May 1, 2025
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 392, no. 14, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
April 30, 2025
More and more older Americans want to know their Alzheimer’s status, survey finds
(NPR) – Older Americans want to know if they are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and would happily take a blood test to find out, according to a national survey. The survey of 1,700 people 45 and older, … Read More
April 30, 2025
Two Theories of Consciousness Faced Off. The Ref Took a Beating.
(New York Times) – What makes humans conscious? Scientists disagree, strongly, as one group of peacemakers discovered the hard way. Seven years ago, Dr. Melloni and 41 other scientists embarked on a major study on consciousness that she hoped would … Read More
April 30, 2025
A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t
(New York Times) – New data collected from more than 200,000 people across the world shows that young people aren’t as happy as they used to be. For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes … Read More
April 30, 2025
Psychedelic Ayahuasca Could Produce Either Positive or Negative Mental Health Effects
(Discover) – An earlier survey of 10,836 ayahuasca ceremony participants found that over half reported adverse mental states after ayahuasca use. Many experienced visual distortions, hallucinations, “feeling down, depressed, or hopeless,” “feeling disconnected or alone,” and “feeling energetically attacked,” according to … Read More
April 30, 2025
Drugmakers Have Spent Millions Targeting ‘Middlemen’—and It’s Paying Off
(Wall Street Journal) – The pharmaceutical industry translated a wonky policy topic into a talking point repeated by a range of groups Drugmakers spent a record $31 million to lobby in Washington last year, and about $13 million in the … Read More
April 30, 2025
Meta launches stand-alone AI app to take on ChatGPT
(CNBC) – Meta Platforms is launching a stand-alone artificial intelligence app and going head-to-head with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The new AI assistant offering will run on Meta’s Llama AI model, the company said Tuesday. It includes a Discover feed that shows how others … Read More
April 30, 2025
I Recorded Everything I Said for Three Months. AI Has Replaced My Memory.
(Wall Street Journal) – The Bee, Limitless and Plaud wearables record everything you say and use AI to provide summaries, to-do’s—and a slightly terrifying glimpse of the future No, I’m not an FBI informant. I willingly wore a $50 Bee Pioneer bracelet … Read More
April 30, 2025
New Articles from BMC Medical Ethics Are Now Available
BMC Medical Ethics has new articles available online. Articles include:
April 29, 2025
The Texas County Where ‘Everybody Has Somebody in Their Family’ with Dementia
(The Atlantic) – In Starr County, Texas, near the state’s southern tip along the U.S.-Mexico border, escaping dementia can feel impossible. The condition affects about one in five adults on Medicare—more than double the national rate. “Everybody has somebody in … Read More
April 29, 2025
One in 10 chemical abortions end in serious health complications
(New York Post via MSN) – Nearly 11% of women who have taken a chemical abortion pill in recent years have experienced a serious adverse health event — such as infection, hemorrhage or sepsis — according to a report from … Read More
April 29, 2025
Common chemicals in plastic linked to over 350,000 deaths from heart disease
(Washington Post via MSN) – A set of chemicals found in food packaging, plastics, and lotions and shampoos has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths from heart disease, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal eBioMedicine. These chemicals, known … Read More
April 29, 2025
Here’s why we need to start thinking of AI as “normal”
(MIT Technology Review) – As technologists frame AI as either utopian or dystopian, two researchers offer a third option. So against this backdrop, a recent essay by two AI researchers at Princeton felt quite provocative. Arvind Narayanan, who directs the university’s Center … Read More
April 29, 2025
Reddit Issuing ‘Formal Legal Demands’ Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret AI Experiment on Users
(404 Media) – Reddit called it an “improper and highly unethical experiment” and said it did not know it was happening. Reddit’s top lawyer, Ben Lee, said the company is considering legal action against researchers from the University of Zurich who ran … Read More
April 29, 2025
Altman and Nadella, Who Ignited the Modern AI Boom Together, Are Drifting Apart
(Wall Street Journal) – The OpenAI and Microsoft CEOs helped each other become power players in generative AI but are now preparing for independent future Microsoft turbocharged the artificial-intelligence startup’s growth over the past six years with billions of dollars … Read More
April 29, 2025
A Philosopher Released an Acclaimed Book About Digital Manipulation. The Author Ended Up Being AI
(Wired) – Italian essayist Andrea Colamedici tells WIRED Hypnocracy: Trump, Musk, and the New Architecture of Reality was a “philosophical experiment and a performance.” The book’s Chinese author does not exist. When Italian philosopher and essayist Andrea Colamedici released Ipnocrazia: Trump, Musk e … Read More
April 29, 2025
The Godfather of AI is more worried than ever about the future of AI
(Techradar) – Two years ago, in an interview with The New York Times, Dr Hinton warned, “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.” Now, in a fresh sit-down, this time with CBS … Read More
April 29, 2025
China Pushed a Hard Sell on Autonomous Driving. After a Deadly Crash, It’s Pulling Back.
(Wall Street Journal) – Xiaomi collision intensifies regulatory scrutiny as U.S., China compete over driver-assistance technology As Tesla and other automakers have touted their assisted-driving systems with terms such as “autonomous” and “self-driving,” one deadly crash last month involving the technology has … Read More
April 29, 2025
Why Is Everyone Getting Their Tattoos Removed?
(GQ) – (Editor’s note: Content warning) What’s really happening under the laser during tattoo removal is much more complex and elegant than it literally sounds (and smells). These days, the best-in-class lasers for the procedure are five-to-six-figure picosecond laser machines, … Read More
April 28, 2025
Your Brain Data Is for Sale, Senators Warn
(Gizmodo) – The fledgling neurotechnology space is filled with products that promise all sorts of utility by reading your brainwaves. Whether they actually accomplish much functionality is debatable, but they are apparently succeeding at monetizing the data they collect from … Read More
April 28, 2025
Medicine Spares Cancer Patients From Grisly Surgeries and Harsh Therapies
(New York Times) – For a limited group of cancer patients who have solid tumors in the stomach, rectum, esophagus and other organs, an immunotherapy trial offered stunning results. In 49 of the patients, who had rectal cancer, the tumors … Read More
April 28, 2025
These autistic people struggled to make sense of others. Then they found AI.
(Washington Post via MSN) – More than 2% of adults, or over 5 million people, have been diagnosed with autism in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and medical and research experts say they typically struggle … Read More
April 28, 2025
Snap. Crack. Stroke.
(The Cut) – In 2016, 34-year-old Playboy model Katie May received a cervical adjustment, then suffered a fatal stroke; the Los Angeles County coroner determined her death was caused by the chiropractic visit. In 2022, 28-year-old Georgia resident Caitlin Jensen reportedly suffered a VAD and stroke … Read More
April 28, 2025
If A.I. Systems Become Conscious, Should They Have Rights?
(New York Times) – As artificial intelligence systems become smarter, one A.I. company is trying to figure out what to do if they become conscious. One of my most deeply held values as a tech columnist is humanism. I believe … Read More
April 28, 2025
How Much Should You Know About Your Child Before He’s Born?
(The New Yorker) – When the writer Amanda Hess was twenty-nine weeks pregnant with her first child, her doctor, looking at an ultrasound, “saw something he did not like.” He suspected a rare genetic condition; Hess underwent an amniocentesis and … Read More
