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Major international trial finds healthy behaviors help brain health in older adults
The question researchers still want to answer is whether those changes translate to a reduced risk of dementia.
World Sailing measures the environmental impact of the sport's Olympic equipment for the first time
The governing body for sailing is looking at how the sport’s Olympic-class equipment is made, used and discarded, to eventually make changes that will reduce its environmental impact. The director of sustainability at World Sailing said this first-of-a-kind life cycle assessment project will give...
World Sailing measures the environmental impact of the sport's Olympic equipment for the first time
The governing body for sailing is looking at how the sport’s Olympic-class equipment is made, used and discarded, to eventually make changes that will reduce its environmental impact.
Opinion | Markets, not politics, will make China’s yuan a global currency
Until authorities can reduce costs and allay the market’s concerns, yuan internationalisation will be stronger on paper than balance sheets.
Football brain health: Players more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, study says
A new study finds evidence of reduced brain volume in former elite footballers, who also report difficulties with thinking skills and decision-making.
UNLV students use science to reduce wildfire risk for Las Vegas wetlands
When Sophia Lorenzana took an ornithology class at UNLV as an undergraduate student, she never imagined it would spark a love for one of the area’s most underrated natural resources: Wetlands Park.
Simple sitting change linked to lower risk of cancer death, study finds
Each additional hour of prolonged sedentary behavior was linked to a 10% higher cancer death risk, but brief movement breaks may significantly reduce it.
Yale scientists may have found how Parkinson's disease spreads through the brain
Yale scientists discovered two neuron surface proteins that appear to help spread the toxic protein linked to Parkinson’s disease. Blocking these proteins in mice dramatically reduced disease progression, offering a potential new target for future therapies.
Dr Oz shares free health changes Americans can make now to live longer, happier lives
Dr. Mehmet Oz discusses how meaningful relationships, restorative routines and screen-free evenings can help reduce stress and support more restful nights.
What Xbox's layoffs, massive reboot says about the gaming industry
Microsoft plans to reduce Xbox by 3,200 jobs over the next fiscal year, calling it “the most significant restructuring in Xbox history.” While the gaming industry has seen many boom and bust cycles, experts say this moment is different.
Germany's lower house of parliament passes healthcare reform
Germany's lower house of parliament on Friday approved a bill to overhaul the creaking health insurance system that has drawn fierce opposition from drugs companies which fear tougher pricing measures will harm profitability and reduce investment.
Excessive Overtime At UConn Health Center Flagged In Audit
Auditors noted that it is best practice to schedule employees in a manner that reduces unnecessary overtime costs, when possible, but that UConn Health incurred significant overtime costs due to lack of staff and many unfilled positions.
Clarins Introduces Double Serum Eye, Bringing 30 Years of Longevity Science to the Eye Contour to Reduce Visible Eye Wrinkles, Puffiness, and Dark Circles
/PRNewswire/ -- Clarins, French prestige skincare brand, introduces their latest skincare advancement, the new generation of Double Serum Eye. Powered by 30...
Coffee may have powerful effect on liver health, major study suggests
Heavy coffee drinkers showed a 47% lower risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and reduced liver fat, liver iron and fibroinflammation in a major study.
Taking MAHA behind the wall: Healthy food is the right recipe for prison safety
The Healthy Prisons, Healthy Communities initiative is promoting the use of nutritious food to reduce violence, protect officers, and rehabilitate inmates in American prisons.
An outbreak of diarrhea caused by a parasite has hit at least 1,400 people. Here’s how to stay safe
It’s not clear what’s causing rising cases of cyclosporiasis, but cooking fruits and veggies and washing produce can help reduce your risk.
Biological aging clocks in health and disease
Nature Medicine - This review outlines the state of the art of biological clocks and how they could help understand pathobiology, reduce the burden of disease and extend healthspan.
Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton's suspension reduced to 2 games
Boston Red Sox outfielder Nate Eaton's initial three-game suspension for his actions during a dugout-clearing altercation with Washington last week has been reduced to two games.
Hungary moves to overhaul university models banned from Horizon Europe
Hungary’s new government is aiming to overhaul the governance model of the institutions and universities that lost access to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ funds “in a short timeframe,” according to Péter Horváth, the new state secretary for science policy and innovation. “As of today, the two non-university foundation-controlled institutions under my remit have been transformed,” he told Science|Business. “We hope the universities will follow and that this will be enough to satisfy the EU’s demands.”Under the previous government, led by Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, many academic and scientific institutions were restructured and made into special public trust foundations, with members strongly linked to the government given lifelong mandates and significant decision-making powers with little oversight. The European Commission deemed that this undermined academic freedom and transparency in the country, leading to a ban on 34 institutions in 2022, including 21 universities, which saw academics in Hungary lose access to Horizon Europe grants. The new Hungarian government, elected in May and led by Péter Magyar and his Tisza Party, has promised to dismantle this governance model and restore the institutions to EU programmes. As a result, the European Commission has promised to return access to the Erasmus+ education mobility programme, but so far no concrete agreement has been made on the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation. Hungary has already made legislative changes in June to allow the institutions to be reformed and set a timeline for the implementation.The non-university foundations, which are mainly cultural centres such as the Foundation for Hungarian Culture or the Makovecz Campus Foundation, will all be dissolved by August 31 this year, a date tied to EU-set milestones that Hungary must meet to unlock frozen funds, with control transferred to relevant ministries. Meanwhile, the universities will have until 31 August 2027. For each university foundation, the government will set the dissolution date and the body to take over operations. There is no final decision on a permanent new model for the universities, according to Hungarian MEP Eszter Lakos, who is shadow rapporteur for the Horizon Europe specific programme, a separate piece of legislation detailing implementation rules for the EU’s next research programme, due to start in 2028. “The aim of the transition year is to settle this with [the universities], not to impose a model, and not to put them under state control,” she told Science|Business. “The goal is to give academic independence back to universities.”There are three models that are most likely to be implemented. One would be a return to a traditional, state-run model. Another could be a newer, more self-standing public institution. A third option would be a reformed version of the foundation models that meet EU standards. According to Lakos, the dismantling of the system put in place by the Orbán government is well underway and if all goes according to plan, Hungary could regain access to EU research money by the start of the next academic year in 