Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
A proposed single-payer health care system in New York state is economically viable and could insure a million people currently without coverage, according to a study from RAND Corp. released Wednesday. The analysis, which looks at the New York Health Act, was commissioned by the New York State Health Foundation. It makes a number of…
There has been a lot of burning lately. Last week, wildfires broke out in the Arctic Circle, where temperatures reached almost 90 degrees; they are still roiling northern Sweden, 21 of them. And this week, wildfires swept through the Greek seaside, outside Athens, killing at least 80 and hospitalizing almost 200. At one resort, dozens…
You really, really shouldn’t give your DNA to genomics companies like 23andMe or Ancestry. As the recent arrest of the Golden State Killer reminded us, these genetic databases are a goldmine for law enforcement. Catching serial killers isn’t bad, of course, but problems start to arise when, say, these genetic databases are used to target…
Home DNA test results from the 5 million customers of 23andMe will now be used by drug giant GlaxoSmithKline to design new drugs, the two companies announced Wednesday. It’s the biggest partnership yet aimed at leveraging the increasingly popular home genetic testing market, in which customers pay for mail-in saliva tests that are analyzed by…
A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly. Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate…
Donald Trump put a climate change denier as the head of the EPA. He pulled us out of the Paris Agreement on climate. He attacked our allies and supported our adversaries. And now the Trump administration—in the name of every American—has threatened Ecuador and other smaller countries over a World Health Organization resolution promoting the…
Simulation of maximum temperatures on July 3 from American (GFS) weather model at two meters above the ground. (University of Maine Climate Reanalyzer) (This article, originally published Tuesday, was updated Wednesday to add all-time heat records at Mount Washington, N.H., and Tbilisi, Georgia set since Monday. On Thursday, the story was updated to include information…
The Sun and Earth, seen from the International Space Station. Photo: NASA All-time heat records have been set around the world this week, in North American cities including Denver, Colorado; Burlington, Vermont; and Montreal, Quebec; as well as in cities in Europe and Russia. But here’s something that might confuse you: Today is also aphelion…
In the first few hours of a newborn’s life, doctors administer a vitamin K shot. This is because infants are born without enough of the vitamin, and the baby needs a boost to prevent any potential bleeding. This is a routine practice—ask your pediatrician, your obstetrician, or the CDC. “Babies are born with very low…
Back in March, Science Magazine published a somewhat shocking op-ed titled “Why I don’t use Instagram for science outreach.” Just from the title, it was clear that this opinion piece was positioned in opposition to something or someone. You don’t have to read very far into it to see exactly who it was targeting: Samantha…