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Ad ASTRA Community Workshop Detailed Schedule Available
Detailed Schedule for the Ad ASTRA Community Workshop, 1-3 Sept 2026, now available.
LMH Health, KU and others form Astra Health with goals of reducing costs, expanding access
LMH Health, the KU Health System and three other Kansas health systems have joined forces to form Astra Health, a collaboration aiming to improve care, reduce costs and better serve rural communities.
Why Sustainability Is a Business Strategy, Not a Nice-to-Have for AstraZeneca
A fireside chat with AstraZeneca's Dafni Kika at ISPE MAST Showcase made the case that decarbonization, AI, and people-centered leadership are converging into one operating...
Brazil: Lessons from a Disaster
By Antonio Martins (Outras Palavras) Defeats become deeper and more prolonged when we misunderstand what caused them, avoid correcting course, and embrace “solutions” that only compound our mistakes. Lula’s government and the Brazilian left suffered a disaster in Sunday’s election. Contrary to every poll, the president finished the first round 2.2 million votes behind Flávio Bolsonaro—and, more significantly, 3.4 million votes below his total four years ago, when the machinery of the state was working against him and in favor of his opponent. His vote share declined in 98 percent of Brazil’s municipalities. The PL, the main party of the far right, elected 121 deputies and 28 senators, becoming the largest caucus in both houses of Congress. The parties aligned with the Centrão—Brazil’s bloc of transactional center-right parties—were somewhat diminished, but will still hold roughly 250 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 35 in the Senate. That will make it easier to assemble the majorities needed to amend the Constitution or impeach Supreme Federal Court justices. If elected, Flávio Bolsonaro could appoint four members of the Court, substantially altering its internal balance of power. What produced these results? How can the far right be prevented from consolidating them into a prolonged political hegemony? And what is the essential change of direction the left now needs? Explaining the Disaster Across the commercial media and the exuberant chaos of digital platforms, interpretations are multiplying. Some focus on specific episodes: Lula’s absence from the Globo debate, his very close relationship with Alexandre de Moraes, or his emphasis on issues supposedly remote from most people’s everyday concerns, such as rare earth minerals. Among the more systemic interpretations, three seem especially questionable. One argues that the principal defeat was not the left’s, since its congressional representation declined only slightly. The decisive movement captured at the ballot box, according to this view, was a shift within the right itself—from the more moderate and transactional forces of the Centrão toward the more ideological and radicalized forces of the PL and Novo. A second interpretation holds that the nature of electoral and political processes has changed. The material interests and aspirations of society, it argues, no longer play the central role they once did; they have given way to forms of subjective self-identification that the left has yet to understand. And a third concludes that, because of these two developments, we should expect a political winter: a prolonged period in which the far right and the broader right dominate Brazilian political life. There are important elements in all three interpretations. The problem lies in what they deny or leave out: Lula’s third government was a small-bore government. It offered the majorities that elected it neither a clearly better life nor reasons to believe again in politics and its power to transform society. These failures flowed from two fatal accommodations, which I will examine below. As a result, the government suffered a slow but steady erosion of support. And, as has happened in so many Western countries, it gave the far right the opportunity to present itself as anti-system and to benefit from popular frustration and distress. The interpretation that emphasizes the migration of votes from the center-right and traditional right toward the far right has been advanced, among others, by the courageous journalist Leonardo Sakamoto. In his UOL column on Monday, October 5, he highlights the miserable behavior of the traditional conservative parties. Over the past four years, they repeatedly joined forces with the “neo”-fascists, helping to “normalize” them—a criticism that could equally be directed at almost the entire corporate media. Believing they could use the far right as a stepping stone, they instead ended up partly devoured by it. This was especially true in the Senate, where the PL’s gain of 13 senators and Novo’s gain of two came at the expense of the PSD, which lost nine; the MDB, which lost two; the PSDB, which lost two; and the PP, which lost one. Sakamoto’s observation is accurate and necessary, but it leaves uncomfortable questions unanswered. Why did the erosion of the Centrão benefit the far right rather than, for example, producing growth for the left—as has happened so many times before, both in Brazil and elsewhere? The answer is not difficult. Throughout its four years in office, Lula’s third government was almost invariably associated with the Centrão. Here lies its first accommodation: accepting the limits imposed by conservative institutions; avoiding, as much as possible, any attempt to strain those limits through popular pressure; and believing only in the modest changes that could be squeezed through openings in Congress. The failure of the campaign to end the six-day workweek is emblematic. Lula could have electrified the presidential race by pairing it with a popular campaign for passage of the measure. Instead, he chose to place his hopes in the hands of Senate president Rodrigo Alcolumbre. He generated no mass mobilization, did not force his opponents onto an uncomfortable defensive, and won no victory. In September 2025, the government squandered the greatest of its many opportunities to shake up conservative power in Congress. Popular opposition to the so-called Shielding Amendment—which, if approved, would have restricted criminal proceedings against members of Congress—brought crowds into the streets, mobilized primarily by artists and social movements. This opened the possibility for a broader political education: a campaign that could begin exposing the limits and dysfunctions of Brazil’s political system while putting Bolsonaro’s movement on the defensive for its predictable support of political privilege. The amendment was defeated. But the executive branch then backed away from the fight. It remained associated with an institutional world widely seen as corrupt, elitist, and indifferent to ordinary people’s struggles. In doing so, it forfeited its credibility as a vehicle for the protest vote. On Sunday, it reaped the bitter fruits. Are We Doomed? Taking a different approach from Sakamoto, the philosopher Moysés Pinto Neto and other writers have drawn attention, in their first analyses of October 4, to the fragmentation of the public sphere produced by Big Tech platforms. Through their algorithms, these platforms present each person with a different view of social reality. As a consequence, it becomes much harder to identify common material problems and demands—for example, the fight for labor rights or for a properly funded public health system. Voters no longer embrace such demands, these authors argue, because they no longer see themselves as part of a collective. Instead, they tend to value the identities assigned to them by neoliberal subjectivity—the role of the entrepreneur, for example. On this interpretation, the left’s possible error lies in clinging to outdated illusions. Moysés’s warning is highly relevant and resonates with arguments such as Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor’s “Apocalyptic Fascism and the Billionaires’ Bet.” Unlike a century ago, the far right no longer promises a radiant future. It concentrates instead on resentment—especially that of young men. “They belong to a generation that fears it may never own a home, but compensates with the pleasure it gets from constantly provoking progressives online. Convinced their future has been stolen, they share memes romanticizing historical authoritarian regimes,” the authors write. But Moysés seems to confuse this danger with inevitability. He fails to see that the left’s answer cannot be adaptation. On the contrary, it must strengthen the possibility of politics as collective action. Nor does he recognize that precisely such a reversal is already becoming possible in some of the most promising mobilizations of the twenty-first century: the election, at the end of 2025, of the young Muslim Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, on a platform centered on the intensely material fight for an affordable city; the Left Party’s victory in Berlin two weeks ago, built around the demand