April 6, 2017
(The Verge) – The field of synthetic biology, or engineering new forms of life, is less than two decades old, but its pioneers are responsible for some of the most interesting projects coming out of labs today: inscribing lines of … Read More
April 6, 2017
(CNN) – Gracie was one of 25 children who took part in the first-of-its-kind study at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The goal: to see whether a transfusion of their own umbilical cord blood containing rare stem cells could … Read More
April 6, 2017
(NPR) – Death penalty laws are on the books in 31 states, but only five carried out executions last year. Now Arkansas is rushing to execute death row inmates at an unprecedented pace this month, before the state’s supply of … Read More
April 6, 2017
(NPR) – “He tried to reproduce them all,” Harris tells Morning Edition host David Greene. “And of those 53, he found he could only reproduce six. That was “a real eye-opener,” says Harris, whose new book Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy … Read More
April 5, 2017
(Medium) – The study, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, finds that crowdfunding sites give an advantage to those already skilled in self-marketing and generating attention on social media. The digital platforms can present problems for older people?—?those … Read More
April 5, 2017
(Canadian Broadcasting Co) – Imagine a pill that could make you a more “moral” person. Would you take it? Today, leading scientists are debating the ethics of just that — a pill that improves morality. In recent years, research has shown drugs widely … Read More
April 5, 2017
(Medical Xpress) – More women with breast cancer are electing to have both breasts removed, even when cancer affects only one breast. The procedure, called contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM), is a more complex surgery that has not been shown to … Read More
April 5, 2017
(Reuters) – Newer cancer drugs that enlist the body’s immune system are improving the odds of survival, but competition between them is not reining in prices that can now top $250,000 a year. The drugs’ success for patients is the … Read More
April 5, 2017
(Australian Broadcasting Co) – The Australian Genetics of Depression Study has been launched as part of an international collaboration aiming to identify genes that predispose people to depression. The results of the research will eventually help eliminate the guesswork involved … Read More
April 5, 2017
(The Sun) – Ontario is setting up a new service for people seeking medically assisted death that will allow them to reach out for help directly, bypassing health-care providers who object to assisted suicide on conscience grounds. Health Minister Eric … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Science Daily) – For years, scientists have been trying to determine what effect a gene linked to the brain chemical serotonin may have on depression in people exposed to stress. But now, analyzing information from more than 40,000 people who … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Vox) – But no one treatment reliably works for everyone. And it’s not just about talk therapy versus drugs. Even in the realm of medication, available drugs like Zoloft and Cymbalta will work for some but not others. Enter “precision … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Scientific American) – About one in 10 pregnant women with confirmed Zika infections had a fetus or baby with birth defects, offering the clearest picture yet of the risk of Zika infection during pregnancy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. The … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Science Daily) – A new method could push research into developmental brain disorders an important step forward. This is shown by a recent study in which the researchers investigated the development of a rare congenital brain defect. To do so, … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Managed Care Magazine) – So, if not a full-on buzzkill, the results from a study reported last month in Health Affairs were a bit sobering. Lori Uscher-Pines, a respected Rand researcher who has conducted many of the most important telehealth … Read More
April 4, 2017
(The Conversation) – How closely will we live with the technology we use in the future? How will it change us? And how close is “close”? Ghost in the Shell imagines a futuristic, hi-tech but grimy and ghetto-ridden Japanese metropolis … Read More
April 4, 2017
(ABC News) – The syringe slides in between the thumb and index finger. Then, with a click, a microchip is injected in the employee’s hand. Another “cyborg” is created. What could pass for a dystopian vision of the workplace is … Read More
April 4, 2017
(Nature) – When a US fertility clinic revealed last year that it had created a baby boy using a controversial technique that mixes DNA from three people, scientists were quick to raise the alarm. Some objected on ethical grounds, and … Read More
April 3, 2017
(CNN) – A rise in the use of medical marijuana has spurred a debate about organ transplantation, and it’s changing some laws across the nation. Garry Godfrey found out in 2010 that he was removed from an organ transplant waiting … Read More
April 3, 2017
(Eurekalert) – The healthy development of an embryo created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) depends on whether most, if not all, of the cells have the proper number of chromosomes. With pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS) technology, doctors can, in principle, … Read More
April 3, 2017
(New York Times) – The governor of Arkansas has signed a law that requires doctors to investigate the pregnancy history of women seeking abortions and to make sure they are not using the procedure as a way to select the … Read More
April 2, 2017
The Linacre Quarterly (vol. 84, no. 1, 2017) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Subsidiarity: Restoring a Sacred Harmony” by John W. Kieffer “The Principles of Catholic Social Teaching: A Guide for Decision Making from Daily Clinical Encounters … Read More
March 31, 2017
(Science) – The European Patent Office (EPO) announced on 23 March its “intention to grant a patent” to the University of California (UC) for its broad-based claims about the genome-editing tool popularly known as CRISPR. UC, on behalf of several … Read More
March 31, 2017
(The Guardian) – Growing numbers of middle-aged men are turning to anabolic steroids to make themselves look and feel more youthful and boost their sexual performance, experts say. People who work with users have raised concern about a new trend … Read More
March 31, 2017
(NPR) – Dr. Paul Marik, a well-regarded intensive care physician at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., is the doctor with the extraordinary claim. As we reported last week, he says he has treated about 150 patients with … Read More
