In The News

Caesarean Births “Affecting Human Evolution”

Helen Briggs December 7, 2016
Recent studies have suggested that rapid changes in the environment can speed evolutionary responses. Increasing reliance on Caesarean sections contributed to more mothers requiring surgery to deliver infants, suggests theoretical biologist Philipp Mitteröcker at the University of Vienna. Helen Briggs wrote about the study for BBC News: “The researchers devised a mathematical model using data...

The Age of Pain

William Davies November 15, 2016
Populism arises out of grievances. “At what point do we attribute denunciations to the state of the world, and at what point to the state of the individual making them?” writes William Davies for New Statesman, adding that “the line separating ‘public politics’ from ‘private distress’ is culturally constructed, and not always very clear, even as we seek to police it.” Populist movements offer...

UNICEF: 300 Million Children Breathe Toxic Air

November 4, 2016
Air pollution is an increasing danger for children’s health. One out of every seven children, 300 million in all, are exposed to toxic levels of outdoor air pollution, reports the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. “The World Health Organization, WHO, says air pollution kills about seven million people a year, nearly 12 percent of all deaths worldwide,” reports the Environment News...

Global Health Funding Faces a Shortfall of Billions to Fight Diseases

Andrew Green November 1, 2016
The global health community has tools to prevent and treat diseases, however, a “decline in global health funding threatens not just to stymie scientific advances against diseases like HIV, but to actually reverse gains made in the past decade,” writes Andrew Green for World Politics Review. Research on diseases has contributed to the largest population of young people in the planet’s history,...

In Your Phone, In Their Air

Peter Whoriskey October 28, 2016
Lithium batteries in smartphones and laptops include graphite. “The companies making those products promote the bright futuristic possibilities of the ‘clean’ technology,” reports Peter Whoriskey for the Washington Post. “But virtually all such batteries use graphite, and its cheap production in China, often under lax environmental controls, produces old-fashioned industrial pollution.” China...

UN Pledges to Fight Antibiotic Resistance in Historic Agreement

Michaeleen Doucleff September 23, 2016
Overuse of antibiotics and outright abuse have contributed to some bacteria adapting resistance to common drugs. The UN General Assembly is tackling the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs as a priority: “The U.N.'s declaration requires countries to come up with a two-year a plan to protect the potency of antibiotics,” reports Michaeleen Doucleff for NPR. Common infections like...

Chronic Problems, Not Just Crises, Should Be a Global Health Priority

James Chen September 1, 2016
Sudden outbreaks of diseases like Zika or Ebola ignite alarm while chronic medical conditions, many easily prevented, are often ignored or accepted because they seem less urgent. Societies must revise priorities to “unlock the full potential of the developing world, argues James Chen, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review. “The World Health Organization recently estimated that the global...