to expropriate private real-estate corporations; and the very recent wave of demonstrations in Spain—including an occupation of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol—in which tens of thousands of young people mobilized by the Tenants’ Union have demanded limits on rents. By putting itself in the straitjacket of the “fiscal framework” in the first months of 2022, Lula’s third government adopted the second fatal accommodation of its term. Faced with conservative institutions and a country devastated by four years of Bolsonaro, increased public investment was the government’s remaining weapon for offering a more dignified life to the majority and forging an anti-conservative pact with them. The same state that disburses 1 trillion reais a year to enrich a small class of rentiers could instead spend money to extend the Family Health Strategy to every Brazilian, at a cost of 30 billion reais; provide full-day public schooling and childcare to all adolescents and children—and, especially, relief to their mothers; achieve universal sanitation while cleaning up polluted urban rivers; multiply metro systems; begin transforming the urban peripheries; and undertake many other urgently needed projects. In April 2023, an article in Outras Palavras warned that the fiscal framework could “shrink the Lula government and preserve the forces that condemn the country to inequality and regression.” A year later, another article showed that restraints on public spending were strangling policies vital to ordinary people and undermining the president’s popularity. In November 2024 came a reality check, in the form of the government’s humiliating defeat in the municipal elections. Even then, the fiscal lock was neither removed nor loosened. On the contrary: throughout the government’s four years, fiscal restraint remained central to its political narrative. The administration proudly proclaimed that it had “put the state’s accounts in order,” without grasping either how misleading that phrase was—given the payment of 1 trillion reais in interest—or how badly the message was hurting it politically. Lula finally woke up in September 2026. The increase in Bolsa Família benefits, after four years of being frozen; the announcement that anti-obesity drugs would be offered through Brazil’s public health system; and the ban on online betting showed that the state has the power to act decisively on behalf of the majority when those in government are willing to confront obstacles. The huge marches that closed the campaign in Fortaleza, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo on the eve of October 4 showed how such initiatives can mobilize activists and the broader public. But it was too late—and too little to change the outcome of the first round. History has not ended The possibility of a turnaround in the three weeks leading up to November 25 cannot be ruled out. It will not be simple or easy. Lula must not only make up a deficit of 2.2 million votes; he must also offset the movement of voters who backed other right-wing candidates in the first round, most of whom are likely to move toward Flávio Bolsonaro. Pulling that off will require a broad, grassroots effort to win over voters, potentially reinforced by new initiatives from Lula. The coming hours and days will be decisive. If Bolsonaro’s movement also wins the presidency, the result will create a high-risk situation for Brazilian sovereignty and democracy. The enormous challenges posed by such an outcome would require the left to reexamine, in depth and with a genuine willingness to engage in self-criticism, its political projects—or its lack of them—and its practices. But would that mean we are condemned to the long winter of far-right hegemony that some analyses are beginning to forecast? It is far too early to say, suggests a recent text by Álvaro García Linera, the thinker who served as vice president of Bolivia under Evo Morales. His central hypothesis is that this political current will prove short-lived. At a moment when the entire world is once again talking about sovereignty and protecting national economies, the far right offers a stale, recolonizing neoliberalism. Its submission to the United States is as blatant and pathetic as Flávio and Eduardo Bolsonaro’s overtures to Donald Trump. Its project amounts to something like every man for himself: greater inequality, capitalism without limits, devastation, and supremacism. Will it work? In the United States, just two years into his second term, Trump himself is reaching record levels of unpopularity and may be on the verge of losing Republican control of both the House and Senate in November. Every new beginning is difficult. Whatever the outcome of the second round, the defeats of October 4 show how profoundly the Brazilian left will have to rethink and rebuild. But just as it would be foolish to underestimate the seriousness of its mistakes, it would be equally foolish to conclude that rebuilding a political project is no longer possible. History has not ended. The times are moving faster than ever. Originally published in Portuguese by Outras Palavras. English translation by Eric Blanc; I’ve added the subtitles. More We can’t stop the far right at home or abroad without a revitalized labor movement, which is yet another reason why you should become a sustaining supporter of the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) — one of US labor’s pivotal bright spots. Relatedly, Jacobin published a short piece of mine reflecting on a decade of Bernie Sanders inspiring a whole new generation of young worker organizers.
Finastra Sells Core Banking Business to Focus on Payments and Lending
Private capital asset manager Pollen Street plans to acquire Finastra’s global core banking software business, Universal Banking (UB), and support UB as
StartUp Hutch Announces Latest Rural Business Microgrant Awards - Ad Astra Radio
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — September 21, 2026 — StartUp Hutch has awarded two additional Rural Business Resilience & Expansion Initiative Microgrants to businesses in Arlington. The latest recipients are: Francisco Villanueva, Carolyn’s Essenhaus Destiny Love, Farmers Insurance The Rural Business Resilience & Expansion Initiative Microgrant program provides grants of […]
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on AstraZeneca, TD Cowen, EBR Systems and more in the latest Market Talks covering Health Care.
Astrana Health (ASTH) Rebound Meets A Narrative That Still Sees Undervalued Shares
Astrana Health (ASTH) has been under the spotlight since rebranding from Apollo Medical Holdings in February 2024, with investors now weighing its three-segment healthcare model against recent share price swings. Recent trading paints a mixed picture for Astrana Health. The 1-day share price return of 5.60% and 7-day gain of 5.85% come after a 90-day share price decline of 19.23%. The 1-year total shareholder return of 22.54% contrasts with a 5-year total shareholder loss of 59.33%,...
Vikas Sehdev: Starting a New Chapter as Senior Medical Science Liaison at BioNTech SE
Vikas Sehdev: Starting a New Chapter as Senior Medical Science Liaison at BioNTech SE / AstraZeneca, BioNTech SE, cancer, OncoDaily, Oncology, Vikas Sehdev
An AI couldn’t beat humans at StarCraft, so it decided to cheat
When GPT-6 Astra’s own bot failed, it simply downloaded the best human-made bot instead.
England to cover AstraZeneca breast cancer drug, a result of U.K.-U.S. drug pricing deal
A breast cancer drug from AstraZeneca will now be available in England after a pricing deal was reached, in part a result of the U.S.-U.K. pharma pact.
This RNA Almost Self-Replicates, Which Could Explain Life's Origins
We're so close to understanding.
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche Holding and more in the latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector.
BT Adastral Park: The Suffolk science park that changed the world
The park is behind several significant telecommunication world firsts.
'Gaza is a moral tear in the universe' – Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor speak to Radical Thinking, a new series from the Guardian with Aditya Chakrabortty
Revealed: New Warhammer 40,000 novels
New Black Library fiction inbound featuring the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes.
FTSE 100 rises as AstraZeneca lifts healthcare sector
London's FTSE 100 rose on Tuesday, lifted by pharmaceutical stocks after AstraZeneca agreed to take a $2 billion stake in Summit Therapeutics to advance cancer research.
ADHA shifts My Health Record to multi-supplier ops as Accenture signs new 3-year contract
ADHA moves My Health Record to a multi-supplier model as Accenture renews for three years. GPT‑6 Astra and HIMSS cyber warnings raise new governance work for CI
UF Astraeus faculty help shape national science strategy for human exploration of Mars
UF Astraeus Space Institute faculty filled key leadership roles in a a major National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report.
