America’s Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization Saturday to an experimental antibody treatment (for people already experiencing Covid-19), reports the Washington Post: The drug, made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, is designed to prevent infected people from developing severe illness. Instead of waiting for the body to develop its own protective immune response, the drug imitates the body’s natural defenses. It is…
Tag: drug
An Amazonian Tea May Stimulate the Formation of New Brain Cells
Popular Mechanics writes: In a new study, researchers found the traditional psychoactive drug ayahuasca stimulates the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampi of research mice. The hippocampus is responsible for many memory functions, and the mice dosed with ayahuasca also performed better in a battery of memory tests. While ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic and often purgative tea brewed from leaves…
Six Reasons Why Google Maps Is the Creepiest App On Your Phone
VICE has highlighted six reasons why Google Maps is the creepiest app on your phone. An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from the report: 1. Google Maps Wants Your Search History: Google’s “Web & App Activity” settings describe how the company collects data, such as user location, to create a faster and “more personalized” experience. In plain English, this means that…
Why It’s a Big Deal If the First COVID-19 Vaccine Is ‘Genetic’
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from Wired: On Monday morning, when representatives from the drug company Pfizer said that its Covid-19 vaccine appears to be more than 90 percent effective, stocks soared, White House officials rushed to (falsely) claim credit, and sighs of relief went up all around the internet. […] The arrival of an effective vaccine to fight SARS-CoV-2…
Scientists 3D Print Microscopic Star Trek Spaceship That Moves On Its Own
fahrbot-bot shares a report from CNN: A team of physicists at a university in the Netherlands have 3D-printed a microscopic version of the USS Voyager, an Intrepid-class starship from Star Trek. The miniature Voyager, which measures 15 micrometers (0.015 millimeters) long, is part of a project researchers at Leiden University conducted to understand how shape affects the motion and interactions of…
Shot To Prevent HIV Works Better Than Daily Pill in Women
A single shot given every two months has proved to be more effective than a daily pill at preventing H.I.V. in women, researchers reported on Monday, an advance that medical experts hailed as groundbreaking in the fight against the deadly virus that causes AIDS. From a report: The finding that the long-acting drug would prevent H.I.V. in six doses taken over…
Pfizer Stuns Experts With Early Data that Vaccine Is More Than 90% Effective
The drug maker Pfizer announced on Monday that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people. From a report: Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with the German drugmaker…
Researchers Find Flaws in Algorithm Used To Identify Atypical Medication Orders
Can algorithms identify unusual medication orders or profiles more accurately than humans? Not necessarily. From a report: A study coauthored by researchers at the Universite Laval and CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal found that one model physicians used to screen patients performed poorly on some orders. The study offers a reminder that unvetted AI and machine learning may negatively impact outcomes in…
Tiny Variants In Genes May Dictate Severity of Coronavirus
Scientists are tracking small differences in DNA to explain why the disease has different effects. An anonymous reader shares a report from The Guardian: Key developments include research which indicates that interferon — a molecular messenger that stimulates immune defenses against invading viruses — may play a vital role in defending the body. Scientists have found that rare mutations in some…
Moderna On Track to Report COVID-19 Vaccine Late-Stage Trial Data in November
This week Moderna “said it is on track to report early data from a late-stage trial of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine next month, reports Reuters, “offering the clearest timeline yet for when the world will know whether it is effective.” The company, one of the front-runners in the global race to produce vaccines to protect against COVID-19, said an independent data…