2027. “I believe that the Hungarian government is doing the necessary changes so the universities could return as beneficiaries to Horizon from the next school year,” she said. In the meantime, “the universities, institutes and cultural assets carry on under proper public stewardship rather than a handful of unaccountable trustees,” said Lakos. The laws passed in June impose new safeguards: board terms are capped at four years and renewable only once, appointments are made through open competitions and sitting politicians cannot join joining these boards.It remains unclear whether a domestic science funding programme set up as a back-up scheme by the former government following the EU funding ban, called HU-rizon, could be continued. “This programme should never have had to have been established in the first place, but it has proven to be quite popular,” he said. “I am considering continuing this programme with a refined focus on helping international collaborations.”Re-organising the research network One of the first priorities for Horváth and his cabinet is to resolve questions over the future of the Hungarian Research Network, Hun-Ren. The network of academic institutes was taken away from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2019 and turned into a quasi-private organisation, with similarities in its governance to the public trust foundations.Horváth and his team have consulted over 5,000 representatives from the network and the conclusion is broad unhappiness with the directors of all the institutes involved. “We have presented the results to the president and the chief executive of the network and this is currently being discussed,” Horváth said. The plan is to re-integrate the network back into the Academy of Sciences but in an improved way, “learning from mistakes of the past,” he added. The government also wants to reintegrate four humanities and social science research centres into the network that the previous government had transferred to Eötvös Loránd University. The transfer brought sharp criticism from the academic community, with a group of Hungarian research heads, including European Research Council grant recipients, sending an open letter to Orbán warning that the transfer would “cause historically significant harm to the entirety of Hungarian scientific life.” The transfer was “one of the biggest shames in Hungarian research in the past 20 years,” Horváth said. “We want to immediately re-integrate them back into the research network and to regain the trust of these institutions, because the way they were treated was really unfair.”Another pressing issue is the Élvonal Excellence Research and Talent Development Foundation, led by Nobel laureate Ferenc Krausz. The foundation signed a financing agreement with the former government earlier this year for a budget of over €730 million over the next five years. The goal is to create a world-class centre to attract top talent from abroad and to develop local researchers. But there was little transparency about this foundation, and news of its huge budget, which is nearly as much as Hungary’s entire research budget, caused a stir in the media following the recent elections. Another issue is that, as with the foundation boards of the institutes banned from Horizon Europe, there was little-to-no oversight of decisions led by Krausz. “It was an excellent idea but an unacceptable execution,” Horváth said of the foundation. “The fact that this is out of the Hungarian funding scheme, mostly concentrating on one person who decides on the budget is unacceptable for us.”The government plans to merge the centre with the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the country’s R&D funding agency, with a reduced budget. Horváth is hopeful that Krausz will still be involved. The new government’s R&D goalsA phrase that crops up regularly during the discussion with Horváth is “democratic process.” The new state secretary is determined to involve Hungary’s research community in shaping future policies. This marks a departure from the previous government’s approach, and several people in Hungary’s research community have commented on the openness of the new government. In terms of concrete goals, Horváth and his team already have plans. He wants to create a new science fund in Hungary, based on the best practices of other European countries. The fund would not be tied to annual government budgets and would provide long-term, stable financing. “If we were to succeed in creating this fund, then I think it would be one of the biggest achievements for me in this period of government,” Horváth said. On the innovation side, he is looking into how best to bring in the private sector. “We want to make sure that we are working with the private sector to support innovation,” Horváth said. One of his big aims is to introduce entrepreneurship teaching into high schools. Hungary already has a reputable national academy offering research and innovation training in the field of natural sciences, and Horváth wants to expand this to all disciplines and across the whole country. “One of the main ways to elevate our innovative businesses is to teach our children to be innovative,” he said. “This will probably need ten years to pay off, but this is what we should do. Our aim is to make Hungary strong in our region, and this is what is needed.” Related articlesHungary’s Horizon Europe performance in numbersCommission unlocks Erasmus+ cash for Hungary, Horizon could be next‘Academic Huxit.’ Hungarian researchers speak out on impact of EU ban A more difficult task will be funding. The new government is aiming to increase research spending to 2% of the GDP by 2030, and then increase it to 3% in line with EU objectives. Currently, spending sits around 1.3%. But according to Horváth, the current budget, inherited from the previous government, is “heavily in the negative,” so any plans to increase research spending will have to start next year. Achieving 2% by 2030 already needs a big push, almost doubling the research budget. “This is something we’d definitely like to reach, and something I can see us achieving,” he said. “From the 2030s, I’d like to see an innovative generation growing up that can help us reach the 3% target.” Positivity in the new governmentDespite the many challenges facing Horváth and his team, the mood is positive. “It feels a bit like a start-up right now. Everyone is working 24/7, day and night, trying to do as much as they can. There is a lot of energy,” he said. It is a big change for the state secretary who, like many in his cabinet, is coming from a background in research or business, and not in politics. “Six weeks ago, I was sitting with my microscope and my research PhDs, so it’s been a big change for me,” said the computer scientist, who was previously the director of the Institute of Biochemistry at the Hun-Ren Biological Research Centre in Hungary and worked at the Institute for AI for Health at Helmholtz Munich. But he is relishing the task to transform the country’s R&D landscape. “We feel enormous support from the Hungarian people, but also from Europe,” he said. “We’ve received a lot of letters of support from around Europe. There is big trust there, and huge responsibility on our side. We want to get everything back on track, and there’s a lot to do.”
Exclusive: Trump admin presses hospitals on healthier food
The "Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge" encourages hospitals to reduce highly processed foods
The Politics of Provocation: The ECtHR’s Ruling in Miladze v Georgia
A recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning a TikTok video published by a Georgian self-defined civil activist adds another layer to the Court’s increasingly messy Article 10 case law. The applicant repeatedly insulted public officials in crude and sexually explicit terms while broadcasting to a large online audience. Domestic courts imposed only a modest administrative fine, later reduced on appeal. The ECtHR did not find a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression – raising several questions about the limits of legitimate political speech online.
