Read More
July 15, 2026
(Gizmodo) – Anthropic researchers say they “aren’t yet sure how much of this variation is desirable.” If you’ve ever tried chatbots in multiple languages, you already know the languages have slightly different personalities. As part of a new report on … Read More
July 14, 2026
(ABC) – Martha Lillard had just turned 5 when she was diagnosed with polio and depended on an iron lung to live. She died June 26 in Oklahoma, the last U.S. polio patient who used the machine, her sister said. … Read More
July 14, 2026
(AP) – Cases of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal infection caused by a parasite, are currently being reported in nearly three dozen states, according to an ABC News tally. As of Friday, at least 2,944 cases have been reported in 32 states, … Read More
July 14, 2026
(Axios) – A major change to how OB-GYNs are paid is coming, bringing the potential for improved maternal health — but also higher costs. Why it matters: The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among peer countries, and obstetrics … Read More
July 14, 2026
(WSJ) – One family sold its struggling farmland for $22 million, joining a new class of multimillionaires who are cashing in on the AI data-center boom Towns and neighborhoods across the country have rejected data centers. Residents have staged noisy … Read More
July 14, 2026
(ABC 7) – University of Chicago Law School announced it will ban phones and laptops in the classroom for first-year students in its new AI strategy. The school made the announcement Thursday as part of a broader plan to respond … Read More
July 14, 2026
(CNN) – A newer, more precise form of CRISPR, known as base editing, can change a single letter (or base) of DNA at a time. Base editing was used for the first time in a 2022 clinical trial to modify … Read More
July 14, 2026
(NYT) – A.I. chatbots are not just a propaganda tool for violent extremists but are aiding in bomb construction and attack planning, new research finds. Until recently, the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other extremists primarily used A.I. in the … Read More
July 13, 2026
(Ars Technica) – Humanoid robots have surgically removed the gallbladders from living animals in an unprecedented medical experiment—but not as autonomous machines capable of replacing human doctors. Instead, skilled human surgeons remotely controlled the robots’ movements in a new example … Read More
July 13, 2026
(KFF Health News) – Since the 1950s, the United States has seen a dramatic decline in the number of psychiatric beds nationwide due in part to deinstitutionalization and the rise of antipsychotics. But that has created a critical shortage for … Read More
July 13, 2026
(NPR) – Should surgeons be allowed to perform euthanasia by removing patients’ hearts and other organs while they’re still alive? The idea, dubbed “Death by Organ Donation,” would enable euthanasia patients to donate organs for transplantation in a way that … Read More
July 13, 2026
(NPR) – Gerhardt started and runs a network called Navigating Solo, which offers support and community to this group of older adults, often referred to as “solo agers.” “Instead of looking at the concept of solo aging as something that’s … Read More
July 13, 2026
(NPR) – New suspected cases of Ebola have been reported in parts of Congo that were previously unaffected, the government said Thursday, as the death toll in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak reached 600. According to the Congolese health ministry, … Read More
July 13, 2026
(The Hill) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to set up new monitoring rules for hospices to root out discrimination against vulnerable populations in the provision of medically … Read More
July 13, 2026
(WSJ) – Western biotechs get new playbook with tighter controls to stay ahead of ultraefficient pharmaceutical pipeline overseas For decades, young biotechs broadcast their science publicly to attract investment. Today, more are going dark to keep rivals, many of which … Read More
July 10, 2026
(Ars Technica) – OpenAI is facing calls for “serious sanctions” after fighting to keep news organizations from snooping through millions of logs to find evidence of users skirting their paywalls by prompting ChatGPT to regurgitate their articles. This evidence is … Read More
July 10, 2026
(MedPage Today) – Two Chinese studies related to liver transplantation published more than a decade ago in the Journal of Hepatology were retracted by the journal’s editors. The editors said concerns were raised that the transplants described in both studies … Read More
July 10, 2026
(BBC) – A law to allow terminally ill adults the right to choose to end their own lives in Jersey has been granted Royal Assent, meaning the island’s government can bring it into force. The government said this was a … Read More
