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☆ National Academies Members Demand Answers About Sacklers’ Donations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 75 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine demanded on Thursday that the organization explain why it has for years failed to return or repurpose millions of dollars donated by the Sackler family, including some who led Purdue Pharma. The company’s drug, OxyContin, helped set in motion a prescription opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The New York Times reported this month that even as the Academies advised the government on opioid policy, the organization accepted $19 million from the Sackler family and appointed influential members to its committees who had financial ties to Purdue Pharma. One report issued by the Academies claimed that 100 million, or 40 percent of Americans, were in chronic pain. The figure, later found to be inflated, was cited by drugmakers to convince doctors to write large numbers of opioid prescriptions.

☆ Sacklers Gave Millions to Institution That Advises on Opioid Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For the past decade, the White House and Congress have relied on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, a renowned advisory group, to help shape the federal response to the opioid crisis, whether by convening expert panels or delivering policy recommendations and reports. The opioid crisis has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths, spawned lawsuits and forced other institutions to publicly distance themselves from Sackler money or to acknowledge potential conflicts of interest from ties to Purdue Pharma. The National Academies has largely avoided such scrutiny as it continues to advise the government on painkillers. “I didn’t know they were taking private money,” Michael Von Korff, a prominent pain care researcher, said. “It sounds like insanity to take money from principals of drug companies and then do reports related to opioids.

☆ Webb telescope takes striking image of planet Uranus
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Taylor Nicioli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a new stunning image of ice giant Uranus, with almost all its faint dusty rings on display. Uranus has 13 known rings, with 11 of them visible in the new Webb image. A November Hubble image of Uranus (left) captured the planet's bright polar cap, while the recent Webb image displayed more detail, with a subtle enhanced brightness at the cap's center. With the exact mechanism behind the haze unknown, scientists are studying the polar cap using telescope images such as this new Webb image. In this new Webb image, similar to other recent images by the Hubble Space Telescope, storm clouds can be seen at the edge of the polar cap.

☆ Some Republicans want Gen Z to retire later to avoid outright cuts to Social Security: 'Does it really make sense to allow someone who's in their 20s today to retire at 62?'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Several Republicans have said recently that they want to raise the retirement age for younger generations. Social Security is rapidly approaching insolvency, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that the fund will become unable to make all of its payments starting in 2033. Social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security have been a partisan battleground for Democrats and Republicans for decades now, with Republicans eyeing big cuts for both programs. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security." The White House has continued to criticize Republicans for not being publicly consistent about their goals for Social Security and Medicare.

☆ CDC is talking to airlines about wastewater testing in planes. New reports support that strategy.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Aria-Bendix-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Aria Bendix | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The U.S. has been monitoring for the coronavirus in wastewater since the CDC launched its National Wastewater Surveillance System in September 2020. But that testing mainly involves wastewater from households or buildings, not samples from airports or planes. Previous Covid-19 wastewater surveillance has shown to be a valuable tool, and airplane wastewater surveillance could potentially be an option," CDC press officer Scott Pauley told NBC News. Politico first reported that the agency is considering airplane wastewater testing. As of October, more than 1,250 sites were conducting wastewater testing across the U.S.

The study participants all had blood-sodium concentrations considered to be within the normal range: 135 to 146 millimoles per liter. Even people with blood-sodium levels above 142 millimoles per liter had elevated risks of developing certain chronic diseases, including heart failure, stroke, chronic lung disease, diabetes and dementia, the study found. Dmitrieva's previous research similarly found that higher blood sodium may be a risk factor for heart failure. But the study authors cautioned that more research is needed to determine whether good hydration can help slow aging, prevent disease or lead to a longer life. The NIH study "doesn’t prove that drinking more water will prevent chronic disease," he said.

☆ Doctors have long been accused of sloppy handwriting. Google is using AI to translate their scribbled notes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google is working on an AI model to translate hard-to-read handwriting, like on doctors' notes. The company announced it's working with pharmacists on the AI model that will be in Google Lens. Doctors' handwriting can potentially lead to deadly consequences for patients, Time reported, citing a 2006 study from the National Academies of Science's Institute of Medicine. However, a 1996 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that doctors' handwriting is no worse than that of people who aren't doctors. "This study fails to support the conventional wisdom that doctors' handwriting is worse than others'," the study's authors concluded.

Critical shortages of the ADHD drug Adderall and the antibiotic amoxicillin have left families reeling as the medicines their loved ones need become harder to find. In the case of amoxicillin, demand has become particularly acute amid a so-called tripledemic of Covid, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and the flu that are converging this season. The Food and Drug Administration's website currently lists amoxicillin and Adderall, also known as mixed amphetamine salts, as being in short supply. NBC News reached out to two of the drugmakers responsible for producing both Adderall and amoxicillin. In 2020, Congress passed the Mitigating Emergency Drug Shortages Act, which aimed to address some of these issues.

