one of the more interesting expense reports i've filed recently www.theatlantic.com/health/2025/...
I Bought ‘GLP-3’
You’re not supposed to be able to buy the world’s most powerful weight-loss drug, but some people have found a way.
theatlantic.com
Sarah Zhang
@sarahzhang.bsky.social
eukaryote, also a staff writer at the atlantic
A few years ago, I went to Panama to see the "sterile fly barrier" that keeps a flesh-eating parasite out of the U.S. It's one of the wildest things I've ever written about it... www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
America’s Never-Ending Battle Against Flesh-Eating Worms
Inside the U.S. and Panama’s long-running collaboration to rid an entire continent of a deadly disease
theatlantic.com
🧵 Last year, I came across one of the most harrowing studies I've ever read. It found that 1 in 4 unresponsive brain-injury patients—many considered vegetative—might be cognitively aware but trapped inside their bodies. Could this be true? What did it mean? www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
🧵 Last year, I came across one of the most harrowing studies I've ever read. It found that 1 in 4 unresponsive brain-injury patients—many considered vegetative—might be cognitively aware but trapped inside their bodies. Could this be true? What did it mean? www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Ok is something going on with the supply chain for clear plastic bags? I bought 3 different brands of "clear" bags from Amazon (ty NYC recycling rules) that were all white, despite old reviews w photos of clear bags. And our latest box of diapers also switched from clear to white plastic sleeves.
recently got some nice news — my magazine story about a cystic fibrosis breakthrough won first place for consumer feature in AHCJ's journalism awards www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
The Cystic-Fibrosis Breakthrough That Changed Everything
The disease once guaranteed an early death—but a new treatment has given many patients a chance to live decades longer than expected. What do they do now?
theatlantic.com
Association of Health Care Journalists@healthjournalism.org · last yr.🏆 AHCJ has announced the winners of the 2024 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism! See the standout work being honored at #HJ25 in L.A. Full list here:
if you are looking for distraction in these uhh tumultuous times, Bracket City is now on @theatlantic.com and it is the perfect fun-sized diversion www.theatlantic.com/games/bracke...
Bracket City
The Atlantic covers news, politics, culture, technology, health, and more, through its articles, podcasts, videos, and flagship magazine.
theatlantic.com
"Zoom in on a silica gel bead with a scanning electron microscope, and its smooth surface turns discontinuous... That single gram of silica gel could have an internal surface area of eight hundred square meters—the size of almost two basketball courts" www.scopeofwork.net/silica-gel/
How Silica Gel Took Over the World
Silica gel packets seem like the only thing keeping our packaged food crispy and our belongings free of mildew. How on earth did they all get here?
scopeofwork.net
"The vaccination has stuff we don't trust," said the father of the 6-year-old girl who died from measles at the end of last month. Tom Bartlett visited with a family confronting an unthinkable tragedy:
The Texas Girl Who Died From Measles
Her father tells her story.
theatlantic.com
one of the things scientists got wrong at the beginning of the pandemic is thinking "the coronavirus mutates slowly." my look back on what happened and why COVID ended up surprising us so much. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
COVID Broke the Rules of Virus Evolution
Why did this coronavirus change faster than scientists expected?
theatlantic.com
My neighbor Arthur made my childhood magical, and he died in the Palisades Fire. Here is my thank you to him, in @theatlantic.com: www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
Not Everything Can Be Rebuilt
Arthur made my childhood neighborhood magical. Now both are gone.
theatlantic.com
Missed this last week—what a nice surprise to be among so many reporters I admire! ty @jasonmast.bsky.social
Ben Lokshin@ben.lok.sh · 2y agoSome great winter reading on this list, including @sarahzhang.bsky.social's excellent piece on how Trikafta changed the lives of people with CF
this big bloomberg investigation into the global supply chain for human eggs is incredible, and this scene about a fertility drug purified from the urine of postmenopausal women is especially wild www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
This story--about two families whose embryos were switched in an IVF mix-up--was a privilege to report and write for the @nytimes.com . Their grace and generosity in the face of an impossible situation moves me to no end: www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...