Make the Business Case for Your Sustainability Initiative
Sustainability proposals often stall not because they lack merit, but because they are framed in a language that does not match how senior leaders allocate capital. While CSOs tend to emphasize impact, materiality, and disclosure, CFOs and CEOs need to understand cash flow, risk, and return. External reporting frameworks are useful for accountability, but they are poorly suited to internal investment decisions, which require project-level comparisons rather than aggregated enterprise metrics. Sustainability investments should therefore be evaluated like any other investment: by showing how they reduce current costs, avoid future costs, generate new revenue, or protect existing revenue. Strong cases begin with a clear business story that links the proposed action to a specific business impact and cash-flow outcome, then quantify what can credibly be quantified while treating harder-to-measure benefits as either upside or an explicit strategic bet.
Bumblebees collect up to 7 times more toxic metals than honeybees
Bumblebees are picking up dramatically more toxic heavy metals than honeybees, even when both species forage in the same places. Researchers warn that this hidden pollution could quietly reduce their ability to find food, reproduce, and keep colonies healthy.
Why Buyers Pay More For Businesses With Recurring Revenue
Learn why recurring revenue increases business value, reduces buyer risk, and helps founders build a more predictable and sellable company.
‘Our business today is not healthy’: 1,600 Xbox employees among the 4,800 laid off by Microsoft as it looks to ‘reset’ gaming division
A third of Microsoft's global layoffs were Xbox employee as the company reduced its workforce by 2.1% globally.
Woman laid off from Meta moved to Mexico and reduced expenses
After her Meta layoff, Chikaraa Kennedy launched a coaching business and moved to Mexico — where she spends less and has a better quality of life.
5 desk gadgets that can make your workday better
The right desk gadgets can help you reduce clutter, stay focused, and add a little extra convenience to your day.
Carbajal’s Housing Spin Is Why Voters Are Tired of Politics
Where is the bill to reduce the regulatory burden that makes housing so expensive in California? Where is the bill to protect DACA recipients and Dreamers who grew up here?
How I Cleaned Up the Thousands of Photos and Videos I Had Scattered Across the Internet
I reduced my storage subscription fees and learned a valuable lesson in how to back up priceless memories.
Science & Medicine: Training health care workers to save lives in Texas maternity care deserts
In the nearly half of Texas counties considered maternity care deserts, few health care workers are trained to handle a pregnancy emergency like maternal cardiac arrest. A simulation-based training program from an expert at UT San Antonio's Kate Marmion School of Public Health aims to change that, and reduce preventable deaths in the process.
Science & Medicine: Training health care workers to save lives in Texas maternity care deserts
In the nearly half of Texas counties considered maternity care deserts, few health care workers are trained to handle a pregnancy emergency like maternal cardiac arrest. A simulation-based training program from an expert at UT San Antonio's Kate Marmion School of Public Health aims to change that, and reduce preventable deaths in the process.
This One Fruit May Reduce The Nutrients in Your Next Smoothie, Experiments Suggest
Oh damn.
Florida Health warns against contact with wild animals due to rabies risk
In Seminole County, avoid wild and stray animals to reduce rabies risk. Keep pets vaccinated and supervised for safety.
5 Small Business Ideas for Introverts
Prefer working solo? These small business ideas for introverts let you focus on creativity and deep work—and reduce meetings.
Health officials offer tick safety tips as summer outdoor season ramps up
Mesa County Public Health is reminding residents that while tick-borne illnesses are rare in the area, taking precautions during outdoor activities can help reduce risk this summer.
One year after passage, Trump health care law remains politically divisive
After the Big Beautiful Bill Act passed, Dr. Mehmet Oz says the law reduced fraud and stabilized Medicaid programs.
Dr. Oz on Medicare covering weight loss drugs, America's health innovation
Dr. Mehmet Oz discusses health innovation for America's 250th birthday, highlighting a new initiative where Medicare will cover GLP-1 weight loss medications for $50 a month, aiming to reduce health complications.
Major retailers open for July 4: Here's where you can shop and eat on America's 250th birthday
Need last-minute July 4 essentials? See which major stores and restaurants are open, closed or have reduced hours in the United States.
Reduced sunshine linked to higher demand for mental health care
The study highlights the relationship between weather and mental health care use, suggesting routine weather patterns could forecast service demand effectively.
Rep. Young Kim Introduces Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Act to Strengthen U.S. Leadership, Support American Jobs, and Help Families Globally
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representative Young Kim (CA-40) introduced the Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Act to deploy proven, American-made interventions that reduce maternal and child mortality around the globe while supporting U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. Each year, nearly 260,000 women die from preventable pregnancy-related complications. Evidence-based solutions like Multiple Micronutrient Supplement (MMS) prenatal vitamins,
Godot bans "autonomous AI agent use or vibe coded" contributions
Godot has updated its contribution policy and "take[n] steps" to reduce "demoralizing" AI contributions.
Stomach bug causing explosive diarrhea. How to reduce your risk
In the past nine days, health officials have diagnosed more than 170 people with cyclosporiasis, a diarrheal illness. It is considered an outbreak.
CMS proposes updates to home health payments for CY 2027, updates to provider enrollment and quality and value-based purchasing programs
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services July 1 issued its calendar year 2027 proposed rule for the home health prospective payment system. The rule proposes a 2.4% update, which includes a 3.1% market basket update, reduced by a 1.0 percentage point cut for productivity, as well as an 0.3 percentage point increase related to outlier payments. In addition, the agency proposes a temporary cut of 3.0% that it states is necessary to achieve budget-neutral implementation of the Patient-driven Groupings Model.
Scientists propose launching a giant 'airbag' into space to protect us from solar superstorms — and experts say it's 'quite feasible'
A new study suggests creating a satellite constellation, dubbed StormWall, that could reduce the impacts of the worst solar storms by more than 50%. The novel plan, which involves dumping gas into the magnetosphere, could be the only way to directly protect ourselves from dangerous space weather, experts say.
Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?
Can GLP-1 medications improve health in people with Type 2 diabetes and PAD?
Research Highlights: GLP-1RA (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist) medications, which are prescribed to treat Type 2 diabetes and to help with weight loss, were found to reduce the number of deaths, amputations and hospitalizations among people...
North Dakota opens wellness equipment funding opportunity for rural hospitals | Health and Human Services North Dakota
From fitness and recovery equipment to mindfulness tools and wellness spaces that help reduce burnout, North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) is investing in the health and well-being of rural healthcare workers through a new funding opportunity for rural hospitals.Applications are now open for the Hospital Wellness Equipment funding opportunity through the North Dakota Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), providing resources to help rural North Dakota hospitals create healthier workplaces and support the physical, mental and emotional well-being of their workforce.
Mayor Mamdani, NYC Health + Hospitals break ground on $255M River Commons, bringing 328 affordable affordable homes to the South Bronx
The city has broken ground on River Commons, a mixed-use development in Morrisania that will bring 328 affordable and supportive apartments, an expanded
America's national parks could add years to your life — here's how they boost health
National parks offer more than scenic views. Research shows trails and greenways boost physical activity, reduce stress and improve mental health.
PAHO expands health response as Venezuela faces mounting health risks after devastating earthquakes
Caracas, Venezuela/Washington, D.C., 30 June 2026 (PAHO) – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is expanding its support to Venezuela's Ministry of Health following the two powerful earthquakes that struck the country on 24 June, deploying technical experts, coordinating international Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), assessing damaged health facilities, and mobilizing emergency medical supplies to support lifesaving care and reduce the risk of disease outbreaks.
No more selling PlayStation hardware at "significant" loss, says Sony, as everyone braces for a PS6 console that costs over $1,000
Sony is seemingly no longer interested in subsidising the cost of its hardware to reduce the price for the end user.
Want to Feel Less Stressed or Anxious? Science Says Just Fake a Smile
Research shows a 20-second fake smile 'improves physiology during acute stress, improves stress recover, and reduces illness over time.' Can't beat that.
Iran’s leverage over Strait of Hormuz snarls Trump’s push for a deal
Washington and Tehran are back at the negotiating table after a fragile ceasefire. But experts remain skeptical the two sides are close to a nuclear deal, even as calm oil markets reduce pressure to reach one.
AI cuts hospital system's MRI wait times by more than 50%
The health network, which operates 37 hospitals in California, drastically reduced scheduling delays after integrating an FDA-cleared algorithm designed to speed up imaging acquisition times.
Science for Living: How acupuncture is earning its place in modern medicine
UMass Chan researchers discuss the growing evidence behind acupuncture’s role in modern integrative medicine and how it is helping to reduce chronic pain.
Healthy but Sedentary Individuals Show Early Decline in Cellular Energy Production
Healthy but Sedentary Individuals Show Early Decline in Cellular Energy Production
To reduce wait times, UVM Health is demanding its docs see more patients
A recent report commissioned by a state-appointed overseer largely blames long wait times on low productivity among the network’s doctors, and argues wait times also contribute to unnecessarily high prices.
Healthcare AI's next big leap: Removing friction from clinical workflows
Rather than just adding more applications, one CMIO says, organizations should focus on using automation and intelligence to eliminate unnecessary steps, reduce clinician burden and streamline care delivery.
America's lifespan has doubled since 1776
U.S. life expectancy has doubled since 1776 thanks to vaccines, antibiotics, sanitation and clean water that reduced infectious disease deaths.
Scientists Discover Ultrasound May Stop Arthritis Before It Starts
A new study suggests low-intensity ultrasound can influence immune cell behavior in ways that may reduce chronic inflammation and encourage tissue repair after joint injury.
Efzimfotase alfa demonstrated improvements in bone health in treatment-naïve pediatric patients with hypophosphatasia achieving median difference of 1.67 vs placebo in RGI-C Score at week 25 in MULBERRY Phase III trial
Positive results from the MULBERRY Phase III trial showed that efzimfotase alfa (ALXN1850), an investigational enzyme replacement therapy, demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in bone health in children (2 to
Rep. Ryan rejects rolling back of PFAS cleanup at Stewart air base
Pat Ryan, a Democrat who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District, says the Department of Defense is looking to reduce statutory reporting requirements for PFAS at military installations.
Only one workout helped older adults lose fat without losing muscle
A six-month study of more than 120 adults in their 70s found that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may offer a key advantage over other forms of exercise: it helped reduce body fat while preserving valuable muscle mass. While moderate and low-intensity workouts also led to some fat loss, only HIIT maintained lean muscle, which becomes increasingly important with age.
Only one workout helped older adults lose fat without losing muscle
A six-month study of more than 120 adults in their 70s found that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may offer a key advantage over other forms of exercise: it helped reduce body fat while preserving valuable muscle mass. While moderate and low-intensity workouts also led to some fat loss, only HIIT maintained lean muscle, which becomes increasingly important with age.
