🧪 Microplastics and health news from @sciam.bsky.social

More weight loss, fewer needles: New GLP-1 pill just approved by FDA. Foundayo pill will go head to head against the Wegovy pill for weight loss and diabetes. Private insurance could make the cost $25/month. Read the news from @laurenjyoung.bsky.social in @sciam.bsky.social 🧪 #medsky

Orca are chomping salmon all around lamprey but Orca don't recognize lamprey's host as food because their echolocation is confused by lamprey's presence!! Orca can't detect chinook's swimbladder with Lamprey attached!! #2026MMM ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/m...

Just watched TCU Horned Frogs knock Washington Huskies out of March Madness. Key science question: why does Texas call them frogs (amphibians) when they are really lizards (reptiles)? I mean, it's a big difference, and Horned Lizard is a cool name. So what's up, Texas science? 🧪

Its a #FroggyFriday!

More on the CDC vaccine advisory panel (ACIP). Robert Malone (RFKjr-appointed ACIP member) was wrong yesterday when he said the panel was disbanded. But RFKjr hasn't told the public what he intends to do after a court ruled he violated the law with his appointments.

Breaking from @sciam.bsky.social : ACIP, the CDC's crucial vaccine advisory panel, may be totally disbanded by the Trump Administration, its former vice chair says.🧪 #medsky

One day you’re just a guy, and the next you’re King Sammy I, emperor of the robot vacuums

Mathematicians at Scientific American take on March Madness basketball: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

More evidence that Trump Rx is not cheap. Its prescriptions charge more than you'd pay in the UK, for the same drugs. To be fair, any medical care in US costs more. But evidence shows the White House is offering worse help than the ACA. Reuters story share.google/4FXTdC15h603...

Would you be happy in polyamory? Relationships with several people at the same time? 1000s are, according to Rebecca Lester, psychotherapist and anthropologist. It's tied to American values about liberty. Not an excuse to sleep around. Listen to the @sciam.bsky.social interview: 🧪

Justice sure took a long while… apnews.com/article/henr...

Fly to the complex molecular gas in the centre of the #MilkyWay!🧑‍🚀 In this chaotic and extreme environment, stars don’t necessarily form in the same way as they do in the Milky Way’s outskirts. But new ALMA observations will probe how stars evolve there. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2603/ 🔭🧪

The Age of Reptiles: How One Mural Changed The Way The World Saw Dinosaurs 🧪🌿🌎🪶🐡 #dinosaurs #paleontology open.substack.com/pub/alwaysso...

Now, if Kansas cops pull over a driver who looks like a man but their drivers license says "female," will cops be suspicious and detain them? Simply for being who they are and obeying this new Kansas law?

Vaughn Cooper’s new Scientific American article offers a clear look at the potential threats posed by mirror‑life. He trained with MGI's Rich Lenski @relenski.bsky.social, whose contributions to the field are referenced in the piece. Important context for a complex topic.

What happens when the person being watched and discriminated against is you? www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-chil...

@vscooper.micropopbio.org hi Vaughn. Would it be more accurate, in the subhed, if we changed "are close" to "are moving closer"?

RFKjr and HHS are making it easier to sue pharma for health problems that occur after vaccination. Any vaccination. Will this stop development of new vaccines (because pharma will be sued for anything and stop developing new vaccinations). Or help people with real injuries? What do you think? 🧪

Donald Trump grabs Nobel Peace Prize--with somebody else's name on it-- from original winner after leading bombing that killed more that 100 people. at the point of a gun www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Expensive Probiotic Supplements only work for a very few diseases, and not overall gut health, Scientific American reports. Save your money. 🧪 share.google/nbkhbPmzWpZP...

Something odd here. 2 of the scientists from Denmark showed live vaccines are extra powerful, protecting babies from diseases beyond the intended one. Measles and the TB vaccine do this. One researcher, Christine Benn, wrote a popular article on this, below. How did this get seen as anti-vax? 🧪

More "gold standard science" from Trump and RfkJr. They gave $1.6 million to Danish scientists for a study apparently designed to prove a childhood vaccine doesn't work. While cutting billions from research in the US. www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

11 medical experiments that will shape our health in 2026: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

They trigger reward systems instead.