Adobe Firefly now supports prompt-based video editing, adds more third-party models
Adobe is updating its AI video-generation app, Firefly, with a new video editor that supports precise prompt-based edits, as well as adding new third-party models for image and video generation, including Black Forest Labs' FLUX.2 and Topaz Astra.
NASA Field-Tests AI Fleet Capability for Science, Exploration
In this field test, a fleet of three robots worked together, and researchers assessed the fleet’s ability to act like an independent science team.
Astrana Health Notifies SEC About Social Engineering Incident
Astrana Health, a managed services organization that helps healthcare providers deliver value-based, coordinated care to patients, has notified the U.S. Astrana Health, a managed services organization that helps healthcare providers deliver value-based, coordinated care to patients, has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about a social engineering incident that exposed patient, employee, and provider information.
Nabil Chehab: “What Science Can Do” - Advancing Next-Generation Cell Therapies
Nabil Chehab: “What Science Can Do” - Advancing Next-Generation Cell Therapies / AstraZeneca, cancer, Cell Therapy, Nabil Chehab, OncoDaily, Oncology
Astrana Health (ASTH) Stock Could Look Fully Priced On New Multi State Partnership
Astrana Health has delivered a strong run in 2026, and with the share price closing at US$37.55, the key issue for you is whether those gains are backed by the company’s earnings power. A year to date return of 48.9% puts Astrana Health’s valuation question front and center, because such a move can quickly change how its earnings are being priced. The recent multi state partnership with Verda Healthcare may support expectations for future revenue and profit streams, which can feed directly...
Live: First UK minister resigns amid calls for PM Starmer’s resignation
The British premier is under pressure to quit after his Labour Party suffered election losses.
Trump gives second wind to reforming college sports regulation
An effort to regulate the big business of college sports is receiving a second burst of energy on Capitol Hill thanks to President Trump’s insistence that more be done to curb&n…
GPT-6 Astra Plays Minecraft, Gets So Depressed After Creeper Destroys Its Progress That It Farms Potatoes for Hours
OpenAI’s newest model, GPT-6 Astra, got so depressed after a creeper upended its progress in Minecraft that it listlessly farmed potatoes for hours and grew paranoid of anything green.
Newman Regional Health, strategic partners now part of brand-new Astra Health collaborative
Already with external partnerships involving University of Kansas Health System and LMH Health, Newman Regiona...
Unleash the Astra Militarum motor pool with new Detachments from Armageddon
Big tanks and light vehicles get their spotlights with new Warhammer 40,000 rules.
Senators fear sports gambling is getting out of control, raise regulation
A string of scandals involving illegal gambling and alleged game rigging in pro sports is getting the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with some arguing Congress should have a greater role i…
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Sandoz and more in the latest Market Talks covering Health Care.
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on Roche, AstraZeneca, GSK and more in the latest Market Talks covering Health Care.
‘Project Hail Mary’ is science fiction novel with emphasis on SCIENCE
By Sophia Monastra “Project Hail Mary”, software engineer and self-proclaimed space nerd Andy Weir’s third novel, released in 2021. Since its release on my local online library service, it has been…
AstraZeneca’s breast cancer pill gets approval from the FDA
AstraZeneca Plc’s breast cancer pill was approved by the U.S.
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Novartis and more in the latest Market Talks covering Health Care.
Best Buy is selling an RTX 5080 for more than the RTX 5090’s MSRP
Would you pay RTX 5090 prices for an RTX 5080?
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on AstraZeneca, Roche Holding and more in the latest Market Talks covering Health Care.
Fantasy Baseball: On Matt McLain and how spring training stats can lead you astray (or to greatness)
Blue light boosts key medicinal compounds in Astragalus, study finds: Multi-omics and genetic tools uncover light-driven isoflavonoid biosynthesis
Astragalus mongholicus, a cornerstone of traditional Chinese medicine, produces isoflavonoids—bioactive compounds with anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting, and antiviral properties.
Health Care Roundup: Market Talk
Find insight on AstraZeneca, Sino Biopharmaceutical, ConvaTec and more in the latest Market Talks covering the Health Care sector.
Astra model launch marks AGI milestone for OpenAI, Greg Brockman says
OpenAI president Greg Brockman suggests its new model Astra could be AGI, pitching it as a research breakthrough and a shift in delegating work to AI.
Lawmakers zero in on NCAA over NIL, revenue sharing
An effort to curb the big business of college sports is gaining steam on Capitol Hill, where a growing number of lawmakers in both parties are outraged at the NCAA and signaling intervention from C…
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
Ebola triggers fears over public health ahead of World Cup travel surge
A recent outbreak of Ebola cases in Africa is sparking fresh concern from public health officials in the United States about the spread of communicable diseases ahead of next month’s World Cup. The…
GPT-6 Astra: The next generation in intelligence for work
Meet GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI’s most capable model for business, with advanced reasoning, computer use, and stronger writing and design judgment.
Ancient 'dirty dishes' may have led archaeologists astray for decades
A new study questions if Bronze Age dishes really do have traces of olive oil.
How the Science of Photography Can Lead You Astray
I often refer to photography as a blend of art and science. However, our cameras' lack of adherence to scientific principles can lead to confusion. Both
Google's new Gemini 4 model could put it back on the AI frontier
Google said its new Gemini 4 matches OpenAI's frontier Astra model in cyber defense, and outpaces rivals in some areas.
OpenAI claims we've entered the AGI era — has GPT-6 Astra really demonstrated general intelligence?
OpenAI says its newly launched GPT-6 Astra model brings humanity to the threshold of AGI, but external evaluators argue that inflated lab metrics and opaque testing obscure its true reliability.
Grotmas Calendar Day 5 – Veteran Detachments for the Astra Militarum
The first new Detachment from the calendar.
Anthropic doubles a science benchmark score with Fable 5.1 while OpenAI says its Astra model crosses critical cyber threshold
Anthropic’s Fable 5.1 doubles a science benchmark score, while OpenAI says Astra reaches critical cyber capability and finds zero-day flaws.
Astrana Health, Inc. to Participate in Upcoming Investor Conferences
/PRNewswire/ -- Astrana Health, Inc. ("Astrana," and together with its subsidiaries and affiliated entities, the "Company") (NASDAQ: ASTH), a...
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter details main characters
Falcom has opened the official website for Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, introducing main characters Estelle Bright, Joshua Astray, Scherazard Harvey, Olivier Lenheim, Agate Crosner, Kloe Rinz, Ti…
Buy Rating Reaffirmed Might Change The Case For Investing In Astrana Health Stock
Astrana Health recently reported quarterly results showing solid revenue growth and higher net profit for the period ending June 30, with a reaffirmed Buy rating from Freedom Capital Markets serving as supporting commentary on the business performance. The combination of rising quarterly profitability and revenue momentum suggests Astrana Health is executing on its healthcare model, with analyst confidence reflecting how that operating progress is being interpreted by the market. This...
Free classes offer first aid skills for mental health
Astra Mental Health and Recovery has free community Mental Health First Aid classes coming up Sep. 10 and Sept. 23.
