News at a glance: Geoengineering test canceled, Havana syndrome probed, and U.S. energy research chief departs
ASTRONOMY
Plan to end NASA x-ray scope draws fire
NASA
Scientists are lobbying the U.S. Congress to reverse NASA’s plan to shut down the nearly 25-year-old Chandra X-ray Observatory. President Joe Biden’s budget request for the 2025 fiscal year, released last week, calls for slashing the space telescope’s budget to $41.1 million, a decline of 40% from the 2023 level, and additional cuts in following years. Half of Chandra’s 165-person staff could be laid off later this year. The telescope (illustrated) has fueled major discoveries about super...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 21, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
A Decade of Lawsuits Against Surgeons Performing Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery (FGCS) in Tehran, Iran
ConclusionThe study's findings emphasized the importance of providing women with comprehensive education and consultations to ensure they are well-informed about the potential outcomes and risks of FGCS. Furthermore, the study highlighted the significance of having these surgical procedures performed by skilled and experienced surgeons.Level of Evidence VThis journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these evidence-based medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authorswww.springer.com/00266. (Source: Aesthetic Plastic Surgery)
Source: Aesthetic Plastic Surgery - March 21, 2024 Category: Cosmetic Surgery Source Type: research
Honesty researcher committed research misconduct, according to newly unsealed Harvard report
Honesty researcher Francesca Gino “committed research misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly,” according to an investigation completed last year by the Harvard Business School(HBS) that was publicly released this week as part of Gino’s ongoing lawsuit against the university.
On Tuesday, despite objections from Gino, a judge granted Harvard’s motion to unseal the report the university had submitted in its defense,
The Chronicle of Higher Education
reported
. Gino, who was publicly alleged by three data sleuths to have falsified data in four publications, is pursuing a
$25 mi...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 15, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Deception by Obfuscation: Studnicki et al. ’s retracted longitudinal cohort study of emergency room utilization following abortion
In November 2022, the anti-abortion advocacy group, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration challenging the initial 2000 approval of mifepristone and its subsequent approvals, which removed unnecessary restrictions on its use, by disputing the medication ’s safety record. Such challenges relied on a study examining the incidence of emergency room (ER) visits following medication abortion with mifepristone and procedural abortion using Medicaid claims data from 1999–2015. (Source: Contraception)
Source: Contraception - March 15, 2024 Category: OBGYN Authors: Ushma D. Upadhyay, Chris E. Adkins Source Type: research
‘Damning’ FDA inspection report undermines positive trial results of possible Alzheimer’s drug
This report extends a pattern of data that lack rigor and reliability, and further undermines my confidence in any clinical trial results from this program,” says neuroscientist Matthew Schrag. The Vanderbilt University professor, who
previously identified what he said were problematic data from the company
and Wang, reviewed the FDA report for
Science
, working independently of his institution. “As I’ve said before, I think that the simufilam clinical trials should be shut down,” he concluded.
FDA would not say whether its inspection findings would affect the agency’s review of the phas...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - March 11, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
‘A tough experience.’ Why would a scientist serve as an expert witness?
Late last year, the sound of scientific argument echoed through a New York City courtroom packed with legal and financial experts. Studies from top epidemiology journals flashed onto large screens, as lawyers debated their statistical power and whether their conclusions rested on “cherry-picked” data.
Billions of dollars were at stake.