☆ 5 apps to help you find new people you (and your dog) actually want to meet
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Jen Glantz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But for those resolving to make new friends in 2023, there's help from some new apps and platforms designed to help connect those living near each other with similar interests. The platform, which is free, allows users to create a profile and connect with age-verified people with similar interests living nearby. When you download the app, you're able to chat with other neighbors on the app. Users can download the app, then create a profile for themselves and their dog. 222Perhaps one of the most unique new apps brands itself neither as a dating app nor as a friend-making service.

Nov 17 (Reuters) - Mothers and children who receive benefits from a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrition program would be able to spend more money on a wider range of groceries under proposed changes to the program introduced by USDA on Thursday. The agency had committed to updating the foods offered to WIC participants in the White House national hunger strategy released in September. The boost has increased child intake of produce, according to a report by the National WIC Association, a nonprofit. WIC serves low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, as well as infants and children up to age five. The agency will be collecting comments on the proposed changes until Feb. 21, it said in the release.

☆ Once a dystopian fantasy, manipulating sunlight to cool the earth is now on the White House research agenda
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

"The stratosphere is calm, and things stay up there for a long time," Parson told CNBC. That sulfur dioxide goes through other chemical reactions and eventually falls to the earth as sulfuric acid in rain. Known risks to people and the environmentThere are significant and well-known risks to some of these techniques — sulfur dioxide aerosol injection in particular. And spraying sulfur in the stratosphere would contribute in the bad direction to all of those effects," Parson told CNBC. His goal is "simply that we learn more and develop better mechanism[s] for governance," he told CNBC.

☆ America's best tool to fight inflation and prevent recessions is facing a dangerous death spiral
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Austin Clemens | Erica Groshen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Threats to truthConsider the many benefits of having a source of trustworthy and publicly available economic data. Of course, private datasets, like those used by Opportunity Insights, the JPMorgan Chase Institute, and Earnest Research, complement federal statistics. In addition to competition from other sources, statistical agencies are facing a lack of money. Sustaining the future of statsThe good news is that statistical agencies are trying to keep up with the times. To continue producing this work, federal statistical agencies need a funding boost.

☆ A CIA doctor investigating the mysterious Havana syndrome says he got symptoms of the illness himself
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A CIA doctor dispatched to investigate the so-called Havana syndrome opened up about his own illness. The anonymous doctor told CNN he started experiencing symptoms of the syndrome himself while in Cuba. Reports of this syndrome, nicknamed "Havana syndrome" because of where it was first reported in late 2016, are officially referred to as "anomalous health incidents" (AHIs). Andrews was awakened by a sudden loud noiseAndrews told CNN that he was in "disbelief" when he started experiencing the symptoms himself. The so-called Havana syndrome has come under intense scrutiny in recent years, as more and more US cases have been reported.

According to a new study, there are estimated to be 2.5 million times more ants on this planet than people. In total, that's 20 quadrillion — or 20,000,000,000,000,000 — ants. Taken together, the total mass of ants on the planet would actually outweigh all of the world’s wild birds and mammals, he added. Jorge Villalba / Getty Images / iStockphotoAnts can be found in nearly all habitats except for polar regions, according to the study. A separate study published in April 2020 in the journal Science found that the planet has lost more than one-quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years.

☆ Meet Commander Moonikin Campos, the Artemis I mannequin
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Rather than astronauts, a mannequin named Commander Moonikin Campos will helm the Orion spacecraft, with two mannequin torsos called Helga and Zohar along for the ride. The mannequin, sporting the Orion Crew Survival System suit, can collect data on what future human crews might experience. Commander Moonikin Campos will test out a flight suit intended for future astronauts. The developers of AstroRad hope that the vest would allow future Artemis crews to continue performing daily activities despite space weather. Combating space radiationDifferent organs have different susceptibilities to space radiation, said Ramona Gaza, the MARE science team lead at Johnson Space Center.

☆ Senate OKs enhanced benefits for vets exposed to burn pits
▼ + stars: | 2022-06-16 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved a sweeping expansion of health care and disability benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in response to concerns about their exposure to toxic burn pits. The House in March approved similar legislation that would have cost more than $320 billion over 10 years. And, it would extend Agent Orange presumptions to veterans who served in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam and American Samoa. But lawmakers said that stories from constituents tell a different and more definitive tale, and they are reluctant to wait for an irrefutable link between veterans’ maladies and their exposure to toxic burn pits. The Senate version trimmed some of the costs early on by phasing in certain benefit enhancements.

This season, they have gone on 28 flight missions for cloud seeding in Wyoming. This photo shows flares fixed on the aircraft's wing that house the silver iodide used for cloud seeding. Weather Modification International 2022Once the pilot flies into the storm, they ignite the cardboard casings full of silver iodide and “seed” the clouds. Their results, published in 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, managed to quantify how effective cloud seeding is. The amount of precipitation produced by cloud seeding — up to 10% — isn’t enough at all to quench the drought-stricken West.

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