The Trump Administration's big year in health tech
In this edition of STAT Health Tech: A look back at the big changes in health tech, and AstraZeneca joins wearables study with Lilly, Novo.
OpenAI scraps the release of its new Astra model citing safety reasons
OpenAI canceled Astra's October launch after tests found it could exceed its scope, act without permission, and misstate its work.
Gemini ‘screen automation’ will place orders, book rides for you on Android [APK Insight]
It’s been clear for a while that Google is working to let Gemini control your Android phones, and we now have details on "screen automation."
AstraZeneca - How is AI helping scientists design the next generation of biologic medicines?
Learn how AstraZeneca combines AI drug discovery, laboratory automation and biology to refine biologic molecules and inform earlier decisions.
Free classes offer first aid skills for mental health
Astra Mental Health and Recovery has free community Mental Health First Aid classes coming up Sep. 10 and Sept. 23.
Physician Association of California and Astrana Health Launch Collaboration to Strengthen Independent Primary Care
/PRNewswire/ -- The Physician Association of California ("PAC") and Astrana Health, Inc. ("Astrana") (NASDAQ: ASTH), a physician-centric, technology-enabled...
FDA approves first-in-class hypertension drug from AstraZeneca
The pivotal trial for baxdrostat showed nearly double-digit placebo-adjusted systolic blood pressure reduction.
For Real, a Natural History of Misinformation
It’s not just humans who suffer from leading one another astray. So do fish, flies and even bacteria.
RedMagic relaunches powerful OLED gaming tablet with new version
RedMagic has kicked off 2026 by refreshing one of its popular gaming tablets. Available to order globally, the new model adopts a golden finish with a gold-plated cooling system and sapphire glass back plate to distinguish itself from RedMagic's original models.
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: the future according to end times fascism
In a new video, Klein and Taylor outline a ominous evolution taking shape on the far right – and how to stay loyal to this planet and each other
The science behind an ambitious cancer strategy
Advances in therapeutic approaches, combinations and the use of technology are fundamentally changing the way we think about cancer care.
Astrana Health Touts Delegated Risk “Single Payer” Model, Prospect Synergies, Reiterates 2025 Guide
Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH) executives outlined the company’s delegated risk model, growth strategy, and recent integration priorities during a company presentation followed by a Q&A session. The event featured remarks from Brandon Sim, with Chief Operating and Financial Officer Chan Basho join
Astra Militarum rules revealed – Commissar Graves and new vehicles
Armoured vehicles rumble from the hives of Armageddon to open up new tactics in Warhammer 40,000.
AstraZeneca recommits to youth health to dial funding past $100M
AstraZeneca has re-upped its UNICEF-partnered Young Health Programme (YHP),
ASUS Asks $5090 For RTX 5090 After Cancelling User’s Order Who Already Paid $4607
ASUS canceled an RTX 5090 order worth $4,607, raising the price to $4,982, reflecting growing GPU price inflation after the RAMpocalypse
Anthropic’s life science plans; Novartis CEO on China deals; and more
Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly! We’re gearing up for a busy week of earnings coverage, as Moderna, AstraZeneca, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb and more are set to report their Q2 ...
Nvidia's Jensen Huang says 'AGI has arrived' and congratulates OpenAI
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made the comment on Sunday, days after OpenAI released Astra, its newest and most powerful AI model.
A Look At Astrana Health’s Valuation As It Updates Investor Presentation For National Platform Expansion
Astrana Health (ASTH) drew fresh attention after updating its investor presentation at the 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, outlining its delegated risk and care delivery model across 16 markets and its evolution into a national platform. See our latest analysis for Astrana Health. The refreshed presentation coincides with a recent 15.55% 1 month share price return. However, the 1 year total shareholder return of a 13.05% decline and 3 year total shareholder return of a 22.73%...
AZ's R&D chief Barr touts internal 'science success story' after IL-33 antibody's stellar showing in COPD
With a detailed data drop that AstraZeneca’s R&D chief described as an internal “science success story,” the British Big Pharma has secured an FDA priority review for what it believes could become a flagship biologic in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In detailed results from the late-stage Oberon and Titania trials—first teased in March and detailed in full at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Barcelona this week—the drugmaker laid out the extent of its IL-33 inhibitor’s potential to reduce moderate and severe exacerbations in a wide range of COPD patients still struggling with those “lung attacks,” as AstraZeneca’s Sharon Barr, Ph.D., called them, despite using standard-care inhaled therapy. In the headline results, a 300 mg dose of tozorakimab given once every four weeks curbed those moderate and severe exacerbations in the studies’ primary population of former smokers by 29% in the Oberon study and 34% in Titania. In the overall population of both current and former smokers, these reductions were 30% and 29%, respectively, versus placebo and inhaled standard of care. The benefits also extended to clinically meaningful exacerbation reductions in all prespecified patient subgroups and specifically turned up promising signals in patients across a range of blood eosinophil counts, with Barr telling Fierce that “it’s the details that make this even more exciting than the high-level results that we’ve already shared.” In fact, during AZ’s tozorakimab poster presentation at the ERS 2026 Congress this past weekend, attendees were so enamored by the data that event organizers had to encourage people to clear the room and look at the other presentations on offer, Barr said in an interview. “I think it really speaks to the fact that there is a lot of buzz around these data because the entire respiratory community has been so desperate for new therapies for these patients,” she explained. The respiratory disease continues to represent a “staggering unmet medical need,” Barr said, highlighting the COPD exacerbations that the Oberon and Titania studies homed in on, which she added carry a greater mortality risk than a heart attack. “When a patient has a severe exacerbation, only about half of them are still alive within three and a half years,” she pointed out. As for tozorakimab specifically, Barr christened the molecule “an AstraZeneca science success story,” harkening several years back to the point at which researchers began to explore IL-33 as a driver of respiratory disease, and COPD in particular. At the same time, “there was still so much that wasn’t understood,” she admitted, highlighting the insight that IL-33 signals through both ST2 and EGFR through the RAGE pathway, a discovery Barr attributed to AstraZeneca's own scientists. Understanding the need to tackle both pathways in COPD—and aware of competitor candidates in the hopper, including one that bound ST2—the company ultimately had to make some “courageous decisions,” Barr said. These included taking a prior COPD molecule offline and going back to the drawing board to reinvent its potential IL-33 label “to make sure that we had a molecule that could block signaling through both arms of the pathway, through both the reduced form and the oxidized form, knowing that we wouldn’t be first, but striving to be best.” “When we put [tozorakimab] into the clinic, we firmly believed that we had a differentiated molecule, and we saw the other molecules blocking just ST2 or partially blocking IL-33, unable to deliver two positive pivotal studies in COPD,” Barr explained. “We kept marching forward because we believed our molecule was differentiated, and now I think we have the clinical validation that supports that.” Ultimately, AstraZeneca finds itself on much better footing these days when it comes to potential biologic rivals to tozorakimab in COPD. Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, for instance, is approved to treat COPD exacerbations in patients with high eosinophil counts, but not low ones. Meanwhile, the future has become cloudier for other next-gen IL-33 candidates from Sanofi and Regeneron, as well as Roche, which have suffered trial flops in recent years. One other potential ingredient for AstraZeneca’s success in its duo of studies was that the company was “ambitious in the trial design, willing to look at an all-comers population,” Barr said, “and willing to enroll the most severe patients.” Prior studies for would-be biologics rivals in COPD “avoided enrolling” those patients, she pointed out. She also highlighted the Big Pharma’s painstaking design of exacerbations in its trial, which “gave us a very rigorous readout,” and pointed to “the extra effort and investment” the company put in to understand the effect of mucus plugs in patients. Barr described mucus production as a “key feature in disease diversity,” noting that mucus plugs—obstructing clumps of mucus that block patients’ airways—are associated with worse outcomes in COPD. In its data announcement, AstraZeneca noted that an integrated analysis of Oberon and Titania found tozorakimab “demonstrated a reduction in patients’ mucus plug score,” with the pharma claiming its biologic is the first to deliver such results in a broad COPD population. “So being able to reduce those mucus plugs, we expect, is an important part of driving benefit for patients who are living with COPD,” Barr said. Again touching on the breadth of the study populations, Barr added that tozorakimab “worked across all eosinophil levels in both current and former smokers across all levels of lung function,” which she suggested “really simplifies decision-making for clinicians, and it allows them to offer therapy to the broadest possible patient population.” In the highest patient eosinophil count group, tozorakimab helped chart a 43% reduction in exacerbation risk, which Barr stressed were “unprecedented data.” In the mid-level group, AZ’s drug delivered a 23% reduction and, in the lowest group, a 34% reduction in eosinophils, which Barr said suggests efficacy “in all patient subgroups.” As for AZ’s recent guidance upgrade on the medicine’s sales opportunity, the lift from a $3 billion to $5 billion range to $5 billion plus was informed by multiple factors, Barr said, including the fact that “in 2024, there were multiple competitors, and there aren’t anymore.” Additionally, “we know that this is a massive unmet medical need, and this is a really incredible set of data that we think will be very convincing to the clinical community,” Barr said. Looking ahead to a potential evolution of the COPD treatment landscape, Barr noted that most patients start treatment in the community with an option like a triple therapy, and for them, having an option like AstraZeneca’s inhaler Breztri will remain a “really important part” of that journey. But of the patients uncontrolled on triple therapy, which Barr described as “about half of them today,” just a “small fraction” are currently eligible for biologic therapy, which she emphasized AstraZeneca is working to change. Understanding that COPD is not a “one-size-fits-all” disease, AstraZeneca is also looking at its antibody drug Tezspire for patients with T2-driven disease, and the company continues to think about new mechanisms for tackling COPD through both systemic and inhaled drugs, Barr said.
Astrana Health Data Breach Reported; Impact Under Investigation
Do you believe your information may have been exposed in the Astrana Health data breach? Read more about the incident.
2025 US ACT on Health Equity Community Investments Recipients
Author: Kennesha VanBurch, Director, Health Equity and Community Investment Partnerships 2025 marks the fifth year of the US Accelerate Change Together (ACT) on Health Equity: Community Solutions Challenge (CSC) and National Strategic Collaborations (NSC). This year, we received more than 250 applications from organizations across the country dedicated to prioritizing the social, cultural and linguistic needs of communities that have experienced barriers to care and opportunity. The overwhelming response underscores the vital role these organizations play in advancing health equity at the local level and across the nation. Since the launch of ACT on Health Equity in 2021, the initiative has invested more than $18 million in nonprofit organizations and their health equity programming through CSC and NSC. This year, $3.4 million in funding has been provided to 47 nonprofit organizations that focus on healthcare access, nutrition and lung health. Together, we are making meaningful progress toward health equity across the US. Supporting Organizations Advancing Community Well-being and Health Equity The awarded organizations address critical needs across health, education, and social support through initiatives aligned with AstraZeneca’s areas of expertise, including lung disease, lung and breast cancer, and cardiology. Their work spans across culturally competent senior care, equitable healthcare access, cancer and chronic disease support, and preventive health education, as well as hunger relief, community gardening, dental and transportation services, and resources for underserved families. Together, they are working to remove barriers to care, reduce preventable conditions, and empower individuals and communities of all ages and backgrounds to achieve better health outcomes. Photo courtesy of Medical Motor Service of Rochester and Monroe County, Inc. Description: MMS driver speaking to a Wegmans shopper. GGWNY staff; Lincoln Memorial Church Community Garden and lead gardener Diane Learn more about our recipients and the impact they make within their communities below. Community Solutions Challenge Advocates for Women’s Health, Inc. Advocates for Women's Health exists to provide access to high quality prenatal care and gynecology care to lower-income communities in and around Fresno, CA. They operate a nonprofit OB/GYN clinic located in Fresno. American Rescue Workers (ARW) ARW is a faith-based, non-profit organization providing homelessness and hunger prevention services in Central PA since 1934. ARW cares holistically for men, women, and children who find themselves facing food insecurity, and emergency situations that may lead to homelessness, or an actual homeless crisis, by providing shelter and social services. ARW serves people no matter their faith, regardless of faith. Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) AJSOCAL is a social justice organization that protects and strengthens the rights and dignity of AAPI communities, especially those that are most disadvantaged. Byrd Cancer Education and Advocacy (BCEA) BCEA’s mission is to effectively assist individuals battling cancer by connecting them to vital support and resources. BCEA ensures that all relevant information reaches those in need, guiding them towards the resources necessary to fight their battle against cancer. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa creates access to opportunities for self-sufficiency by providing innovative and compassionate services to people of all backgrounds, beliefs and cultures. Chosen Hearts Chosen Hearts’ mission is to rebuild lives and restore hope by fostering a sense of community and creating lasting, positive change. Columbia Student Medical Outreach The Columbia Student Medical Outreach Program (CoSMO) Clinic is the oldest and largest student-run free clinic at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. At its core, CoSMO is guided by the belief that all people—regardless of immigration or insurance status—deserve access to high-quality, equitable medical care. Eagle’s Nest Community Kitchen and Resource Center and Mobile Pantry Eagle’s Nest Community Kitchen, Resource Center and Mobile Pantry’s mission is to empower underserved and rural communities through hands-on STEM education grounded in sustainable agriculture. By combining mobile workshops, community gardens, and mentorship, they deliver accessible training in science, technology, engineering, and math that builds practical skills, advances food security, and fosters environmental stewardship. Through collaborative partnerships and by honoring local knowledge, they cultivate resilient communities and inspire the next generation of agricultural innovators. eClose Institute eClose Institute’s mission is to make medically relevant scientific discoveries using an education platform that embraces equality and empowers participants to contribute ideas, life experience and experimental data to improve disease treatment. Equal Hope Equal Hope is an organization dedicated to saving lives and improving quality of life by eliminating health inequities. This organization challenges the status quo in striving to understand the context of people’s lives and the barriers they experience to help them achieve better health outcomes for their lives. Through research, quality assessment and improvements, advocacy, education, and patient navigation, they approach health holistically to achieve sustainable outcomes and true health equity. Food For Free Committee Food For Free improves access to healthy food through establishing innovative programming and partnerships to overcome barriers and strengthen the community food system. They believe that access to healthy food is a fundamental right. Grassroots Gardens of Western New York (GGRWNY) The missions of GGRWNY is to share knowledge, powers, and resources to grow health food, heal systemic harm, and strengthen neighborhood connections through community gardens. Greater Providence YMCA (GPYMCA) GPYMCA builds healthy spirit, mind, and body for all, through inclusive programs and relationships grounded in core values of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. Programs are intentionally designed to close equity gaps in health, education, and wellness. GPYMCA serves individuals and families across all life stages and income levels, including medically vulnerable and underserved populations. Hearts of Valor INC Hearts of Valor’s missions it to keep the heart pumping through advocacy, collaboration, education, and support. Ibn Sina Foundation Ibn Sina Foundation ensures the health of the community by providing integrated, preventive, and primary care in a clinical setting through the dissemination and application of health-related