Exclusive: a Nature analysis signals the beginnings of a US science brain drain
A trawl of job views and application data suggests jobseekers are looking abroad as the Trump administration’s cuts to science take hold
Explore some of my work below
How Arnold Ventures Is Backing Cost-Cutting in Health, Without Cutting Care
The United States House of Representatives’ narrowly passed budget reconciliation bill approved $880 billion in
cuts, with Medicaid, the federal health program for low-income Americans, a likely target of major downsizing along with other health programs.
cuts, with Medicaid, the federal health program for low-income Americans, a likely target of major downsizing along with other health programs.
Amid Uncertainty, Packard Forges Ahead on Reproductive Health
Giselle Carino, the director and chief executive officer of the international alliance Fòs Feminista, expected the Trump administration to sign a global gag rule, which has effectively shut off the U.S. funding spigot to global health organizations that provide abortions or referrals. It’s a repeat of what happened in President Donald Trump’s first term, and generally anytime the GOP regains the White House.
‘Publish or perish’ culture blamed for reproducibility crisis
Nearly three-quarters of biomedical researchers think there is a reproducibility crisis in science, according to a survey published in November. The leading cause cited for that crisis was “pressure to publish
Is political interference causing faculty brain drain in the southern United States?
A survey of faculty members working in US southern states shows that a significant majority frequently witness or experience political interference that affects morale and is causing many to look for positions in other regions or to leave academia altogether.
How Robert Wood Johnson’s Centering Communities in Health Research
A new $20 million partnership between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association aims to tackle health inequities by upending the way that academic research is done.
How One Corporate Foundation Is Backing Maternal Health in the U.S. and Abroad
Carla Willis recalls the grief that hit her full-on during her first meeting as a member of Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee in 2021.
Hunger On Campus: US PhD Students Fight For Food
Graduate students are relying on donated and discounted food in the struggle to make ends meet:
Jen Cruz’s life as a PhD student is a world away from her childhood. Although not a member of the tribe, she grew up on Yakama Indian reservation land in Wapato, Washington.
Jen Cruz’s life as a PhD student is a world away from her childhood. Although not a member of the tribe, she grew up on Yakama Indian reservation land in Wapato, Washington.
How Kellogg and Partner Philanthropies Are Funding in Haiti, a Country Beset by Crisis
Dr. Wilfrid Cadet, chief medical advisor of Health Equity International, recalls a pivotal moment during his time as a physician at St. Boniface Hospital in his native Haiti that convinced him to shift his career
focus to public health.
focus to public health.
California Pushes to Expand the Universe of Abortion Care Providers
California’s efforts to expand access to abortion care are enabling more types of medical practitioners to perform certain abortion procedures — potentially a boon for patients in rural areas especially, but a source of concern for doctors’ groups that have long fought efforts to expand the role of non-physicians.
The latest move is a law that enables trained physician assistants, also known as physician associates, to perform first-trimester abortions without a supervising physician present. T
The latest move is a law that enables trained physician assistants, also known as physician associates, to perform first-trimester abortions without a supervising physician present. T
How Allen Ginsberg’s Poems About Madness Helped Change Psychiatry: An Interview with Biographer Dr. Stevan Weine
The celebrated Beat poet and counterculture icon Allen Ginsberg was hurled into the spotlight in 1956 with his epic poem “Howl.” It was written for his friend Carl Solomon, whom he met in 1949 at age 23 in the waiting room of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The poem famously begins, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed/by madness, starving hysterical naked” – a reference reflected in the title of Stevan Weine’s new book about Ginsberg, entitled Best Minds: How Allen Ginsber
California Offers a Lifeline for Medical Residents Who Can’t Find Abortion Training
Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care.
Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to wom
Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to wom
How to Train Early-Career Scientists to Weather Failure
Aerospace researcher Gladys Chepkirui Ngetich had earned a coveted spot in the 2019 cohort of the Schmidt Science Fellows postdoctoral programme after finishing her PhD in engineering science at the University of Oxford, UK.
Breaking Away From Hate
Trauma, abuse, and mental health problems can make people more vulnerable to violent extremism. Here’s how a movement founded in part by former white supremacists is helping extricate Americans from violent hate groups.
Update: Added the news about the May 4th conviction of members of the Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy.
On August 5, 2012, Pardeep Kaleka was just down the street from the Sikh Temple his family belonged to in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, when he heard sirens and rushed to find a p
Update: Added the news about the May 4th conviction of members of the Proud Boys for seditious conspiracy.
On August 5, 2012, Pardeep Kaleka was just down the street from the Sikh Temple his family belonged to in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, when he heard sirens and rushed to find a p
California and New York Aim to Curb Diet Pill Sales to Minors
California and New York are on the cusp of going further than the FDA in restricting the sale of non-prescription diet pills to minors as pediatricians and public health advocates try to protect kids from extreme weight-loss gimmicks online.
