Author: healthadmin

EEvery year, the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic, enough to fill more than 1 million garbage trucks, but less than 10 percent of these products are recycled. The rest ends up in landfills. They litter our lands, oceans, and waterways. Alternatively, it can be burned in incinerators, which produce dioxins, a powerful carcinogenic chemical. Initially, environmental research focused on the negative effects of plastic debris on aquatic animals and other wildlife. “But we now realize that we are all suffering the same effects,” says epidemiologist Leonardo Trasande, MD, professor of pediatrics at New York University’s Grossman…

With cascading climate shocks unfolding faster than scientists can track them, the United Nations scientific agency that assesses global warming risks and response options is stuck in a procedural logjam and facing a potential budget shortfall. The latest plenary session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Bangkok concluded last week without members approving a final schedule for completing the Seventh Assessment Report, even though the cycle officially began nearly two years ago. And experts warned that the reduction in funding could affect future work. The IPCC was established by global consensus in 1988 and has published comprehensive climate…

Artificial intelligence programs can persuade people to moderate their political views, but highly customized messages and deep conversations with bots are unlikely to work any better than a single basic argument. These results challenge long-held academic theories about what makes political messages effective and suggest that targeted data and interactive discussions may not provide the benefits politicians expect. The findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Changing the minds of voters is an essential feature of democratic societies. Advocacy groups, public health officials, and political candidates spend billions of dollars trying to sway public…

Cyril Traore Ndembi, a father of four living in the Republic of Congo, thought help would come for his youngest son, Sylphani. More than a year ago, in December 2024, the country’s environment minister shut down a battery recycling facility near Ndembi’s home, which spewed lead into the air, contaminated the soil and poisoned Shilfani and other neighbors. The minister ordered the factory’s operator, Messa Congo, to pay approximately $18,000 in cleaning and medical costs to the community.The World Health Organization, which classifies lead as one of the top 10 chemicals of public health concern, also offered to help. The…

Recent research published in journals pro swan This suggests that watching videos that evoke certain emotions may reduce racial prejudice and increase tolerance toward Black Americans. The findings provide evidence that media designed to capture the brain’s attention may provide a practical way to combat large-scale prejudice. Scientists Yilong Wang and Paul J. Zak wanted to find a widely available method to reduce outgroup bias. Outgroup bias refers to the human tendency to prefer people in one’s own social circle while avoiding or judging people seen as outsiders. This tendency has evolutionary origins, with early humans prioritizing their own group…

As digital communications accelerate and cyber threats continue to grow, researchers are working to develop more secure ways to transmit information. One of the most promising approaches is quantum cryptography, which uses individual photons to generate encryption keys. A research team from the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Physics has created and tested a new quantum key distribution (QKD) system within an existing urban fiber network. Their approach uses high-dimensional encoding and is based on a well-known optical phenomenon called the Talbot effect. The survey results are quantum optics, opticaland Physical review applied. “Our research focuses on quantum key distribution…

Eli Lilly’s Orforglipron passed the FDA green light on Wednesday, ending Novo Nordisk’s Wigovy tablet’s short reign as the only oral GLP-1 approved to treat obesity. Now named Foundayo, the FDA has approved Lilly’s GLP-1 receptor agonist tablets as the first novel molecular entity approved under the regulator’s controversial National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program, according to an April 1 FDA announcement. Lilly plans to offer the pill through LillyDirect, a cash-pay consumer drug purchasing platform, with an agreement to provide Foundayo to obese adults and adults who are overweight with weight-related medical problems in conjunction with a reduced-calorie diet and…

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified a novel, highly potent opioid that shows potential as a treatment for both pain and opioid use disorder. In a study published in natureThe research team observed the effects of the new drug in experimental animals. They demonstrated high analgesic efficacy in humans without causing respiratory depression, tolerance, or other indicators of potential addiction. Opioid painkillers are essential for medical purposes, but can lead to addiction and overdose. Developing highly effective painkillers that do not have these drawbacks would greatly benefit public health. ” Nora D. Volkow, MD,…

In South Korea, a cheerful green cartoon dinosaur named Dooley, known for the two small tufts of hair on his head, has been popular for generations. So when scientists discovered a new species of young dinosaur on the island of Afe, the name came naturally. Durisaurus. “Dooly is one of the very famous and iconic dinosaur characters in Korea. Every generation in Korea knows this character,” said Jeongyun Jeong, a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences who led the study. “And because our specimen is also a juvenile, or ‘baby,’ it’s the perfect dinosaur…

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have discovered a molecular switch in neurons that limits the regrowth of damaged axonal fibers. The survey results were published in a magazine nature (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10295-z), show that blocking a protein called aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) may promote nerve regeneration and functional recovery after peripheral nerve or spinal cord injury. Axons are long fibers that carry signals between nerve cells or neurons in both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Axons are essential for communication in the nervous system. When fibers are severed or damaged, recovery depends on the neuron’s ability…