knowledge, thereby enhancing the quality of life for future generations. India Home India Home is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the needs of and empowering the South Asian and Indo-Caribbean senior immigrant community in New York City through culturally competent services. At India Home’s centers, seniors find community and resources through a diverse range of programs and activities. Programs include congregate meals, creative aging programs, case management programs, and educational talks on health, nutrition, financial safeguards and elder law. La Colaborativa La Colaborativa empowers the Latinx community, enhancing social and economic health, and holding institutional decision-makers accountable. Lancaster County Food Hub At the heart of the Lancaster County Food Hub’s (LCFH) work is a strong commitment to meeting basic human needs, fostering respectful relationships, and connecting neighbors with supportive services in a nurturing and welcoming environment. Guided by their vision of a Lancaster County where every individual is supported and empowered to live with dignity and stability, they strive to not only provide immediate relief but also to create pathways to lasting self-sufficiency. Maryland Foundation of Dentistry (MFD) MFD is dedicated to improving oral health outcomes and preserving dental function for one of the state’s most vulnerable populations: adults with intellectual, physical, and/or developmental disabilities who are unable to afford the cost of dental care. Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) The missions of MCC is to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and parenting families and enhance school readiness for children 0-3. MCC achieves this through direct service, advocacy, and research, in collaboration with individuals, families, providers, and communities. Medical Motor Service of Rochester and Monroe County, Inc. Medical Motor Service of Rochester and Monroe County’s mission is to provide specialized transportation for community organizations, as well as individuals with disabilities and special needs to improve their independence and quality of life. Milwaukee Consortium for Hmong Health (MCHH) MCHH’s mission is to create a thriving and healthy Southeast Asian and Hispanic community by empowering families through education and screenings. MCHH utilizes established community health workers and focuses on addressing health disparities related to cancer and chronic disease among the Hmong, Bumese, Karen, Karenni, Lao, and Hispanic populations living in Milwaukee, WI and other areas if needed. Mission Hospice and Home Care Mission Hospice and Home Care is delivering compassionate support and exceptional care in the home for individuals and communities, guiding them with choice and dignity to navigate significant care decisions. North Alabama AHEC (NAAHEC) The mission of the NAAHEC is to improve healthcare access, quality, and equity in rural and underserved communities across North Alabama. They strengthen the health workforce - particularly through the development of community health workers by providing comprehensive training, resources, and advocacy. By fostering strong community partnerships and promoting healthcare literacy, NAAHEC aims to address disparities, improve outcomes, and cultivate a healthier future for North Alabama. Our Neighbors’ Table Hunger comes in many forms. Our Neighbors’ Table is committed to establishing a community that provides for the whole person with nourishing food, kindness and dignity. Panhandle Breast Health Panhandle Breast Health works to decrease breast cancer deaths by providing education and reducing financial barriers to increase screening rates. Pitney Meadows Community Farm Founded in 2026, Pitney Meadows Community Farm’s mission is to celebrate and explore agricultural education, healthy food production, and recreation. Located on 166 acres in the heart of the city of Saratoga Springs and preserved in perpetuity as a working farm, Pitney Meadows is a unique resource. Prince William County Community Foundation (PWCCF) PWCCF’s mission is to create a stronger, healthier, and more connected community by addressing critical needs in food insecurity, health & wellness, scholarship, and philanthropy. PWCCF is committed to empowering individuals and families through equitable access to nutritious food, comprehensive healthcare, educational opportunities, and community-driven support. By fostering partnerships and promoting sustainable solutions, PWCCF aims to enhance the quality of life for all, ensuring a brighter future for every member of their community. Raytown Christian Church (Raytown Summer Lunch Ministry) Raytown Summer Lunch Ministry’s mission is to provide nutritious and kid-friendly meals to children during the summer months when they are not in school and receiving school meals. Regents of the University of California, Davis UC Davis Health is improving lives and transforming health care by providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, interprofessional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community. RSVP Volunteers RSVP Volunteers creates and runs unique community programs powered by skilled volunteers to advance education and wellness for all ages and strengthen nonprofits through capacity-building and volunteer services. Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, in collaboration with partners, provides dignified, equitable and consistent access to nutritious food, creating a foundation for community health. The Icla da Silva Foundation The mission of the Icla da Silva Foundation is to save the lives of patients whose only cure is a bone marrow transplant by providing financial, emotional, and logistical support to remove barriers to treatment. There With Care of the Bay Area Founded in 2012, the mission of There With Care of the Bay Area is to provide a wide range of meaningful and fundamental services to children and families during the critical phase of a medical crisis. Universal Community Health Center Universal Community Health Center’s mission is to provide quality and accessible healthcare to under-served communities and to provide a patient centered model of care to empower communities towards wellness. West Cancer Foundation West Cancer Foundation breaks through barriers to cancer care and improves patient outcomes by providing accessible patient resources, early detection and education, and community-based research. Westside Family Healthcare Westside Family Healthcare’s mission is to improve the health of communities by providing equal access to quality healthcare, regardless of ability to pay. National Strategic Collaborations Foundation of Asthma and Allergy Impact Rescue (AAIR) The mission of The Foundation for Asthma and Allergy Impact and Rescue (AAIR) is to make sure that every child is rescued at school, healthy at home, and connected to care. Family Reach Foundation Family Reach is a nonprofit that provides non-medical financial support to families facing cancer. Cancer treatment requires more than medicine — families need a roof over their heads and food on their tables to survive. If a family can’t meet these basic needs, cancer treatment takes a back seat. They work with patients, providers, and community organizations to challenge the systems that force families to choose between their health and their home. LUNGevity Foundation LUNGevity Foundation is transforming what it means to be diagnosed and live with lung cancer through research, advocacy, and community. This mission brings them closer to their vision: a world where no one dies of lung cancer. Association of Black Cardiologists The Association of Black Cardiologists is dedicated to preventing and treating cardiovascular disease, including stroke, through education, research, advocacy, and community engagement, striving for optimal health for all by eliminating disparities. Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation (CCF) The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation’s (CCF) mission is to find a cure and improve the quality of life for those affected by cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). Founded in 2006, in Salt Lake City, UT, by a family who lost a loved one to cholangiocarcinoma, CCF has grown to become the leading global resource in research, education, and public awareness. ZERO Prostate Cancer Zero Prostate Cancer’s mission is to improve and save lives from prostate cancer through advocacy, awareness, education, and support. GO2 for Lung Cancer GO2 for Lung Cancer relentlessly confronts lung cancer on every front, every day, for everyone. As the nation’s leading lung cancer advocacy organization that was founded by patients and survivors, they are dedicated to increasing survival and quality of life for those at risk, diagnosed, and living with lung cancer. National Minority Quality Forum The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) is a national 501(c)(3) with a mission to reduce patient risk for all. Young Survival Coalition (Breast) Young Survival Coalition supports the young breast cancer community and ignites global collaboration to improve quality of life worldwide. Black Women’s Health Imperative Black Women’s Health Imperative’s mission is to solve the most critical health issues that Black women and girls face through innovative programs, transformative research, and lifesaving policies.
