Browsed by
Category: Health

How a new Israeli policy cuts off humanitarian aid in Gaza

How a new Israeli policy cuts off humanitarian aid in Gaza

Clayton Dalton writes: On a hazy morning in November, a group of aid workers with Médecins Sans Frontières (M.S.F.), known in English as Doctors Without Borders, crossed into Gaza for a two-month mission. Jennifer Hulse, an emergency physician from the U.K., led a medical team. “We all had as many bags as we could physically carry,” Hulse said. Inside were essential supplies such as surgical tools and engine oil for generators. Her assignment was to help the Gaza Health Ministry…

Read More Read More

A radical court just called Trump’s abortion bluff

A radical court just called Trump’s abortion bluff

Naomi Cahn and Sonia M. Suter write: On Friday, the archconservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a stunning nationwide injunction that directly affects one-fourth of all abortions in the United States. The opinion rejected an Food and Drug Administration regulation allowing people to buy mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortion and miscarriage management, by mail. This ruling applies nationally, even in states that haven’t banned abortion. On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a temporary hold,…

Read More Read More

The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

An artisanal miner holds a cobalt stone at a mine near Kolwezi, Congo, in 2022. About 20,000 people work there among toxic materials. Junior Kannah/AFP via Getty Images By Abraham Nunbogu, United Nations University and Kaveh Madani, United Nations University There is a troubling contradiction at the heart of the global transition to a cleaner, greener, tech-driven future: Modern technologies – everything from AI to wind turbines, as well as cellphones, electric vehicles and defense systems – depend on critical…

Read More Read More

How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

The New York Times reports: For more than a half-century, a prestigious scientific arm of the federal government did groundbreaking research aimed at saving American lives. It studied fertility, asthma, wildfires, drinking water, climate change and myriad other health threats. In just one year, it has been almost completely dismantled. One scientist, a doctor and expert in lung health, has recently been reassigned to a finance office. Another, an epidemiologist, has been told she has a new job issuing permits…

Read More Read More

Pesticides may wreak havoc on the gut microbiome

Pesticides may wreak havoc on the gut microbiome

Science reports: Eight years ago, Bhanudas More went for a routine blood test. More, a farmworker in this small village in Maharashtra state, was lean, worked long hours in the fields, and seemed healthy, so the result startled him. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease commonly associated with sedentary life in the city. Medication did little to bring his condition under control. He also began to experience persistent bloating and stomach discomfort. “I was taking the medicines,…

Read More Read More

We are all collections of errors

We are all collections of errors

Jerome Groopman writes: As I am writing this, my DNA is changing. And, as you read this, so is yours. People tend to assume that the genes we inherit from our parents are a fixed blueprint for our growth and development, immutable throughout our lives, and that the DNA in each cell of our body is the same as in every other cell. In fact, changes in our DNA, known as mutations, occur from the time we are in the…

Read More Read More

What happens to your brain in nature? The neuroscience explained

What happens to your brain in nature? The neuroscience explained

Yoho National Park, Field, Canada. (Unsplash/Hendrik Cornelissen) By Mar Estarellas, McGill University Have you ever felt calmer almost as soon as you step into the woods? Or maybe noticed your busy mind soften as you look out at the sea? We have known for some time, and many of us sense it intuitively, that spending time in nature is good for us. Neuroscience is now enabling us to understand why, and what the brain is actually doing in those moments….

Read More Read More

While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

While fighting against regulation of social media, tech billionaires shield their own children

The New York Times reports: In November, Kim van Sparrentak, a Green Party lawmaker from the Netherlands, grabbed her headphones and headed for the exit of the European Parliament building. Moments earlier, she had participated in a heated debate over whether to bar young teenagers in Europe from social media platforms. Then a statement on a podcast she was listening to stopped her cold. It was a message from Meta opposing the social media ban proposal, Ms. van Sparrentak said…

Read More Read More

RFK Jr. once led legal fight against Monsanto’s glyphosate. Now he supports Trump’s push to boost its production

