The Big Cat Public Safety Act, which was estimated to cost $3 million to implement between 2022 and 2027, focused on tens and thousands of animals that almost certainly do not exist. The law also appears to have led to unintended consequences.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/31/how-many-big-cats-caged-in-america/

While weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are in an enduring shortage dating back to 2022, compounding pharmacies are allowed to sell their own versions. Though the practice is FDA-authorized, it is heatedly disputed by the brand-name companies, which cite “serious health risks.”

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/30/shortage-copycat-weight-loss-drugs/

Starting in the 2000s, schools across the country began weighing their students, sometimes even sending home report cards with each student’s body-mass index. Since then, evidence has mounted that the weigh-in policies are ineffective — or even harmful. Why do they persist?

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/29/schools-anti-obesity-policy-bmi-failed/

Part memoir, part medical detective story, “A Fatal Mystery” is Lawrence Ingrassia’s account of his family’s tragic legacy of cancer and the discovery of Li-Fraumeni Syndrome, a rare condition caused by a genetic mutation, which led to the deaths of his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/26/book-review-family-cancer-genetic-enigma/

Few experts dispute that long Covid can be debilitating, or that it warrants careful study. But a number of experts say it is misleading to frame it as a growing epidemic. That is at odds with the view of an influential group of VA researchers in St. Louis.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/25/long-covid-clash-of-definition-study-design/

The story of how one person became the majority source of DNA for the Human Genome Project encapsulates 20th-century researchers’ attitudes toward donor consent, says Duke University’s Misha Angrist. Even now, he argues, bioethicists consider hiding people’s own genetic information from them as the ethical thing to do — which is a shame.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/24/opinion-perverse-legacy-participation-human-genomic-research/

More than a week after Hurricane Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 storm, more than 100,000 electricity customers still didn’t have have power. And the majority of them were in the Houston metropolitan area. Why wasn’t the local energy infrastructure better able to withstand the storm?

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/23/hurricane-beryl-exposes-houston-weaknesses/

Avian flu is reported to kill half the people it infects. But that mortality rate doesn’t factor in mild cases that went undetected. And even less certain is how lethal H5N1 would be if it evolves to spread not just from animals to humans, but also from person to person.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/22/avian-flu-actual-mortality-rate/

As a graduate student, Laura Luebbert uncovered some troubling problems with a series of published research papers on honeybees. After a years’ long effort to document the issues, she and her co-author had trouble getting journals and pre-print servers to review their work and potentially correct the record.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/19/interview-should-there-be-peer-review-after-publication/

Research coordinators play an essential role in managing clinical studies for drugs and medical devices. But the job suffers high turnover, with implications for how soon potential therapies reach the market. One coordinator argues that standardizing training and other aspects of the role could help.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/07/18/opinion-recognizing-clinical-research-coordinator/