How political polling went astray and became a partisan tool
Modern polling faces a crisis of credibility as both the method as well as the partisan bent of surveys of would-be voters taint results.
The Beauty Of Settled Science
Commenters convinced me I made a subtle mis-step in my framing of Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine. My framing emphasized that social priming studies had failed to replicate, but that many other subfields of psychology hadn’t. This naturally led commenters to point to failed replications in other subfields. Although none of these were as bad as social priming, few or none were entirely problem-free. Instead of emphasizing the difference between social priming and other subfields, I should have emphasized the difference between settled science and novel research. Here are some of my favorite psychology findings: The brain is sculpted by reinforcement learning, and a key driver of this learning is a prediction-error-based algorithm located in the nucleus accumbens and implemented through dopamine. Psychedelic drugs exert their effects through 5-HT2A receptors, pointing to a role for these receptors in some sort of construct like the balance between priors and new evidence. Certain cognitive functions are localized to certain brain areas (for example, impulse control to the frontal lobes; linguistic structure to Broca’s area, linguistic meaning to Wernicke’s area. But injure one of these areas, or render a certain function useless (eg a blind person having no more use for their visual cortex), and these mappings can gradually shift - suggesting that neurons are general-purpose compute whose specialization is a contingent fact about convenience and efficiency rather than a necessity. Most personality traits and general capabilities are about 50% genetic and 50% random, with little role for family environment or childhood history, with a few notable exceptions like partisan preference. Recent research complicates this story, but the further you go from this basic picture, the gnarlier the chains of indirect causation you require. Neurons fire together in “brain waves”, whose exact frequency corresponds with the character of consciousness; These divide neurons into natural subpopulations and linked graphs. The gamma rhythm corresponds surprisingly well to items in conscious awareness. GABA receptors seem to be involved in something like relaxation. By hitting different GABA receptors in different ways, you can modulate the exact type of relaxation you produce. Hitting GABA-A directly is too powerful and can cause dangerous levels of sedation, but allosteric modulation of GABA is an incredibly fruitful strategy that underlies drugs from benzos to barbituates to alcohol. If you know your GABA-A subunits, you can target specific subtypes of relaxation; for example, Ambien hits GABA-A1 and induces sleep. Memory divides somewhat fuzzily into bins of immediate-sensory, short-term, and long-term, with separate retrieval and storage functions, and separate systems for declarative vs. procedural learning. These can be harmed selectively, usually by hippocampal injury, so that some patients can remember their life stories but not form new long-term memories, or learn new skills like bike-riding but not new facts. The exact substrate of memory is unclear but seems to involve new synaptic connections between neurons in at least some way. The ability of modern psychology and psychiatry to treat mental illness is real but limited. SSRIs work for half or slightly fewer than half of patients; antipsychotics work with extreme side effects; benzodiazpines work but produce addiction and tolerance in many (not all) people. Most supplements are stuck in Poor Quality Study Replication Crisis Hell, but melatonin and l-theanine stand out as especially promising. Psychotherapy works with moderate effect size, but (with a few exceptions) seems to be more about the relationship with the provider than the details of the therapy itself. Mental hospitalization can sometimes defuse immediate crises but work less well than mental hospitals would like, with some studies showing overall negative effects. Schizophrenia is mostly genetic, but risk also increases with prenatal infection (especially rubella) and obstetric complications; there is suggestive evidence for roles of social stress and drug use (with psychedelics and marijuana making things worse, and nicotine if anything making things better). Bipolar and schizophrenia are so closely linked on a pathophysiological level that it seems like they might be the same disease; on the clinical level, they do seem to follow two separate courses/prognoses but can sometimes surprise clinicians by eg someone who seemed condemned to permanent schizophrenia unexpectedly recovering. The brain’s native reinforcement learning algorithms cash out in the phenomena of classical and operant conditioning; different reinforcement schedules reinforce at different levels, which can be exploited by bad actors to make especially compelling products (eg slot machines). None of these are immune to doubt. A few are speculative; one or two are genuinely unorthodox. But they’re all a step above one p = 0.049 paper that might not replicate. If they get overturned, they’ll be overturned by the same sort of genuine scientific shift that replaced Ptolemy with Copernicus or Lamarck with Darwin, not some sort of sordid discovery about someone entering random numbers into a spreadsheet. In 2008, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote about The Beauty Of Settled Science: If you only care about scientific issues that are controversial, you will end up with a head stuffed full of garbage. The media thinks that only the cutting edge of science is worth reporting on. How often do you see headlines like “General Relativity still governing planetary orbits” or “Phlogiston theory remains false”? So, by the time anything is solid science, it is no longer a breaking headline. “Newsworthy” science is often based on the thinnest of evidence and wrong half the time—if it were not on the uttermost fringes of the scientific frontier, it would not be breaking news. Scientific controversies are problems so difficult that even people who’ve spent years mastering the field can still fool themselves. That’s what makes for the heated arguments that attract all the media attention. Worse, if you aren’t in the field and part of the game, controversies aren’t even fun. Don’t be embarrassed to read elementary science textbooks, either. If you want to pretend to be sophisticated, go find a play to sneer at. If you just want to have fun, remember that simplicity is at the core of scientific beauty [...] A steady diet of science news is bad for you: You are what you eat, and if you eat only science reporting on fluid situations, without a solid textbook now and then, your brain will turn to liquid. Psychology isn’t centrally the new paper in Annals Of Recently-Breaking News saying that an n=5 study showing that large portion sizes increase support for terrorism. Psychology is centrally ideas like brain waves, GABA receptors, reinforcement learning, twin studies, and connectionism. People who think differently are worrying too much about BREAKING NEWS!!!, and should stop. The key distinction isn’t “recent research in social psychology” vs. “recent research in cognitive/bio/behavioral psychology”, as my essay last week unfortunately implied. It’s recent research in general vs. the deposit of settled science, battle-tested hypotheses, and carefully-earmarked speculation. And part of the reason social priming in particular was such a disaster was that it defied that heuristic, building itself up over hundreds of studies until it approached or even entered the pantheon of settled science - before collapsing (5-HTTLPR was also sort of like this). This isn’t a claim that settled science is always right - Freud was “settled science” for a long time - just that there’s an intuitive distinction between the level of credence you should have in the existence of power posing vs. the existence of Broca’s Area. (I compounded this error by calling the last post “Psychology Research Is Mostly Fine”, which suggested I was talking about the new research rather than the settled science. I actually meant to distinguish between