U.S. scientific leaders need to address structural racism, report urges
Leaders in the U.S. scientific community must dismantle the power structures that lead to racial inequities within their organizations and create an environment in which everyone feels supported,
says a report released today by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
. The 359-page report includes 12 recommendations for leaders who want to foster change. “There is no magic bullet; there's no one single answer,” said Gilda Barabino, president of the Olin College of Engineering and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report, in a webinar today. “We need a multitude of approache...
Source: ScienceNOW - February 14, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
Lifting the veil: Astronomers conjure up the hazes that obscure alien worlds
In 2013, from a windowless office at the University of Chicago, Laura Kreidberg peered into the sky of a distant planet. Kreidberg, then an astronomy graduate student, parsed data from the Hubble Space Telescope, its gaze set on the exoplanet GJ1214b, roughly three times the size of Earth. GJ1214b is a popular target for astronomers seeking clues to the nature of alien worlds, and not only because it’s relatively close, a mere 48 light-years away. It also orbits its star every 1.5 days, and each lap exposes its atmosphere to inspection.
On every pass, the planet briefly eclipses a portion of the star’s face. A fr...
Source: ScienceNOW - January 11, 2023 Category: Science Source Type: news
3-Dose Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise in African Trial
FRIDAY, Jan. 6, 2023 – New research has confirmed that a three-dose malaria vaccine is both safe and effective in West African adults, including those previously exposed to malaria.
Researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Vaccine... (Source: Drugs.com - Daily MedNews)
Source: Drugs.com - Daily MedNews - January 6, 2023 Category: General Medicine Source Type: news
Faces to Watch 2023: Elizabeth Wise, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health
The CEO of the Harford County health system is overseeing $250 million worth of construction projects that will be completed in 2023. (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines)
Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines - January 6, 2023 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Joanna Sullivan Source Type: news
AHA News: After Cardiac Arrest at College Basketball Game, He's Ready to Cheer Again
FRIDAY, Dec. 2, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- For more than 50 years, Stan Goldstein has donned his red, black, white and gold – the colors of the University of Maryland ' s Terrapins – to cheer for his alma mater ' s men ' s basketball... (Source: Drugs.com - Daily MedNews)
Source: Drugs.com - Daily MedNews - December 2, 2022 Category: General Medicine Source Type: news
Reforestation means more than just planting trees
The world is set to get a lot greener over the next 10 years. The United Nations has designated 2021–30 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and many countries, with help from donors, have launched ambitious programs to restore forests in places where they were chopped down or degraded. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Egypt last week, the European Union and 26 nations
pledged $16 billion
in support of forests, banking on trees’ ability to slow climate change by storing carbon. A significant chunk will be spent on reforestation.
“It’s a really exciting time,” says Susan Cook-Patton, a rest...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 22, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
How Some COVID-Cautious Experts Are Celebrating Thanksgiving
America’s third pandemic Thanksgiving may feel like the most normal holiday gathering in a while. AAA expects travel over the long weekend to reach 98% pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 54.6 million people driving and flying to see loved ones. In fact, 2022 is on track to be the third busiest Thanksgiving since AAA started tracking these travel numbers in 2000.
At the beginning of the pandemic, celebrating Thanksgiving meant either virtual or very small in-person gatherings. Now that COVID-19 vaccines and medications are available, it makes it easier to see more family, “which is a beautiful thing,” ...
Source: TIME: Health - November 18, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kyla Mandel Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
40 Under 40: Jonathan Bratt, University of Maryland Baltimore
Outside of work, Bratt volunteers as a paramedic/firefighter with the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department and serves on the board of the Red Cross of Central Maryland. (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines)
Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines - November 18, 2022 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Jessica Iannetta Source Type: news
40 Under 40: Dr. Elizabeth Adrianne Hammershaimb, University of Maryland Medical Center
Hammershaimb says seeing sick kids get better is one of the best parts of her job. (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines)
Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Biotechnology headlines - November 18, 2022 Category: Biotechnology Authors: Jessica Iannetta Source Type: news
Home Births Rose During the Pandemic, Study Shows
More babies were born at home in 2021 than in any year since at least 1990, according to data published Nov. 17 by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Following a 22% increase from 2019 to 2020, the number of home births jumped 12% between 2020 and 2021.
While the rate of home births remains small—making up just 1.4% of all U.S. births in 2021—it’s risen by about 2% each year from 1990 to 2019. The NCHS researchers do not speculate about why home births have historically been rising in popularity, but other experts say that it’s being driven by a growing number of women and families wh...
Source: TIME: Health - November 17, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tara Law Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Health Care healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Yoga may have health benefits for people with chronic non-specific lower back pain
An updated Cochrane Review,published in the Cochrane Library, suggests that yoga may lead to a small reduction in pain in people with chronic non-specific lower back pain over the short term, and that improvements in back function may be similar to those seen with other types of back-focused exercise. However, researchers advise that more studies are needed to provide information on long-term effects.What is non-specific low back pain?Low back pain is a common health problem. In many cases, there is no known cause for the pain and it is termed ' non-specific ' back pain. For some people, the pain may last for three month...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - November 15, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Lydia Parsonson Source Type: news
Booming trade in mammoth ivory may be bad news for elephants
TORONTO—
In 2015, Andy Huynh was accompanying wildlife guards in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve to help ward off poachers. Fresh off a decade of service in the Middle East with U.S. Special Operations Forces, he thought there was little that could faze him. But when he saw his first poached rhinoceros, with half of its face sawed away for the horn, he turned and threw up. “I knew then and there I wanted to dedicate my life to stopping wildlife crime,” Huynh said.
He began to work with various wildlife protection nonprofits, then joined a series of U.N. and Interpol undercover operations in China an...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 11, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
New data buoy hopes for promising malaria vaccine —but questions remain
A new vaccine against malaria showed promising preliminary results in a large trial in four African countries, boosting hopes that an additional tool may soon be available to help control the deadly disease. The vaccine, named R21/Matrix-M and developed by researchers at the University of Oxford,
produced similarly impressive results in a small trial
last year
, but the current study posed a stiffer test of its protection.
Initial data from the trial, reported yesterday at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in Seattle, suggest the vaccine had an efficacy higher than 70% in...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 3, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘Just madness’: Concerned scientists lobby to save space station’s forest-mapping laser
Since April 2019, a fridge-size instrument attached to the International Space Station (ISS) has tickled the treetops of much of the planet with laser light, mapping forests’ carbon stores and the wildlife habitat they provide. Yet in early 2023, the laser is set to be jettisoned into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up unless NASA approves a plan to extend its tenure. Researchers and some U.S. Congress members are now lobbying NASA to give the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument a second life so it can finish measuring the world’s tropical and temperate forests.
“To take that data...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 2, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Antibody weapon against malaria shows promise in Africa
A new way to prevent malaria that showed promise in 9 U.S. volunteers deliberately exposed to parasite-laden mosquitoes last year has now shown its mettle in a real-world situation in Africa. A study published today in the
New England Journal of Medicine
showed that
a single dose
of lab-produced monoclonal antibodies can protect recipients from infection for up to 6 months during Mali’s intense malaria season.
Monoclonal antibodies are expensive to produce and can be cumbersome to administer if they are infused straight into the bloodstream. That makes some researchers skeptical that the new one...
Source: ScienceNOW - November 1, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