Deb Haaland Outlines Small Business Agenda in Address to Albuquerque Chamber
Native Vote 2026 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) on Thursday outlined her vision for making New Mexico more welcoming to entrepreneurs and small businesses during an address to the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, pledging to reduce regulatory barriers while investing in education, public safety, and economic development. Drawing on her own experience […]
Sweden and WHO launch new long-term initiative to transform Ukraine’s health system
WHO and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) have launched a new multi-year cooperation project to support the long-term recovery and transformation of Ukraine’s health system. The new project, “Ukraine’s Health System Transformation Initiative: Strengthening Health Governance, Health Financing and Service Delivery for Long-Term Recovery”, was launched at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 in Gdansk, Poland on 26 June, and will run from June 2026 to 2029. Sweden will contribute approximately US$ 26 million (240 million Swedish krona) to support this project. This contribution forms part of Sweden’s broader support to Ukraine through the Team Europe approach, which brings together the European Union, its Member States, and key partners such as the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood and Enabel, and WHO as lead health agency, to support Ukraine’s recovery, reform agenda and European integration.“Ukraine’s health recovery cannot be measured only by what is rebuilt, but by whether people can count on the health system when they need it most. The scale of the task is immense, with health reconstruction and modernization needs estimated at US$ 19.4 billion over the next decade. Sweden’s US$ 26 million contribution to Ukraine’s Health System Transformation Initiative is a timely investment in the institutions, financing and services that will support Ukraine’s long-term recovery and European integration. WHO remains a trusted partner of the Government of Ukraine in advancing this process. I am deeply grateful to Sweden for its consistent support and partnership,” said Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe. More than 4 years of war have placed unprecedented pressure on Ukraine’s health system, creating 3 interconnected challenges. The first is responding to the immediate consequences of the war and the urgent health needs of the population. The second is recovering and modernizing health services today. The third is continuing reforms and aligning the health system with European standards in the context of Ukraine’s future accession to the European Union. The war has led to large-scale population displacement, an increasing need for trauma care and rehabilitation, and shortages of health workers. High out-of-pocket payments in Ukraine make access to health services more difficult. Around 46% of total health expenditure is paid directly by individuals, placing a significant financial burden on many households and underscoring the need for reforms in health financing. Older people, persons with disabilities, women, children and veterans continue to face the greatest difficulties in accessing health services. “Ukraine is demonstrating that health system transformation can continue even during war. Ukraine is also continuing to align its health system with European norms and standards. WHO is committed to supporting Ukraine on this journey. We provide technical support, help coordinate partners’ efforts and support the institutional changes needed to strengthen the system. We are grateful to Sweden for its support. Through this partnership, we can help Ukraine build a more resilient, accessible and people-centred health system,” said Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine. About the Health System Transformation InitiativeThe new initiative will support Ukraine through 3 interconnected areas: strengthening governance and coordination of health sector reforms through more inclusive coordination platforms and structured policy dialogue; transforming service delivery by reinforcing a primary health care-centred model that integrates family medicine, nursing and midwifery; and improving financial sustainability by supporting reforms that ensure the long-term viability of the national health system and reduce out-of-pocket payments for households. Overall, these reforms are expected to make the health system more coherent and easier to navigate, improve the quality and continuity of care, and ensure more equitable access to services, particularly for those who need them most. They will also support Ukraine’s progress towards a more modern health system aligned with European standards. “We are convinced that long-term recovery is not possible without strong, high-quality, person-centred health services that are accessible to everyone. Our partnership with WHO is designed to support deep and lasting systemic changes. Investments in human capital especially autonomous midwives, whose role for maternal, newborn and adolescent sexual and reproductive health cannot be understated, stronger governance, digital transformation and the financial sustainability of the health system are investments in Ukraine’s future. We are proud to support this process,” said Malin Perhult, the Head of the Ukraine Unit at Sida. Focus throughout implementation will be given to the most vulnerable population groups, including older people, women and children, and persons with disabilities, who have been affected by the war and face greater health-care needs. The initiative will be implemented in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the National Health Service of Ukraine, the Public Health Centre of Ukraine, regional authorities and international partners. This project will help Ukraine move towards a system where everyone can access the health care they need. It will strengthen primary care, make the health finance system more stable and predictable, and reduce the out-of-pocket costs that Ukrainians face when using health services. As a result, the Ukrainian health system will become more aligned with European standards and more sustainable in the long run.
Joint statement – WHO/Europe and CCEE to collaborate on addressing health inequities and loneliness
WHO/Europe and the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) officially signed a Letter of Intent on 23 June to establish a strategic partnership for promoting pan-European dialogue to reduce inequities, enabling every child and adult to live in health, safety and dignity.
Making Our Own Luck
We are cross-posting a piece that former NIH official Kris Willis wrote for Macroscience. Kris is now the President and Founder of the Woodley Park Institute, for which I’m a board member. Picking winners or hedging bets? Federal science agencies have long wrestled with the question of how to ensure their billions of dollars of grants and contracts result in maximum benefits for Americans. On the surface, it might seem that a goal-oriented, interventionist style of management would be the best policy: prioritize our most pressing problems and distribute funding accordingly.This top-down strategy creates a unique hazard, though: bad choices can send resources in the wrong direction, resulting in slow progress that impedes the delivery of tangible benefits to citizens. Moreover, if decision makers pursue an applied advance when the underlying scientific principles remain poorly understood, they risk costly failures and a loss of support for the research enterprise at large. Examples include Nixon’s 1971 War on Cancer, undertaken on the premise that a cure could be achieved in less than a decade, the drive to build an operational commercial fusion plant by the mid-1990s, and the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease, which failed to produce the effective treatments and prevention strategies promised by 2025. The contrasting laissez-faire approach is to hedge your bets. If the path to an advance is impossible to predict, then the wisest choice might be to distribute funding to as widely as possible. The main risk of this strategy is that spreading funding thinly may limit the resources available to the most promising research, resulting in the same negative outcomes as the interventionist approach: limited support for the most promising topics, slow progress, and delayed returns. In reality, at science agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, program managers navigate between these two extremes, setting some funds aside to target high-priority areas and using the rest to cover the widest possible range of meritorious proposals. This middle path seems like the most rational way to proceed, but it still requires making