The remaining staff are in an “all hands on deck” situation with the rollout, says Brett Howe, the former geodetic services division chief at NGS, who opted to retire at the end of April. Despite a dedicated staff, Howe says that the loss of many in senior leadership with decades …
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New Bacteria Have Been Discovered on a Chinese Space Station
It is microscopic and rod-shaped, can create spores, and may have evolved to survive hundreds of miles above our planet’s surface. This bacterium, never before seen on Earth, was detected on China’s Tiangong space station. It has been named Niallia tiangongensis, and it inhabited the cockpit controls on the station, …
Read More »A Baby Received a Custom Crispr Treatment in Record Time
Last August, KJ Muldoon was born with a potentially fatal genetic disorder. Just six months later, he received a Crispr treatment designed just for him. Muldoon has a rare disorder known as CPS1 deficiency, which causes a dangerous amount of ammonia to build up in the blood. About half of …
Read More »Blocked From Selling Off-Brand Ozempic, Telehealth Startups Embrace a Less Effective Drug
After telehealth startups recently lost the ability to sell exact copies of patented GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, some firms have begun turning to a different, less effective medication that has been on the market in the United States since 2010. Often considered a precursor to blockbuster products like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic …
Read More »SpaceX Tests Starship Fixes After Back-to-Back Failures
SpaceX founder Elon Musk also wants Starship to fly to Mars, which will, likewise, require a mastery of in-space refueling. NASA may also soon rely on Starship and other massive commercial rockets to launch astronauts from Earth. The Trump administration has proposed canceling NASA’s Space Launch System rocket after two …
Read More »The EPA Is Giving Some Forever Chemicals a Pass
The EPA on Wednesday said it would change a rule intended to protect Americans from forever chemicals in their drinking water. The agency plans to extend a compliance deadline to limit two key chemicals, and rescind and reconsider regulations on four others. Last year, the Biden administration released a long-awaited …
Read More »Patients Are Left With Few Options as GLP-1 Copycats Disappear
Futter’s provider, Henry Meds, no longer offers compounded tirzepatide injections, but allowed patients to place bulk orders before phasing it out. He went ahead and ordered several months’ worth of vials but doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he runs out. “I’m extremely nervous about what’s going to …
Read More »The EPA Will Likely Gut Team That Studies Health Risks From Chemicals
In early May, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would split up the agency’s main arm devoted to scientific research. According to a report from NPR, scientists at the 1,500-person Office of Research and Development were told to apply to roughly 500 new scientific research positions that would be …
Read More »Intelligence on Earth Evolved Independently at Least Twice
“How we end up with similar circuitry was more flexible than I would have expected,” Zaremba said. “You can build the same circuits from different cell types.” Zaremba and her team also found that in the bird pallium, neurons that start development in different regions can mature into the same …
Read More »Dismantling NOAA Threatens the World’s Ability to Monitor Carbon Dioxide Levels
Even in the best of times, long-term observations can be very fragile. It is difficult to convince funding agencies to put money into long-term observations because, by definition, they are continuations; they have been done before. Most funding entities, from science agencies to philanthropic organizations, want to be associated with …
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