The scientists themselves were absent, and attorneys argued on their behalf. But the crucial issue was whether some of the scientists would be allowed to appear at a future trial, where they would tell jurors that children had developed autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivi...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 29, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
From evidence to tailored decision-making: a qualitative research of barriers and facilitating factors for the implementation of non-clinical interventions to reduce unnecessary caesarean section in Romania
Conclusion
Consideration of the views, values and preferences of all stakeholders in a multifaceted action tailored to Romanian determinants is critical to address relevant determinants to reduce unnecessary CSs. Further studies should assess the effect of multifaceted interventions. (Source: BMJ Open)
Source: BMJ Open - February 27, 2024 Category: General Medicine Authors: Berdzuli, N., Llop-Girones, A., Farcasanu, D., Butu, C., Grbic, M., Betran, A. P. Tags: Open access, Obstetrics & Gynaecology Obstetrics and gynaecology Source Type: research
Health Care AI and Patient Privacy
This Viewpoint summarizes a recent lawsuit alleging that a hospital violated patients ’ privacy by sharing electronic health record (EHR) data with Google for development of medical artificial intelligence (AI) and discusses how the federal court’s decision in the case provides key insights for hospitals planning to share EHR data with for-profit companies developing medical AI. (Source: JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association)
Source: JAMA - Journal of the American Medical Association - February 19, 2024 Category: General Medicine Source Type: research
Passion is not misconduct | Science
University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann was awarded more than $1 million in a lawsuit against bloggers who accused him of scientific misconduct in inflammatory terms, likening his treatment of data to what a noted child molester did to ... (Source: Science: Current Issue)
Source: Science: Current Issue - February 13, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: research
Jury rules for climate scientist Michael Mann in long-running defamation case
A jury found today that Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist, was defamed by the writers of two blog posts 12 years ago that compared his work on global warming to child molestation.
In ruling for Mann, the six-person jury in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia awarded Mann just $2 in actual damages due to the defamation, but then levied a $1 million fine against one of the defendants, Mark Steyn, a conservative author and broadcaster, for punitive damages; Rand Simberg, the other defendant, faces $1000 in punitive damages.
The ruling is a victory for climate researchers who have been frequent...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 8, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
What ’s at stake for science in Supreme Court’s ‘abortion pill’ case?
Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) will hear oral arguments in a case that could have profound implications for the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—and that will certainly affect access to abortion. The case, which involves disputes over the safety of the FDA-approved abortion drug mifepristone, is an appeal of two lower court decisions that agreed with a coalition of plaintiffs who challenged the scientific decision-making of the drug regulator.
The legal drama was heightened this week, when the journal
Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology
retracted
tw...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 8, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Does fluoride in drinking water lower IQ? Question looms large in court battle
A long-simmering scientific battle took on new life this week, as experts clashed in a San Francisco courtroom over whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should ban fluoridation of drinking water to protect fetuses and children from the risk of neurodevelopmental problems.
The
case
, being heard in a federal district court, “is precedent setting,” says Lynn Bergeson, a managing partner of Bergeson & Campbell who focuses on chemical toxicity. Rarely have judges had to “manage the enormity of this record of scientific evidence. … That’s why there’s a lot of attention focused o...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - February 2, 2024 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
Fingertip oxygen sensors can fail on dark skin — now a physician is suing
Nature, Published online: 18 January 2024; doi:10.1038/d41586-024-00089-6A community health centre in California led by the researcher files the first lawsuit against pulse oximeter manufacturers. (Source: Nature AOP)
Source: Nature AOP - January 18, 2024 Category: Research Authors: Anil Oza Source Type: research
From Desegregation and Integration to Diversity and Inclusion: The Environment Was Just Ice
Am J Pharm Educ. 2024 Jan 12;88(3):100648. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpe.2024.100648. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe process of desegregation at Southern schools of pharmacy was long and arduous. Despite persistent protests, struggles, and lawsuits, many schools of pharmacy did not graduate their first Black students until the 1970s. The School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill unintentionally desegregated in 1962 when its first Black student, William Wicker, was inadvertently admitted. His personal story and those of his fellow pioneers in desegregation, Mona (Boston) Reddick and James Barnes, provid...
Source: American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education - January 14, 2024 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Christian A Brown Gregory Bond Carla White Benjamin Y Urick Source Type: research
News at a glance: Climate summit booed, a big dino bite, and a diamond-hard discovery
PALEONTOLOGY
Near-perfect pliosaur skull hints at big bite
A U.K. team that includes amateur fossil hunters is studying the recently discovered skull of a pliosaur, a large, carnivorous marine reptile that dominated ancient oceans about 150 million years ago, news media reported last week. The specimen was found in 2022 embedded in a cliff along Dorset’s famed Jurassic Coast, where the pioneering 19th century amateur fossil hunter Mary Anning once discovered skeletons of other marine dinosaurs. Scientists are calling the new skull, about 2 meters long, one of the most complete of its kind. After me...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - December 21, 2023 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research