choices. How much should be set aside for high priority topics? What should those topics be? How should we define merit? Expert opinion can provide a helpful guide, but leading experts can have remarkably different opinions about what matters and what should be prioritized. Moreover, experts and administrators alike can be risk averse, giving an edge to high-profile, well-established concepts. What’s really needed is a data-driven framework to help guide decision-making, one that doesn’t simply repackage prestige or incumbency. Recognizing breakthroughs years in advance Many breakthroughs fail to attract funding or recognition at the earliest stages of development. Katalin Karikó, for example, spent years struggling to win grants for work on mRNA that would eventually win her and Drew Weissman a Nobel Prize. Similar stories can be told about Jim Allison’s groundbreaking studies leading to the development of cancer immunotherapy, Stan Pruisner’s demonstration that prions can self-replicate without DNA, or Robin Warren and Barry Marshall’s proof that Helicobacter pylori, not stress, causes ulcers. Yet at some point, the scientific community recognizes and responds to transformative breakthroughs like these. How does that change happen? And what if science funders could identify the areas that are on the cusp of a breakthrough? Those questions led my collaborators and me to study how scientists responded to past breakthroughs. Based on patterns in that data, we developed a means of predicting future breakthroughs, using biomedicine as a proof of concept. It’s worth taking a moment to describe how our approach works. Briefly, our prediction process begins by grouping the 18 million or so peer-reviewed papers in PubMed, the authoritative database of biomedical research, into roughly 50,000 unique topics. A small subset of these topics are so widely acclaimed as breakthroughs that they have been recognized with a major prize like a Nobel or a Lasker Award. We theorized that studying the development of these outliers over time, especially before they gained acclaim, was the key to identifying future instances of them. After defining topics, we chose 21 representative breakthroughs and asked what they looked like before they won prestigious prizes. To answer that question, we re-ran our topic-mapping algorithm repeatedly, winding back the clock one year each time, stringing together the years to follow the progress of each field as it grew and advanced. We found that in each case, the years leading up to a discovery followed a pattern: a burst of papers on a new, rapidly evolving topic, many of which quickly became influential. These characteristics—the percent of papers that are new, the percentage of papers that are brought in from other topics, and the influence of each individual paper—can all be measured separately for any given topic. Together, they act as a predictive signal that is detectable an average of five years before a transformative discovery is made, and up to thirty years before the discovery receives a major prize. Scanning the current research landscape for topics that display this signal allows us to predict what work will likely produce a future breakthrough. Each year we analyzed includes four or five signals, a number that appears to have remained constant across a twenty year time frame. In their classic work on the sociology of science, Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar established that the desire to participate in a major discovery is an important motivator for scientists as they consider whether they should take up (or abandon) a research problem. Although further work is needed, the simplest explanation for our results is that this behavior is widespread enough to detect at scale. A foundational advance, or something like it, draws the attention of scientists and causes them to change the direction of their research. They vote with their feet, staking their own reputation and careers by publishing on and citing the new idea. That upswell of interest is the foundation of our breakthrough signal. What kind of research does our model identify as a breakthrough? After building a model based on the patterns in our 21 preselected breakthroughs, we tested it by identifying all early signals of discovery from 1994 through 1997. Of the 18 signals we found in that time period, 17 can be traced forward in time to a breakthrough. Examples include super-resolution fluorescence microscopy (see the image above), the directed evolution of proteins and enzymes (Chemistry Nobel, 2018), and sequencing the human genome (National Medal of Science, 2008). The discovery of the role of leptin signaling in obesity is a particularly interesting case study. Around 1950, scientists noticed the existence of a type of lab mouse that suffered from a unique inherited form of obesity. When given the freedom to choose their own diet, these mice ate more than normal and preferred food that was high in fat. Researchers had few clues as to why the animals overate; early experiments pointed to the existence of a soluble ob factor found circulating in the bloodstream that regulated appetite, but its identity was unknown. In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman and colleagues identified and sequenced the ob gene, noting that the protein it encoded appeared to fit the profile of a circulating factor. A year later, a trio of high-profile publications demonstrated that ob was a hormone that regulated body weight and fat deposition by regulating appetite. One of these was co-authored by Friedman, who christened it leptin from the ancient Greek word for thin. Using our model, the data from 1996 make it clear this advance would become a breakthrough. Scientists had flocked to study the biology of the new hormone, generating the flurry of new papers and citations required to produce a signal. One of these demonstrated that serum leptin concentrations reflected the amount of adipose tissue in the human body, providing clinical validation of the earlier mouse studies. Before the identification of leptin, scientists were unable to point to a specific molecule that controlled appetite and adiposity, so that it was impossible to rule out non-physiological causes of obesity; its characterization fundamentally changed our concept of weight gain. In 2010, Friedman and fellow pioneer Douglas Coleman were awarded a Lasker for the discovery. Our work also identifies breakthroughs in clinical practice and behavioral and social sciences, even though these areas are less likely to draw the attention of major prize committees. One example that falls into this category is the introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair, a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, a leading cause of death among Americans over the age of 65. Relative to the previous standard of care, it reduces in-hospital mortality by almost four-fold. In 2017, Timothy Chuter received the American College of Surgeons’ prestigious Jacobsen Innovation award for his multiple refinements to the technique. Another under-recognized breakthrough identified by our model is the development of standardized survey instruments to assess the quality of life for HIV+ patients. The antiretroviral cocktails introduced in the mid-1990s reduced AIDS mortality, but treatment came with serious side effects. The new evaluations showed that patients whose disease progressed had worse physical functioning than Americans with other chronic diseases, while those who were asymptomatic maintained a health-related quality of life on par with the overall US population. This evidence made it possible for patients and activists to argue that even in the absence of a total cure, and in spite of the side effects, alleviation of symptoms was a worthwhile priority for clinicians. My colleagues and I have failed to identify any significant recognition for the physicians and health policy experts who pioneered this advance, although in 2016, researchers called for the World Health Organization to set targets for good health-related quality of life as part of its framework to end the AIDS pandemic. From forecasting to funding How should science funders use our predictions? Any serious discussion of what we should do with this new capability needs to begin with an understanding of its limitations. We can’t (and shouldn’t) invest all of our resources in the small number of topics predicted to produce breakthroughs. Innovative new fields are born from existing ones; they rarely arise de novo. If funders don’t maintain a diverse portfolio, the breakthroughs of tomorrow will have no antecedents. Think of this as eating the seed corn, or killing the goose that lays the golden egg. There are also multiple goals of funding beyond basic scientific discovery, including