A simple injection is now all it takes to wire up a brain. A diverse team of physicists, neuroscientists and chemists has implanted mouse brains with a rolled-up, silky mesh studded with tiny electronic devices, and shown that it unfurls to spy on and stimulate individual neurons. The implant has the potential to unravel the workings of the mammalian brain …
Nearly 2,500 Bridges to Nowhere: Congress Considers Expanding Charter Program Despite Millions Wasted on Closed Schools – Jonas Persson
As both the House and the Senate consider separate bills that would reauthorize and expand the quarter-billion-dollar-a-year Charter Schools Program (CSP), the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has examined more than a decade of data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as well as documentation from open records requests. The results are troubling. Between 2001 and 2013, 2,486 charter schools have …
Report: Number of US heroin users rose 300,000 over a decade By Mike Stobbe
Experts think the increase was driven by people switching from opioid painkillers to cheaper heroin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Tuesday. It’s based on annual face-to-face surveys of about 67,000 Americans—the government’s main source of data on use of illegal drugs. In recent surveys, nearly 3 in every 1,000 Americans said they used heroin in …
Looking Inside Fukushima Prefecture by ROBERT HUNZIKER
Because of Japan’s unconscionable open-ended new secrecy law, it is very likely journalism in the nation has turned tail, scared of its own shadow. Nevertheless, glimmers of what has happened, of what is happening, do surface when brave people come forward. On May 22nd 2015 Hiromichi Ugaya, a photojournalist who is well-informed, insightful, and engaging, was interviewed about what he …
Bangladesh Cuts Hunger Rates in Half By Supporting Small Farmers and Women – Christina Sarich
Once a recipient of food donations from around the world, Bangladesh has now become a model for reducing food hunger. By supporting small farms and women, the country has reduced the number starving citizens significantly. A recent UN report outlines how Bangladesh, a South Asian country who was once among the poorest in the world, has turned the corner when it …
HOW ANTI-GAY PREJUDICE CUTS LIFE EXPECTANCY
In the first study to look at the consequences of anti-gay prejudice for mortality, researchers found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals who lived in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice have a shorter life expectancy of 12 years on average compared with their peers in the least prejudiced communities. “The results of this study suggest a broadening …
Data scientists find connections between birth month and health – Dr. Nick Tatonetti
Columbia University scientists have developed a computational method to investigate the relationship between birth month and disease risk. The researchers used this algorithm to examine New York City medical databases and found 55 diseases that correlated with the season of birth. Overall, the study indicated people born in May had the lowest disease risk, and those born in October the …
Express Scripts Research Highlights $52 Billion Challenge for U.S. Healthcare System
Nearly 600,000 Americans have annual medication costs above $50,000- The number of U.S. patients taking at least $100,000 worth of prescription drugs tripled in 2014- Majority of these patients take at least 10 medications, from at least 4 different prescribers- Express Scripts solutions address critical opportunities to improve care and reduce costs for patients with high medication costs ORLANDO, Fla., …
Pope Francis: Stealth Climate Warrior – Candida Moss
Pope Francis is in Sri Lanka and the Philippines this week on his second tour of Asia. His whirlwind trip through centers of both religious piety and religious conflict is an opportunity for Francis to deliver some of the high points of his papal message in his own distinctive style. The calls for truth and reconciliation he issued when he …
Can We Reduce Bias in Criminal Justice? – Jason Marsh
This article is the first in a series exploring the effects that unconscious racial biases have on the criminal justice system in the United States. While this article reports on evidence of those biases, subsequent essays will propose ways to mitigate their effects. Long before Officer Darren Wilson fired the shots that killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, questions of …