Tag Archives: science

The Guardian reports: Norway has launched a new scheme to lure top international researchers amid growing pressure on academic freedom in the US under the Trump administration. Following in the footsteps of multiple institutions across Europe, the Research Council of Norway on Wednesday launched a 100m kroner (£7.2m) fund to make it easier to recruit researchers from other countries. The …

ABC News reports: The measles outbreak in western Texas has now reached 624 cases, with 27 new infections confirmed over the last five days. Nearly all of the cases are among unvaccinated individuals or among those whose vaccination status is unknown, according to new data published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) on Tuesday. The increase in …

Science.org reports: The National Science Foundation (NSF) has spent decades—and billions of dollars—trying to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Not anymore. Today NSF announced such efforts “are no longer aligned with its priorities” and that it is terminating any existing grant designed to improve the demographics of the scientific workforce. …

The Guardian reports: Nearly 300 academics have applied to a French university’s offer to take in US-based researchers rattled by the American government’s crackdown on academia, as a former French president called for the creation of a “scientific refugee” status for academics in peril. Earlier this year, France’s Aix-Marseille University was among the first in Europe to respond to the …

The New York Times reports: The search for life beyond Earth has led scientists to explore many suggestive mysteries, from plumes of methane on Mars to clouds of phosphine gas on Venus. But as far as we can tell, Earth’s inhabitants remain alone in the cosmos. Now a team of researchers is offering what it contends is the strongest indication …

STAT News reports: With bare-bones procurement departments to rely on and administrative staff axed, lab leaders at the National Institutes of Health are scrambling to buy food for the animals kept in their facilities. Some scientists have been hoarding and rationing the reagents that they have stockpiled. Because of imposed restrictions, for months they haven’t been able to purchase supplies …

The Associated Press reports: NASA’s science budget could be cut nearly in half under an early version of President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to Congress, a move that would terminate billions of dollars’ worth of ongoing and future missions. The budget plan, sent to NASA by the Office of Management and Budget, would give NASA’s Science Mission Directorate $3.9 billion, …

USA Today reports: Four-legged creatures known as dire wolves who were prominent in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series no longer belong solely to the realm of fantasy. Colossal Biosciences, the genetic engineering company working to bring back a few different extinct animals, announced this week the successful resurrection of the Ice Age-era species. The recent birth of three dire wolf …

The Associated Press reports: Shortly before he was forced to resign, the nation’s top vaccine regulator says he refused to grant Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team unrestricted access to a tightly held vaccine safety database, fearing that the information might be manipulated or even deleted. In an interview with The Associated Press, former Food and Drug Administration vaccine …

The New York Times reports: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, attended the funeral on Sunday of an 8-year-old girl who died of measles amid an outbreak that has burned through the region and called into question his ability to handle a public-health crisis. The child’s death, in a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, early Thursday morning, is the …

404 Media reports: Almost two dozen repositories of research and public health data supported by the National Institutes of Health are marked for “review” under the Trump administration’s direction, and researchers and archivists say the data is at risk of being lost forever if the repositories go down. “The problem with archiving this data is that we can’t,” Lisa Chinn, …

The Associated Press reports: A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one – shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains. A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20%. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is part of …

The Associated Press reports: Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government. Health …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration on Friday pushed out Peter Marks [photo], the nation’s top vaccine regulator and an architect of the U.S. program to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines, a move that comes as HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his overhaul of the nation’s health and science agencies. Marks, who joined the Food and Drug Administration …

Nature reports: The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. …

Space.com reports: SpaceX is poised to land its Crew Dragon Freedom from the International Space Station with the two crewmates who launched on it and two astronauts who arrived at the space station last June on Boeing’s Starliner, which landed uncrewed without them. SpaceX’s Crew-9 is scheduled to splash down on Tuesday (March 18) at about 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 …

The Guardian reports: Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution. The funding for the positions had come from USAID, which the administration has gutted with massive cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 …

USA Today reports: For the first time in years, a total lunar eclipse will dazzle American spectators tonight, complete with a view of the resulting glowing red “blood moon.” Beginning late Thursday, March 13 into the early hours of Friday, March 14, the Earth will pass between the sun and moon, resulting in the phenomena that will be viewable in …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Scientists are sounding alarms about a genetic mutation that was recently identified in four dairy cow herds, nearly one year after H5N1 bird flu was first reported in Texas dairy cattle. The change is one that researchers have dreaded finding because it is associated with increased mammal-to-mammal transmission and disease severity. “That is the mutation …

Lubbock’s ABC affiliate reports: its latest update, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said there were 223 cases of measles across the South Plains. Twenty-nine patients were hospitalized, according to DSHS. According to DSHS, 80 of the cases did not have a measles vaccine, and 138 had an “unknown status.” Vaccine details for 11 cases were still pending. …