translating discoveries into clinical practice, developing new technologies, supporting economic development, and training new scientists. The investments needed to accomplish these goals are likely different from those required to support emerging breakthroughs. Finally, we must be aware that we may not capture every instance of a breakthrough. The concept is fuzzy, and not every significant discovery is recognized with a major award. Further, breakthroughs are rare, meaning that our dataset is, by necessity, small. This makes formal estimates of accuracy challenging. Although our overall success rate appears to be high, any one signal may turn out to be a false positive. We found one apparent example: the development of the third generation COX-2 inhibitors, Vioxx and Celebrex, which were much celebrated in the early 2000s as effective but non-addictive pain relievers, meets all the algorithmic criteria of a breakthrough. Five years after it received FDA approval, researchers demonstrated that Vioxx was associated with serious cardiovascular complications, and the manufacturer voluntarily pulled the drug from the market. Celebrex remains available, although like other NSAIDs, it carries an FDA warning for increased cardiovascular risk. Decision makers who were overly focused on the breakthrough potential of this research might have wasted substantial resources nurturing an area that ultimately proved to be a failure—but so would those who relied on expert opinion at the time. That said, the potential benefits of funding the next mRNA vaccine or cancer immunotherapy years earlier than we might have are large. When we can’t assume the outcome of an action, it’s worth conducting an experiment. Can targeted support for areas that are poised to produce a breakthrough increase the return on scientific investment without cannibalizing future advances? With the necessary administrative infrastructure in place, conducting this experiment would be straightforward. First, identify all the breakthrough signals between 2018 and 2023, select half at random, and commit to a decade of investment. For biomedicine, a six year window should yield about 30 topics with the potential to produce a breakthrough. Providing strong support to half of these might be accomplished for $300 million a year. That’s roughly half of the recent annual budget of the NIH Common Fund or around 20% of the fiscal year 2025 budget for ARPA-H. After five years, then again at ten, compare to see which group — the one that was actively managed, or the control — produced more breakthroughs, and on what timescale. Although we used biomedicine as an example, the same experiment could just as well be run for physics, materials science, or any other discipline. Any attempt to undertake such an experiment should keep three points top of mind. First, we can predict the topic of future breakthroughs, but the people and vision for how to move the work forward are still important. In practice, this means success requires active program managers with the expertise to develop the science and the authority to do so, including by recruiting investigators. Second, we would be wise to learn from the failures of past attempts to fund transformative research. High among these are funding modestly repackaged work, confusing the genuinely novel with the merely unfamiliar, and relying too much on incumbent investigators. All of these risks can be mitigated by thoroughly and intelligently integrating high quality data into portfolio management. Finally, we need to have patience. Even with strong funding support, producing a breakthrough takes time. If supporting breakthroughs is the best way to nurture the birth of new fields, we also need to accurately describe and properly manage the other two stages, so that we invest wisely throughout the productive lifetime of ideas and divest once they reach the point of diminishing returns. We would benefit from more study of all of these phases, especially the transition from one to another. More research could answer questions like: When does a breakthrough become an established field? How do the availability of funding, the size and characteristics of the available workforce, and the accumulation of evidence that disagrees with prevailing models affect a field’s decline? Exactly how do old ideas give birth to new ones, and can we speed up the process? The more we understand about the dynamics of scientific progress, the better we can maximize the odds that our curiosity leads to results. I’d call that finding a way to make our own luck.
Ormond Beach businesses push drivers to slow down on Granada Boulevard
Downtown Ormond Beach businesses are taking matters into their own hands after drivers continue to ignore a reduced speed limit on Granada Boulevard — nearly a year after the change took effect.
Roundup: Shift in NIL / BlackBerry transitions / Agriculture aid
More inclusive: A recent NCAA rule change is shifting name, image and likeness opportunities away from only the biggest star athletes to a wider range of student-athletes. The update gives schools more structured involvement in managing and facilitating NIL deals, which reduces some of the previous free-for-all environment. As a result, athletes who are not […]
Participating in heavy-contact youth sports, dropping out of sports linked to acts of violence
Contrary to popular belief, simply playing organized youth sports does not reduce the likelihood of committing violence in one’s lifetime, and in some cases, may increase it, according to a new study.The study, published online recently in the Sociology of Sport Journal, found that while most survey respondents — including those who played y...
Another look at carrots and eyesight; how to get more fiber; why mosquitoes bite some people and not others; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources
AARP reporter Stacey Colino interviewed Milam Brantley, MD, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, in 2020 for a story about whether eating carrots can improve vision. Sacramento Bee reporter Samantha Agate has now used Brantley’s comments in an AI-curated story created by content specialists on the same topic that has been picked up by MSN and others. Prevention magazine interviewed Heidi Silver, RD, PhD, Founding Director of the Vanderbilt Diet, Body Composition, and Human Metabolism Core, for a story about the importance of fiber and how people can get more of it in their diet. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: Women’s Health (tick bites and alpha-gal syndrome); The Washington Post (tetanus); and Healthline (why mosquitoes prefer to bite some people and leave others alone). A visit to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt by some Banana Ball baseball players was covered by The Tennessean and WZTV Fox 17 News, and The Tennessean’s story was also picked up by Yahoo! Sports. Clarksville Now published a story written by the Montgomery County Economic Development Team, whointerviewed Bradley Stancombe, MD, professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Neonatology, about the new energy of Vanderbilt Clarksville Hospital and how the facility is recruiting physicians. Healio Allergy/Asthma group editorial director Richard Gawel interviewed Mark Rolfsen, MD, Clinical Fellow in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, for a story about his presentation at the American Thoracic Society meeting on metal health outcomes following ICU discharge. Nashville Scene reporter Hannah Herner interviewed James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, for a story about his efforts to prepare for the next pandemic by isolating antibodies that can neutralize dangerous viruses. Medscape reporter Kathleen Doheny interviewed Neesha Choma, Associate Chief of Staff of Vanderbilt University Hospital, for a story about how hospitals can reduce readmissions.
An Update from PlayStation Studios
Below is an internal email from Hermen Hulst, CEO, Studio Business Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment distributed today to SIE employees. ********************************************************************************** Dear Team, Today I want to share a difficult update regarding Bungie. We have made the decision to reduce Bungie’s workforce, affecting a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members. There are also reductions across SIE teams that support […]
GLP-1 and reduced cancer risk discovery earns UT Health San Antonio fellow prestigious Helio NextGen Disruptor Award
Colton Frisco Jones, MD, a 2nd-year fellow at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio), recently earned the prestigious Healio NextGen Disruptor Award at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2026 annual meeting in Chicago.