RFK Jr. once led legal fight against Monsanto’s glyphosate. Now he supports Trump’s push to boost its production

The New York Times reports: President Trump issued an executive order late Wednesday aimed at spurring the domestic production of glyphosate, a widely used weedkiller that has figured in health lawsuits. The move immediately set off alarms among supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement, and appeared to put Mr. Kennedy in an awkward position. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, which has been the target of tens of thousands of lawsuits that…

Read More Read More

Venting anger does more harm than good

Venting anger does more harm than good

Science Alert reports: Venting when angry seems sensible. Conventional wisdom suggests that expressing anger can help us quell it, like releasing steam from a pressure cooker. But this common metaphor is misleading, according to a 2024 meta-analytic review. Researchers at Ohio State University analyzed 154 studies on anger and found little evidence that venting helps. In some cases, it could increase anger. “I think it’s really important to bust the myth that if you’re angry you should blow off steam…

Read More Read More

In unprecedented move, giant monkey research center may become a primate sanctuary

In unprecedented move, giant monkey research center may become a primate sanctuary

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine applauds the Oregon Health & Science University Board of Directors’ approval of a resolution authorizing negotiations with the National Institutes of Health to transition the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) toward closure and potential conversion into a primate sanctuary. With passage of the resolution, OHSU is now positioned to work with the NIH to explore a pathway away from invasive primate experimentation and toward humane, human-relevant science. During a 180-day negotiation period authorized…

Read More Read More

USAID’s demise heralded a dark shift in America’s values

USAID’s demise heralded a dark shift in America’s values

Jeremy Konyndyk writes: Last February, Elon Musk boasted of “feeding USAID into the woodchipper” as President Trump kicked off his second term with an unanticipated assault on the agency. A year later, the brutal fallout is coming into focus. Humanitarian aid last year reached 25 million fewer people than in 2024 despite rising global need. More than 2,000 health clinics have closed in crisis zones around the world. Global food aid funding dropped by 40 percent from 2024 to 2025….

Read More Read More

Cells that are not our own may unlock secrets about our health

Cells that are not our own may unlock secrets about our health

Tracy DeStazio writes: During pregnancy, maternal and fetal cells migrate back and forth across the placenta, with fetal cells entering the mother’s bloodstream and tissues. They can settle in maternal organs such as the thyroid, liver, lungs, brain and heart—and can persist there for decades. Conversely, maternal cells can enter the fetus and be passed down to future generations, essentially creating a lifelong connection between mothers, their offspring and their descendants. In other words, we all carry little pieces of…

Read More Read More

All living things emit a visible light that vanishes at death, surprising study says

All living things emit a visible light that vanishes at death, surprising study says

Science Alert reports: Life truly is radiant, according to an experiment conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada. An extraordinary experiment on mice and leaves from two different plant species has uncovered direct physical evidence of an eerie ‘biophoton’ phenomenon ceasing on death, suggesting all living things – including humans – could literally glow with health, until we don’t. The findings might seem a little fringe at first glance. It’s hard not…

Read More Read More

Trump will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in America

Trump will stop at nothing to ensure the political dominance of White people in America

Regina Davis Moss writes: “We’ve dropped (the price of) the infertility drugs to make lots of Trump babies, I’m hoping by the midterms.” That bizarre remark was made recently by Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. After four years of the first Trump administration and nearly one year into the second, many of us have become desensitized to this kind of commentary – but not Black women. We know the quiet part spoken out…

Read More Read More

Humans have an internal lunar clock. We are accidentally destroying it

Humans have an internal lunar clock. We are accidentally destroying it

PsyPost reports: Most animals, including humans, carry an internal lunar clock, tuned to the 29.5-day rhythm of the Moon. It guides sleep, reproduction and migration of many species. But in the age of artificial light, that ancient signal is fading – washed out by the glow of cities, screens and satellites. Just as the circadian rhythm keeps time with the 24-hour rotation of the Earth, many organisms also track the slower rhythm of the Moon. Both systems rely on light…

Read More Read More