A bill before Gov. Gavin Newsom would bar anyone under 18 in California from buying over-the-counter weight loss supplements — whether online or in shops — without a prescription. A similar bill passed by New York lawmakers is on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk. N
A bill before Gov. Gavin Newsom would bar anyone under 18 in California from buying over-the-counter weight loss supplements — whether online or in shops — without a prescription. A similar bill passed by New York lawmakers is on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk. N
Combating veteran suicides with peers, therapy, housing – and a little horse sense
In June 2021, a veteran named Chuck finally emerged from a five-and-a-half-month hospitalization for a work injury and subsequent infection that almost cost him his life. He could have ended up back on the streets, but instead he sought temporary housing from Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco nonprofit for homeless veterans. While hospitalized, Chuck had lost 50 pounds and had to relearn how to walk, but his battle to stay alive gave him a fresh perspective. “I didn’t want to die anymore,” h
‘Corporal Punishment is Violence’: Black Communities Vow to Ban School Paddling
Corporal punishment is disproportionately inflicted on Black children and is higher in areas with histories of lynching
On a Tuesday morning three years ago, Julia Ringo discovered her daughter was in terrible pain. Examining her, Ringo looked in shock at a mass of bruises and swelling on her daughter Kiorey’s buttocks, a day after the 8-year-old Black girl had been paddled with a wooden board at an elementary school in Grenada, Mississippi.
Ringo rushed her daughter to the emergency room and
On a Tuesday morning three years ago, Julia Ringo discovered her daughter was in terrible pain. Examining her, Ringo looked in shock at a mass of bruises and swelling on her daughter Kiorey’s buttocks, a day after the 8-year-old Black girl had been paddled with a wooden board at an elementary school in Grenada, Mississippi.
Ringo rushed her daughter to the emergency room and
Librarians' Mental Health Threatened By Book Bans, Abuse And Harassment
Martha Hickson, a librarian at North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, New Jersey, has long enjoyed “kibbitzing” with the teens in her school and overseeing its bustling library. Even before classes start, students meet there, look for books that pique their interest, work on crafts, play board games “or just chill,” says Hickson, who has worked there for 17 years. She traded in a corporate job for this one because, she says, she wanted to make a difference. But last year, in late September, H
Roadblocks to Prison Visits Cause Despair - MindSite News
In a recent nightmare, 8-year-old Jovina dreamt that her father got COVID-19. He was getting sicker and sicker, but she and her mother weren’t able to get there in time. “There,” in the case of her father, is a cell at the California Correctional Center in Susanville, California, nearly 300 miles from where she lives in San Jose.
Jovina’s mind is swarming with worries about her welfare of her father, Joseph Vejar, her mother Benee Vejar reports. If an earthquake shakes the Bay Area, Jovina asks...
Jovina’s mind is swarming with worries about her welfare of her father, Joseph Vejar, her mother Benee Vejar reports. If an earthquake shakes the Bay Area, Jovina asks...
Custody in Crisis: How Family Courts Nationwide Put Children in Danger
Six years ago, in 2010, an appellate court in Tennessee affirmed a family court ruling that had awarded Darryl Sawyer* primary custody of his six-and-a-half-year-old son, Daniel.
Nursing Home Investigation Finds Errors by Druggists
A woman with a medical history of seizures was prescribed the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, despite research showing that elderly people who take antipsychotic drugs are more likely to experience seizures. She was also given the antidepressant Trazodone, which has been linked to an increase in seizures among older patients. And then, according to a recent investigation by the California Department of Public Health, the woman was given a second antipsychotic drug, Risperdal. The combination of the
State Lags in Dental Health Care for Children
Dominique Allen was hospitalized over Easter weekend with a tooth infection and swelling that made it hard for her to breathe.
Early in the morning on April 2, Dominique Allen’s family rushed her to the emergency room at Petaluma Valley Hospital because of jaw pain and inflammation. An infection from four rotting or decayed molars had spread into the jaw and neck of Dominique, 16, causing so much swelling that she could hardly open her mouth or breathe. Her condition was “life-threatening,” acc
Early in the morning on April 2, Dominique Allen’s family rushed her to the emergency room at Petaluma Valley Hospital because of jaw pain and inflammation. An infection from four rotting or decayed molars had spread into the jaw and neck of Dominique, 16, causing so much swelling that she could hardly open her mouth or breathe. Her condition was “life-threatening,” acc
When Foreclosure Threatens Elder-Care Homes (Published 2010)
In September 2009, Sgt. Rick Turini of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office drove to a house in San Jose to carry out a court-ordered eviction. With foreclosures in Bay Area counties near all-time highs, the office had been routinely evicting 35 to 40 households a week. But this property was different: It was a board-and-care home for the elderly. Neither the residents nor their families had been warned about an eviction, said Sergeant Turini, who does not recall the home’s exact address. Whe...
MODERNITY / A Matter of Respect / Training Hmong shaman in the ways of Western medicine is saving lives in Merced
A small man with gray hair and gentle dark eyes, Xeng Koua Moua is among the shaman healers practicing religious healing ceremonies in Merced who are recognized as such by the local hospital. He became a shaman at 19, when he was living in a Hmong village in the Phuyai Mountains of Laos and fell ill with fever, tremors and tingling. That's when his grandmother's spirit came to him and told him that he would be a txiv neeb, Hmong for shaman healer. A txiv neeb's job is to vanquish the illnesses t
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