Math/money problem with the new Wegovy GLP-1 weight loss pill. www.scientificamerican.com/article/wego... The pill is $149/month for 1.5 mg. But in the clinical trial showing success, the daily pill was 25 mg. That's 16.7 HIGHER. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... So is that $2488.30 per pill? 🧪 #medsky

For astounding appropriateness, this story on whisky industry death knells was written by a Times obituary writer. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/d...

First RFKjr cuts HHS' own research about stopping childhood diseases. Now he cuts grants to pediatricians for stopping infant deaths. Seems much more like mindless revenge and less like making America healthy. 🧪 #medsky

3 killers really may be 1 disease. Read how in new SciAm issue: www.scientificamerican.com/article/hear... 🧪 #medsky

Right after yesterday's gun massacre in Australia, some US gun enthusiasts said it indicated gun safety laws don't work. Wrong. Australia hasn't had mass shootings since 1996 while US has them all the time. Australia reaction to the massacre was to move for stricter laws because they work:

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There are few soil animals as adorable as the 'podgy' springtails! This Platunurida sp. is a cousin of the famous 'giant' springtails in New Zealand. Instead of colourful spines, it has a flattened body, enabling it to squeeze into cracks in decaying logs where it lives. #TheWorldBeneathOurFeet 🧪📸

Challenging but rewarding journalism job. www.technologyreview.com/job/editoria...

FDA, under Trump, reduces # of drug trials to 1, from 2 or more. More danger for you, more profits for pharma business. www.linkedin.com/posts/matthe...

CDC's advisory committee on vaccines (appointed by RFKjr) today cannot figure out their own 3 alternatives for the hepatitis B birth dose. Members said they were confused by the info they were given, reports @laurenjyoung.bsky.social in @sciam.bsky.social now. Could keep the dose--or not. 🧪 #medsky

vm.tiktok.com/ZTHTG9E4S83A... Why @ellecordova.bsky.social rules.

Wow. This feels like one of the most important science stories I've read in a long time. PPD is serious, life-altering stuff and the not-insignificant odds of developing it is something that weighs seriously in my own deliberations about having kids or not.

New research on postpartum depression shows it is not like other depressions biologically. It stems from dramatic changes in hormone levels that come with pregnancy and childbirth. A new drug, zuranolone, offsets that drop-off, and can do it within days. Read about how it works here:

Trump officials are making Obamacare more expensive and promoting other insurance plans so bad--they don't cover surgery and leave patients with $100,000s of bills-- that they've been banned or restricted in 14 states. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

So in addition to having to deal with the presence of these three men, all of whom were credibly accused with sexual misconduct against women that I knew, worked with, and/or was friends with, I actually had to deal with being professional while answering a question from one like it was normal

The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Trump still wants to deny food to 40 million Americans who will otherwise go hungry, at the same time he spends millions of $$$ redecorating a White House ballroom. Marie Antoinette echoes, right? www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11...

Back when I was at The Post, every Friday at 10pm I'd plug my data/visualizations/jokes newsletter. Well, it's back. In 12 hours, the all-new How To Read This Chart lands in mailboxes. Sign up for free! howtoreadthisch.art

💊MedSky💊 ADHD A recent study published in the British Medical Journal has shown that medications like methylphenidate (brand name Ritalin) can significantly reduce these harmful outcomes in newly diagnosed patients.

Ancient DNA shows it wasn't just frigid cold that doomed Napoleon's army in Russia. It was disease-causing bacteria, now recovered from old soldiers' teeth. 🧪 @nature.com has a good story: www.nature.com/articles/d41... For more ancient plague DNA: www.scientificamerican.com/article/solv...

Not sure I agree that eagle skeleton below is "not so spooky." But it looks great.

What to do with a mentally declining president? A former White House doctor tells us. 🧪 #medsky

Now RFKjr claims circumcision and Tylenol cause autism. A claim without any good evidence. What does the science show? Read it here: www.scientificamerican.com/article/rfk-...