Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades

The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.

nature.com

AI Ethics & Governance Roundup

mailchi.mp

Babies born under sugar rationing grew into adults with lower cancer risk

Britain’s postwar sugar rationing was an accidental experiment. Decades on, it’s revealing how early diet shapes cancer risk, ageing and eating habits for life.

theconversation.com

Are We Thinking Correctly About AI Intelligence? | Quanta Magazine

Computer scientist Melanie Mitchell discusses why artificial intelligence doesn’t “think” or “reason” like humans, and how we can create better methods for measuring machine cognition.

quantamagazine.org

How Much of a Cancer Drug Is Too Much? Patients, Researchers Challenge FDA-Approved Dosages - KFF Health News

Patients and researchers point to evidence that many cancer drug dosages are excessive, and that reducing the amount and frequency could save billions of dollars and prevent some of the worst side eff...

kffhealthnews.org

Ethics and Life Sciences Weekly Roundup

mailchi.mp

Violence Against Healthcare Workers and Staffing Shortages Fuel Hospital Strikes - KFF Health News

Healthcare workers at a Michigan hospital have been on strike since last September. Violence on the job is one reason behind it, with federal data showing hospital workers are seven times as likely to...

kffhealthnews.org

She grew up unvaccinated. Now she’s a leading voice for science — and empathy

Immunologist Liz Marnik, who grew up unvaccinated, says shaming people who distrust science will do nothing to improve vaccine acceptance.

statnews.com

NIH lifts ban on funding research in South Africa

Researchers who study HIV, tuberculosis, and other infectious disease in the country welcome policy change

science.org

The Limits of Unauthorized-Practice in Regulating Mental Health AI - Petrie-Flom Center

In May, Pennsylvania’s State Board of Medicine filed a lawsuit in the state’s Commonwealth Court against Character Technologies seeking to prevent it from engaging in unauthorized medical practice. Th...

petrieflom.law.harvard.edu

You Want To Join a Clinical Trial. Here’s What To Know About the Hurdles. - KFF Health News

The Department of Health and Human Services has launched an effort to streamline clinical research, and legislation is pending in Congress. But patients and providers face participation challenges.

kffhealthnews.org

Harvard Agrees to $53 Million Settlement in Body Part Theft Scandal

The agreement settles lawsuits filed by relatives of people whose remains, donated for medical research and teaching, were stolen and sold by the former manager of the school’s medical morgue.

nytimes.com

France’s ‘aid in dying’ law comes into effect after constitutional approval

Right to assisted dying established for patients with conditions assessed as incurable and causing unbearable pain

theguardian.com

Berman Institute Bioethics Bulletin

mailchi.mp

A Martian rover’s ‘land-a-versary’ and the ethics of human space exploration

Scientists and engineers are celebrating Curiosity’s 14th landing anniversary on Mars. Plus, we’ll look at the ethics behind human space exploration and how NASA, space agencies and the public view mo...

cfpublic.org

Florida lost 450,000 ACA enrollees in 2026 as premiums rose an average of 37% nationally, new data shows

ACA enrollments in Florida dropped in 2026, but the decrease was smaller than anticipated.

theconversation.com

A revolutionary stem-cell therapy must proceed responsibly to achieve its full potential

It is 20 years since induced pluripotent stem cells shook biomedicine. Public trust must be retained now that clinical trials are well under way.

nature.com

Ethical Oversight of Randomized Quality Improvement Trials: A Pragmatic Approach | Annals of Internal Medicine

acpjournals.org

Bioethics in the Academic Literature: August 18, 2026

mailchi.mp

Kindergarten vaccine exemptions jump to another record high

Coverage among kindergartners for major vaccines fell in more than half the states, continuing a years-long trend, as measles cases climb.

washingtonpost.com

8 steps to making surrogacy more ethical for everyone involved

“Everything about the West case shows how miserably surrogacy has been managed in America,” writes Arthur Caplan.

statnews.com

In parts of the world, antibiotic overuse isn’t the problem — underuse is

“Like climate change, antimicrobial resistance is a global challenge, but its causes and consequences are unevenly distributed,” writes GARDP’s Peter Beyer.

statnews.com

US government is pushing to gain unprecedented access to your medical records – as data protections are weakening

Large datasets can be useful research tools, but current government efforts to gather medical records depend on policy and technology that falls short of protecting people’s privacy.

theconversation.com

NIH plan to keep peer-review scores for grants secret draws concern

Under “binning” proposal, applications’ numerical ratings would no longer be used for final funding decisions

science.org

nejm.org

Drought may have driven Brazil’s first yellow fever outbreak in nearly 80 years

Dry conditions forced forest-dwelling primates into the cities, bringing with them mosquitoes—and disease

science.org

Slavery linked to mortality gap between Black and white Americans today

New study is among the first to quantify and explain slavery’s influence in contemporary U.S. health disparities

science.org

NIH is ending a key grant for budding clinical researchers

Agency will no longer allow K career awards to fund clinical trials

science.org

What's Going on With Fall COVID and Flu Shots?

A key federal advisory committee hasn't weighed in

medpagetoday.com

Foodborne Illnesses Are Skyrocketing: 6 to Know About

The safety of the U.S. food supply has been called into question as Americans grapple with multiple foodborne illnesses at the same time.

people.com