An I.V.F. Mixup, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice
Two couples in California discovered they were raising each other’s genetic children. Should they switch their girls?
nytimes.com
i'll drop everything to read a new story by @sarahzhang.bsky.social and I am so happy @neeldhan.bsky.social interviewed her for @niemanlab.org! www.niemanlab.org/2024/11/the-...
The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang on covering the science and emotion of being human
"I've always liked to think of myself as a brain floating through space...[but] our physical condition constrains and expands the way we think about ourselves."
niemanlab.org
fun to chat with @neeldhan.bsky.social at @niemanlab.org about journalism topics discussed: the humiliation of living in a physical body, chartbeat brain, and how becoming a parent sharpened the way i think about covering health and science www.niemanlab.org/2024/11/the-...
The Atlantic’s Sarah Zhang on covering the science and emotion of being human
"I've always liked to think of myself as a brain floating through space...[but] our physical condition constrains and expands the way we think about ourselves."
niemanlab.org
wrote about RFK Jr., vaccines, and my most enduring memory from college German class www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
Here’s How We Know RFK Jr. Is Wrong About Vaccines
Children used to die of diseases far more gruesome and deadly than we remember.
theatlantic.com
You might have heard about the tick that makes you allergic to red meat. Lately, I've been hearing that this tick is also making farmers allergic to their own animals—so allergic that some farmers can't even touch or be around cattle anymore. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
A Tick Is Making Farmers Allergic to Their Own Animals
Some farmers can no longer even touch or be near their cattle and sheep.
theatlantic.com
got to do the thing i love best, which is investigate a lil mystery by following a supply chain (in this case: seaweed) www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
A Simple Lab Ingredient Derailed Science Experiments
A scientist in Arkansas couldn’t get her experiments to work. Then others started saying the same thing.
theatlantic.com
Whoa hi to so many new friends here. Where are you coming from?
What does it look like when you leave abortion up to the states? In the latest issue of The Atlantic, I wrote about life in Idaho, under of the most extreme bans in the country. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...
‘That’s Something That You Won’t Recover From as a Doctor’
In Idaho and other states, draconian laws are forcing physicians to ignore their training and put patients’ lives at risk.
theatlantic.com
Yes! Another currently off-label use for Xolair—I've talked people with MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome) who were able to get approved on the basis of chronic hives or food allergies. Studies suggest it works for MCAS: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30954641/
Omalizumab Therapy for Mast Cell-Mediator Symptoms in Patients with ISM, CM, MMAS, and MCAS - PubMed
Omalizumab seems to be a useful therapeutic option to control mast cell-mediator symptoms and displays a favorable safety profile.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Allison Good@allisonwgood.bsky.social · 2y agoAnd why isn’t it marketed enough to MCAS patients???
5 years ago, I interviewed a woman with a severe allergy to corn, which turns out is hidden EVERYWHERE: table salt, bagged salads, frozen fish, etc. Even allergy pills contain cornstarch. Recently, she started a food allergy drug that's changed her life: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
"When James awoke from surgery, the first thing he noticed was the smell. After two years with no sense of smell, he was grateful, even though the odour was 'hospital.'" www.nature.com/articles/d41...
World’s first whole-eye transplant: the innovations that made it possible
The first face transplant to also include an eyeball was a surgical coup — but restoring vision remains a challenge. The first face transplant to also include an eyeball was a surgical coup — but rest...
nature.com
is a single male bottlenose dolphin responsible for biting 29 people in japan? www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Lonely? Playful? Why are dolphin attacks rising in Japan?
Dolphin ecologist Tadamichi Morisaka discusses common dolphin behaviours that could explain the encounters with people. Dolphin ecologist Tadamichi Morisaka discusses common dolphin behaviours that co...
nature.com
The science that led to the development of Ozempic was wrong. Why do the drugs work anyway? Gift link, unpaywalled: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...