Author: healthadmin

Three quarters of the marine mammals most vulnerable to plastic pollution are already at risk of extinction, according to a new study published today in Conservation Biology. Macroplastics include plastic pollutants present in the environment that are larger than 5 mm, which is about the size of a pencil eraser. This includes everything from plastic packaging to ghost gear. The new study, co-authored by scientists from the Ocean Conservancy, Arizona State University, and the Shaw Institute, ranks marine mammals for the first time in how vulnerable they are to plastic pollution. It is estimated that 11 million tonnes of plastic…

A study in Taiwan found that people who were more motivated to play online games tended to have higher post-game imagination. Second, imagination was associated with greater creativity, indicating that gaming motivation may contribute to creativity. The paper is Frontiers of behavioral neuroscience. Researchers broadly agree that Internet technologies, especially online gaming, have a strong impact on people’s lives. However, scientific research mainly focuses on these activities related to problems such as addiction and poor reading comprehension. The potential positive effects of gaming tend to be less discussed. Most studies that have investigated the potential positive effects of games have…

Actor, producer and artist Lucy Liu has joined Pfizer’s mission to end cancer, becoming the latest face of the pharmaceutical giant’s campaign to encourage people to get tested. Liu, a star of films such as “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill,” shared a social media post about cancer screenings sponsored by Pfizer with her 1.8 million followers on Instagram. The video begins with the text, “In the fight against cancer, every screen matters,” followed by “We are taking over this screen for cancer screening.” Ryu then utters the line, “The most important screen is the one that could save your life.”…

Artificial intelligence startup Keebler Health has raised $16 million in Series A funding to continue building an AI-powered infrastructure for value-based care. Flare Capital Partners led the Series A round, with participation from Sands Capital, Tau Ventures, and existing investors including Freestyle Capital, Underdog Labs, and MBX Capital. Additional investors in this round include Everywhere Ventures, New Stack Ventures, Tweener Fund, Aviano Ventures, and Hustle Fund, according to a press release. Isaac Park, CEO and co-founder of Keebler Health, said the startup has raised $23 million to date. Risk adjustment remains constrained by fragmented medical data, with the most important…

Abridge entered the healthcare market eight years ago as an artificial intelligence scribe, but the company has steadily built technology that acts like an AI assistant throughout clinical workflows. The company is expanding its clinical decision support solutions through a partnership with Wolters Kluwer’s UpToDate, a clinical evidence solution that has been on the market for 30 years. Abridge is working with Wolters Kluwer to integrate contextual clinical decision support within ambient documentation workflows, giving clinicians easy access to evidence-based answers at the point of conversation. This feature allows clinicians to instantly gain relevant clinical and treatment insights without another…

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it will convene an outside advisory committee to discuss whether to allow compounding pharmacies to manufacture certain peptides. The meeting will be held on July 23rd and 24th. In 2023, the FDA removed 19 peptides from the list of drugs that compounding pharmacies are allowed to manufacture. The committee in July will discuss whether to add the seven peptides back. Data on the effectiveness and safety of many of these products is limited, but they are becoming increasingly popular due to promotion by online influencer and Secretary of Health Robert…

Engaging in mentally stimulating activities throughout your life, such as reading, writing, and learning a new language, may be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and slower decline in cognitive function. That’s the conclusion of a recently published study. NeurologyMedical Journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The researchers stress that the findings show an association and are not evidence that lifelong learning directly prevents Alzheimer’s disease. The study found that people who remained more intellectually engaged throughout their lives developed Alzheimer’s disease about five years later than those who were least mentally stimulated. They also developed mild cognitive…

Drug development leaders face intensifying pressures from AI-accelerated discovery, expanding clinical pipelines, biopharma manufacturing shifts, and stringent FDA approvals in 2026.

New research reveals why front-of-pack labels alone aren’t enough to guide healthier choices, as consumers’ beliefs about naturalness and processing continue to shape what ends up in their shopping carts. Research: State-of-the-art in front-of-pack food labeling systems that take into account consumer trends and perceptions regarding natural health, food processing and sustainability. Image credit: Stock-Asso/Shutterstock.com Front-of-pack (FOP) labels are intended to help consumers quickly identify healthy food options. But a recent review shows that its effectiveness largely depends on how shoppers interpret terms like “healthy,” “natural,” “processed,” and “sustainable.” ACS Nutrition. Define a healthy diet beyond nutrients and food groups…

For decades, physicists have been trying to answer a fundamental question: Can electrons move like a perfectly smooth, frictionless fluid governed by universal quantum values? Detecting this anomalous behavior has proven to be extremely difficult. In real materials, small defects such as atomic defects or impurities tend to interfere with these delicate quantum effects, making them nearly impossible to observe. Now, researchers from the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with collaborators from Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science, have finally identified this elusive quantum fluid in graphene. This material consists of a single layer of…