research-psychology-the-field vs. clinical-psychology-aka-therapy, but this framing unintentionally pushed against the point I wanted to make) Some commenters on the previous article understood this point, but challenged its weight. It’s very cool, they said, to know how many neurons are in which brain lobe, but the main way that Psychology affected their lives was through bad clickbait studies used to buttress dumb policies; some p = 0.049 study says that exposure to microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel into raisins, and now their company has to implement punitive DEI or be sued for hazardous work conditions. I won’t dispute this as an accurate description of how the sausage gets made, but it’s worth examining the trains of thought that connect this observation to a campaign against psychology in general: The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad, and I don’t have good heuristics for distinguishing dumb woke psychology from other psychology, so I’m going to assume it’s all wrong and bad. The dumb woke psychology was wrong and bad; it seems useful to punish/discredit psychology as a whole to assist my campaign against it, so for propaganda purposes I will try to discredit psychology as a whole. To people in the first camp, my response is: come on, your heuristics aren’t that bad. “Microaggressions makes minorities’ brains shrivel up like raisins” is in the woke category; “the hippocampal theta rhythm seems to be associated with both memory and pathfinding, suggesting an unexpected yet surprisingly compelling relationship between the two” is in the not-woke category, don’t play dumb here. To people in the second camp, my response is: deliberately exaggerated propaganda campaigns are bad and this is a confession, not an excuse. Inability to view science through anything but a political lens was what got us into this problem; doubling down on it is a temporary solution but a recipe for permanent disaster. If you pronounce entire fields of science to be acceptable collateral damage in your campaign against bad political actors, you will alienate not just scientists but patients, clinicians, and general lovers of truth. Instead, you can say the thing you mean - that woke partisans shouldn’t try to occupy and exploit the otherwise-noble science of psychology for their own political gain - and wage the same campaign with a halo rather than a comic-book-villain goatee. From the font of oracular wisdom that is Weird Sun Twitter: [ Vessel Of Spirit@VesselOfSpirit i love you all conditionally but i love the good part of you unconditionally. even if it becomes a very small part 2:11 AM · Jan 22, 2015 1 Reply · 5 Reposts · 29 Likes ](https://x.com/VesselOfSpirit/status/558084551772471298) This is how I feel about psychology1, too, but with a touch more optimism. The good part of psychology is enormous, a hoard of endless treasures. You just have to look past the headlines! 1 To play devil’s advocate - should one always be so magnamious? Astrology? Phrenology? These seem different in that their entire orientation was flawed from the start; they didn’t simply fail to find the correct constellation-personality connections, the whole project of searching for connections between constellations and personality was doomed from the start. More difficult might be asking the same question about education research, which is notoriously bad. I don’t know enough about education research to know if there’s some settled science of correct and enlightening results lurking in the background beyond the day-to-day froth of poorly-conducted and politically-motivated studies. I think if it’s 90% bad, 10% good, it’s correct to call it bad as a compact way of communicating a useful truth; I think psychology is better than that, but admit it’s a tough judgment call.
JPM26 Day 2: Companies Lay Out Near-Term Revenue, Longer-Term Business Goals
Biopharma companies—including AstraZeneca, BioNTech and Agios—peered farther into the future on the second day of JPM, setting both revenue and R&D targets through the end of the decade.
Applications of Special Technologies for Research with Accelerators (ASTRA)
ASTRA enables collaborative accelerator research at LANSCE, supporting beam development, ion source innovation, and future LAMP and LANE programs.
'A kind of Rosetta Stone': AI decodes 217-year-old secret letter ordered by Napoleon
GPT-6 Astra has been used to solve a centuries-old cipher used to convey strategic military information between Napoleon's troops.
RedMagic officially confirms global launch of flagship OLED tablet
RedMagic has confirmed the Astra 2 as its next flagship gaming tablet. The device will arrive as the international version of the China-bound RedMagic Gaming Tablet 5 Pro, which is confirmed to feature a 185Hz OLED display and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
Anthropic warns of ‘existential risks to humanity’ from AI; AstraZeneca makes $2bn cancer drug tie-up
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
OpenAI reveals Dots AI agent at DevDay, rivals Meta's Muse
At DevDay, OpenAI debuts Dots, which run on GPT-6 Astra. The new agent competes with Meta's Muse in the personal AI race.
NZXT AIO leak damages RTX 5090 ROG Astral, company offers $2,855 but user says it is not enough to replace the card
Leaking Kraken AIO damages RTX 5090 ROG Astral A Reddit post details a long-running dispute between an NZXT customer and the company after an NZXT Kraken
Independent Kansas health systems launch shared services organization
Five Kansas health systems have launched a regional collaboration, called Astra Health, to pool resources and coordinate services while retaining their independence. | Astra Health's five founding members, who serve more than half a million patients annually, hope to improve quality and trim costs at scale while maintaining their independence.
Independent hospitals form partnership to strengethen Kansas healthcare
Five independent health systems banned together to create Astra Health, a collaboration seeking to strengthen healthcare in Kansas.
Volastra Therapeutics Subleases 18K SF at Alexandria Center for Life Science
Volastra Therapeutics signed an 18,120-square-foot lease in the Alexandria Center for Life Science at 430 East 29th Street.
Scientists Say: Paradox
When gut instinct leads you astray, paradoxes can point the right way.
LMH Health announces participation in Astra Health to expand access, improve care and reduce healthcare costs
We are pleased to announce that LMH Health is one of five independent Kansas health systems joining together to form Astra Health, a new regional healthcare collaboration designed to improve patient care, strengthen access to specialty services, and deliver more affordable healthcare options for employers and communities across Kansas. By working together, participating health systems […]
Is Astrana Health (ASTH) Undervalued Following Its Verda Healthcare Partnership?
Astrana Health (ASTH) moved back into focus after Verda Healthcare announced a partnership with AstranaCare Partners in Texas and Arizona, targeting underserved communities and culturally responsive care for diverse local populations. Astrana Health’s latest partnership news landed as the share price climbed 4.68% in the last day and 2.01% over the past week, even though the 90 day share price return is down 23.37%, hinting at fresh momentum after a tougher spell despite a 28.07% total...
Oracle and AstraZeneca Partner to Advance AI-enabled Healthcare Innovation
Oracle today announced an agreement with AstraZeneca to explore how AI and real-world data can help clinicians identify eligible patients for clinical trials, accelerate evidence generation, and bring relevant research insights into everyday care. The collaboration is expected to combine AstraZeneca's scientific and therapeutic expertise with Oracle's health data, cloud, AI, analytics, and clinical workflow capabilities.
Oil price slides as US and Iran pause fire; cancer treatments help AstraZeneca beat profit forecasts
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Alignment Health Plan and Astrana Health Partner to Expand Access to Trusted Local Care for California Seniors
New collaboration expands access to multilingual, community-based care across seven Northern and Southern California counties