Regenerative Agriculture and Population Health
Regenerative agriculture can enhance food quality and reduce harmful exposures through improved soil biology, biodiversity, and ecosystem health, yielding downstream benefits for agriculture, food systems, and human health. It may improve profitability through greater land resilience and lower input costs and may deliver benefits to farms, farmers, communities, and the broader environment. More research is warranted to understand the full range of potential health benefits of regenerative agriculture.
Imaging-related burdens may be keeping some from completing cancer screenings
Targeted interventions could help reduce pre-test anxiety, improve the physical screening experience, and address structural barriers in underserved settings.
Lane County health centers plan cuts to address projected budget deficits
The Community Health Centers of Lane County announced plans to reduce expenses and restructure operations as it works to address projected budget deficits drive
5 foods that contain both protein and fiber
With these sweet-spot foods you get both the protein perks, like muscle maintenance, and the fiber perks, like improved gut health and reduced risks of chronic conditions, all in one bite.
Service meets science: Meet the first graduate of UAB’s Master of Science in AI in Medicine
UAB’s first graduate of the M.S. in AI in Medicine program blends clinical training with artificial intelligence, highlighting how physicians can use AI to reduce burnout, improve patient care and shape the future of healthcare.
EU Proposes Tax Simplification Measures in Bid to Boost Business
The European Union unveiled a new package to overhaul the bloc’s tax rules on Wednesday, the latest effort by Brussels to cut red tape and reduce the regulatory burden on business.
A record heat wave is gripping Europe. Could hemp make homes cooler and greener?
Hemp is a natural building material that advocates say could help keep buildings cool, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Valve admits Steam Machine is "more expensive" than it hoped
The PC giant is non-commital on whether the console's price will come down in the future if hardware costs reduce
A review argues the family dog may become science’s unlikely ally against autism
This peer-reviewed Perspective synthesizes a decade of research on a surprising candidate for autism science: the laboratory Beagle. Drawing together scattered studies, the review authors argue that dogs carrying engineered changes in the Shank3 gene reproduce core human features of autism spectrum disorder, including social withdrawal, altered sensory responses, and reduced attention to the eyes of a face. The synthesis assembles, for the first time in one place, the parallels between mutant dogs and autistic people, alongside early signals that oxytocin, a psychedelic, and a third compound may soften these traits. The authors frame the dog as a complementary, ethically governed model, not a replacement for existing ones.
Israeli Soldiers Fatally Shoot 2 People in Southern Lebanon, Health Officials Say
The shooting came a day after Israeli troops began operating under new orders intended to reduce the risk of flare-ups in its conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Covid vaccine study the acting CDC director blocked is published in an outside journal
The findings suggest that Covid vaccines reduced the likelihood of severe illness last fall and winter.
CDC’s chief blocked a covid vaccine study. Now it’s in a top medical journal.
The study found that the vaccine reduced the risk of emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half last winter.
Business travel buyers look to AI for help managing disruption
Separate surveys from Business Travel Show Europe and TravelTech Show highlight growing investment in artificial intelligence as travel companies look to manage disruption, improve traveler experiences and reduce costs.
Health officials launch clinical trial reforms to counter China threat
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday launched a new initiative to speed up early-stage clinical trials as part of an effort to reduce development timelines and reverse a growing trend o…
Kenosha schools consider cutting sports, 40 teaching positions to address $17M deficit
The Kenosha Unified School District is weighing several options to reduce its expected $17 million budget deficit if a planned November referendum fails.
Scientists have designed a clay that can prevent fruits and vegetables from rotting too quickly
The gas ethylene causes fruit and vegetables to ripen faster and is responsible for millions of tons of food being lost annually during transport and storage. Now researchers from the University of Copenhagen, among others, have succeeded in getting clay to collect the gas and hope that the material can help reduce food waste in the long term.
France restricts public drinking and outdoor sports as heat wave bakes parts of Europe
France is in the grips of a severe heat wave, leading to canceled trains, concerts and sports events. Authorities have banned public drinking in “red alert” zones to reduce risks.
Ann Arbor seeks business input for plan to reduce waste, boost sustainability
The city’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations has launched a digital survey to gather feedback on its emerging Circular Economy Action Plan.
Stanislaus County OKs new mental health plan, prepares for state monitoring
County officials hope the plan increases access to care and serves to reduce homelessness, relieve burden on the criminal justice system and reduce untreated mental illness.
Scientists found a cannabis compound that relieves pain without the high
Compounds responsible for the aroma of cannabis and many other plants may offer a surprising new way to relieve chronic pain. Researchers found that several cannabis-derived terpenes significantly reduced pain in mouse models of fibromyalgia and post-surgical pain, with one terpene, geraniol, showing especially strong effects. Unlike THC, these compounds are not associated with psychoactive effects, making them a potentially attractive alternative for pain treatment.
First US patient enrolled in device study to reduce coronary microvascular dysfunction
The self-expanding A-Flux device is implanted in the coronary sinus to increase pressure on the venous side of the heart and improve perfusion in smaller vessels.
Mu-g Technologies enters the parabolic flight business
A startup has acquired an aircraft to offer commercial parabolic flight services even as NASA seeks to acquire its own aircraft for reduced-gravity flights.
Bourbon reps push for tariff reduction ahead of trade talks with India
Liquor industry leaders want U.S.-India trade talks to further reduce tariffs on spirits, including bourbon, to boost exports.
Scientists reprogram brain immune cells to fight Alzheimer’s
A newly identified molecule called OLE helped restore the brain’s immune cells to a more protective state in Alzheimer’s models. The treatment reduced toxic plaque buildup and improved memory, raising hopes for a new therapeutic approach.
Michigan’s aging brains need more protection, poll shows
Lifestyle changes can reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia but a poll shows many Michiganders over 50 don’t know about or do them.
Michigan’s aging brains need more protection, poll shows
Lifestyle changes can reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia but a poll shows many Michiganders over 50 don’t know about or do them.