July 7, 2025
(The Guardian) – Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction. Speaking to … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Axios) – There have been 1,267 confirmed cases of measles in the U.S. this year, almost 4.5 times the total for all of last year and on track to pass the highest annual count since the disease was declared eliminated … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – It’s ‘frustrating as somebody who’s looking for, I mean, my whole family, almost,’ says Hailey Chavarria, as searches enter third day The search for those swept away by punishing flash floods in Central Texas over the … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Abortion is now banned or heavily restricted in about one-third of U.S. states, and some women of childbearing age say that has introduced a new calculus about where to live and work. Though migration patterns are … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Axios) – It’s not food, it’s not chewing tobacco and it’s not gum — though it might look like it when you see it — but it is becoming America’s new addictive obsession. Why it matters: Sales of Zyn nicotine … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Among nearly 2,000 of these types of facilities nationwide, at least 16 of them have filed for chapter 11 since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal review of court … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Wired) – As psychedelic companies and therapy apps experiment with AI, people are already taking huge doses of drugs and using chatbots to process their trips. He recently asked the app’s “chat with your mind” function how he had become … Read More
July 7, 2025
(Nieman Lab) – Every design choice that social media platforms make nudges users toward certain actions, values, and emotional states. It is a design choice to offer a news feed that combines verified news sources with conspiracy blogs — interspersed with … Read More
July 7, 2025
Journal of Medical Humanities (vol. 46, no 2, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 4, 2025
(Ars Technica) – The release of Google’s Veo 3 video generator in May represented a disconcerting leap in AI video quality. While many of the viral AI videos we’ve seen are harmless fun, the model’s pixel-perfect output can also be … Read More
July 4, 2025
(Science) – A major scientific publisher, Taylor & Francis, said yesterday it has paused submissions to its journal Bioengineered so editors there can investigate some 1000 of its papers that bear signs they contain manipulated results or came from shady … Read More
July 4, 2025
(AP via Medical Xpress) – Some hospitals in the U.S. are without essential staff because international doctors who were set to start their medical training this week were delayed by the Trump administration’s travel and visa restrictions. It’s unclear exactly … Read More
July 4, 2025
(Nature) – Brain–computer interfaces being trialled in China offer some advantages over Neuralink and other leading US devices. A deep brain device that allowed a man with no limbs to play computer games is one of an increasing number of … Read More
July 4, 2025
(CIDRAP) – In its weekly update today, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 40 more measles cases today, boosting the number of infections this year to 1,267, which is just 8 shy of passing the total … Read More
July 4, 2025
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 392, no. 22, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 3, 2025
(NBC News) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday formally struck down an abortion ban from 1849 that had technically retaken effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights. In a 4-3 decision that came down along ideological … Read More
July 3, 2025
(Christianity Today) – The Reformed denomination “deplores” the legalization of the practice and offers recommendations for caring for the dying. As assisted suicide continues to grow in Canada and expands in the US, a major Reformed body has moved to … Read More
July 3, 2025
(Undark) – Although the evidence is limited, some psychiatrists are using ketogenic diets to treat psychiatric disorders. In fact, ketogenic diets have long been used in conventional medicine to treat severe or intractable epilepsy. Several studies published in the past … Read More
July 3, 2025
(ProPublica) – Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening … Read More
July 3, 2025
(New York Times) – Scientists show that the frequency of a set of words seems to have increased in published study abstracts since ChatGPT was released into the world. Scientists know it is happening, even if they don’t do it … Read More
July 3, 2025
(New York Review of Books) – The origin of the many so-called artificial intelligences now invading our work lives and swarming our personal devices can be found in an oddball experiment in 1950 by Claude Shannon. Shannon is known now … Read More
July 3, 2025
(Axios) – Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. envisions Americans becoming healthier by using wearable health devices that track heart rates, blood sugar and other vitals — offering real-time feedback on how food affects their bodies. Why it matters: It’s … Read More
July 3, 2025
(Front Porch Republic) – One does not need too much imagination to understand how Leopold’s critique of over-mechanized hunting is generalizable to the relationship between technology and all facets of life. In the case of large language models and their … Read More
July 2, 2025
(New York Times) – A medical doctor and former nun, she found an affordable way to expand palliative care in the developing world, bringing pain relief to poor, terminally ill patients. Working as a doctor in Singapore in the 1980s, … Read More
July 2, 2025
(New York Times) – The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official rejected broad uses of two Covid vaccines, citing unknown risks or injuries despite assurances of safety from dozens of staff experts, newly released documents show. The decisions by … Read More
