Portland area humane society

By Kelly Servick Apr. 16, 2021 , 6:15 PM The administration of President Joe Biden is reversing restrictions imposed by former President Donald Trump’s on federal funding for medical research using human fetal tissue from elective abortions. A notice released today by the U.S. National Institutes of Health does away with both a ban on such studies by researchers within NIH and a layer of ethical review that had torpedoed funding applications from external researchers. The secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, “has determined there are no new ethical issues that require special review,” NIH said in a statement. “I ’ m relieved,” says Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “I would call it a very welcome return to a socially responsible approach to the use of fetal tissue in research.” The Trump administration’s policy, announced in June of 2019 , prohibited NIH’s in-house scientists … [Read more...] about Biden administration scraps human fetal tissue research restrictions

France Córdova, the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Virginia, has unveiled a research agenda intended to shape the agency’s next few decades and win over the next U.S. president and Congress. The nine big ideas (see list below) illustrate how increased support for the type of basic research that NSF funds could help answer pressing societal problems, she says, ranging from how humans interact with technology to how climate change in the polar regions will impact the global economy, environment, and culture. ( Click here for a one-page description of each idea .) It’s unusual for a federal agency to talk publicly about its long-range budget plans, Córdova acknowledges. But she is betting that touting the agency’s capabilities during an election year will pay dividends after voters have chosen a successor to President Barack Obama. “This comes at a time of transition,” she told the National Science Board, NSF’s oversight body, on 6 May. “So that … [Read more...] about NSF director unveils big ideas, with an eye on the next president and Congress

About 800,000 years ago in what is now Spain, cannibals devoured an early human child who became known as "The Boy of Gran Dolina." But new analysis of these ancient remains has revealed a surprising twist: the child was a girl. The child was a Homo antecessor , an early hominin species that lived in Europe between 1.2 million and 800,000 years ago. Discovered in 1994 in the Gran Dolina cave in northern Spain's Atapuerca Mountains, the species is known primarily from fragments of bones and teeth, which hampered researchers' efforts to determine the sex of H. antecessor individuals. Recently, scientists tested a new technique, using a type of dental analysis that had successfully identified males and females in other early human species. They examined teeth from two Gran Dolina individuals: "H1" and "H3". H1, whose remains defined the H. antecessor species, was about 13 years old at the time of death and was long presumed to be male. The second individual, H3 — The Boy of … [Read more...] about Prehistoric cannibal victim found in death cave ID’ed as a young girl

By Sofia Moutinho Apr. 16, 2021 , 3:45 PM Over the past decade, New York state has become an international hub of stem cell research. In part, that ’ s thanks to one of the United States’s only state-level programs devoted exclusively to this area of science, researchers say. But now, New York ’ s state government has killed the program, which scientists fear will slow research progress and cause a brain drain to other states and countries. “We are surprised and perplexed,” says Jonathan Teyan, chief operating officer at the Associated Medical Schools of New York. “Why would anyone terminate a program like this when we need science the most?” The cancellation of the New York State Stem Cell Science program (NYSTEM) is contained in a budget for 2022, which the state Legislature approved last week and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed. The spending plan, which takes effect 1 May, halts funding for new grants, but honors existing contracts until they expire. A spokesperson for … [Read more...] about New York state ends stem cell research funding

It's a new parent's worst fear: Putting a healthy baby down to sleep, and coming back to find him not breathing. Over the years, researchers have identified some factors that contribute to deaths of infants in their sleep, such as co-sleeping and putting a baby down on his or her stomach to sleep. When a baby's death remains unexplained, it is said to be due sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Now, a new study, published today (July 14) in the journal Pediatrics, shows that the risk factors that contribute to SIDS vary with a baby's age. The majority of infants in the study younger than 4 months old who died while sleeping were bed sharing, whereas older infants who died were likelier to be found on their stomachs, or with blankets, stuffed animals or pillows around them, said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, a pediatrician at Children's Mercy Hospital in Missouri. Risk factors SIDS and unintentional injuries such as suffocation occur in 81 out of every 100,000 … [Read more...] about SIDS Risk Factors Vary for Older and Younger Babies