• Hurricane Ian Stirred Up Flesh-Eating Bacteria in Florida

    By Zoya Teirstein

    Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida as a Category 4 storm in September last year, killing 149 people — the most deaths attributable to a single hurricane in the state in nearly a century. But the official death count didn’t include one of the most gruesome ways people died as a result of the storm: The state saw its highest number of vibriosis cases in more than 30 years.

  • Flesh-Eating and Illness-Causing Bacteria in Florida’s Coastal Waters Following Hurricane Ian

    When Hurricane Ian struck southwest Florida in September 2022, it unleashed a variety of Vibrio bacteria that can cause illness and death in humans. Experts say that thepathogenic Vibrio bacteria are on the rise due to climate change, and it’s a ‘serious concern.’

  • $9.5 Million to Enhance Cybersecurity in Health Care

    By Miles Martin

    “Health care systems are highly vulnerable to ransomware attacks, which can cause catastrophic impacts to patient care and pose an existential threat to smaller health systems,” said an expert. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded $9.5 million for research that aims to protect the United States health care system against hostile cyber threats.

  • Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infections Are on the Rise in the U.S. − a Microbiologist Explains How to Protect Yourself

    By Bill Sullivan

    Flesh-eating bacteria sounds like the premise of a bad horror movie, but it’s a growing – and potentially fatal – threat to people. In September 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory alerting doctors and public health officials of an increase in flesh-eating bacteria cases that can cause serious wound infections.

  • Walking the Artificial Intelligence and National Security Tightrope

    By Jack Goldsmith

    Artificial intelligence (AI) presents nations’ security as many challenges as it does opportunities. While it could create mass-produced malware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, or engineered pathogens, AI solutions could also prove the counter to these threats. Regulating AI to maximize national security capabilities and minimize the risks presented to them will require focus, caution and intent.

  • Future-Proof Security Architecture for Healthcare Communications

    Electronic patient records, digital medication plans, e-prescriptions: These applications are all key elements of the telematics infrastructure (TI). Germany’s telematics infrastructure (TI) aims to allow healthcare professionals to exchange patient data securely, rapidly and from anywhere. The platform for healthcare applications will soon see a new, flexible and therefore future-proof security architecture.

  • Watching Trends: Helping the NRC Model Risk and Reliability

    By Matthew L. Wald

    Nuclear power accounts for 0.03 deaths per terawatt-hour of electricity generated, when including both accidents and deaths due to air pollution. This fatality rate is a factor of 820 lower than electricity produced using coal. One reason U.S. nuclear power plants have such an impressive safety record is that utilities embrace a safety culture, one that uses probabilistic risk assessments, also known as PRAs.

  • North America’s Summer of Wildfire Smoke: 2023 Was Only the Beginning

    By Charles O. Stanier and Gregory Carmichael

    Canada’s seemingly endless wildfires in 2023 introduced millions of people across North America to the health hazards of wildfire smoke. While Western states have contended with smoky fire seasons for years, the air quality alerts across the U.S. Midwest and Northeast this summer reached levels never seen there before. The pressing question on many people’s minds: “Is this the new normal?” From our perspective as air quality scientists, we think the answer is likely “yes.”

  • Live Parasitic Worm Plucked from Australian Woman's Brain

    Doctors in Australia have found and removed a live parasitic worm, roughly 8 centimeters long, from a woman’s brain.The worm was some 8 centimeters (just over 3 inches) long and is a roundworm most commonly seen in python species, known as Ophidascaris robertsi.  It’s the first known case of its kind.

  • Number of U.S. Children Killed by Guns Hit Record High in 2021

    By Melissa Jenco

    Firearm death rates among children and teens rose almost 9% from 2020 to 2021, while disparities worsened, according to a new study. The increasing rates meant firearms remained the leading cause of death for youths. In 2021, 4,752 children and teens were killed by firearms, a rate of almost 6 per 100,000 youths. The rate is up 9% from 2020 and 42% from 2018.

  • An Experiment to Fight Pandemic-Era Learning Loss Launches in Richmond

    By Alec MacGillis

    After intense opposition and skepticism, two elementary schools opened 20 days early to help students make up for what they missed during the time of remote learning. The first question: Would kids show up in the middle of summer for extra schooling?

  • The Need for Speed in Biodefense: How JPEO-CBRND is Shaping its Biological Defense and Medical Strategies

    By Kelly Burkhalter and Daniel Critchfield

    Biological incidents possess an alarming ability to wreak havoc on a massive scale, capable of rapidly escalating beyond the scale seen during COVID-19. The need lies in developing solutions that surpass the speed of these threats. The future of biodefense depends on the ability to rapidly respond to an event by quickly developing and distributing medical countermeasures (MCMs), such as vaccines and therapeutics. This includes optimizing manufacturing techniques and establishing robust partnerships to ensure these MCMs can be quickly and effectively deployed in the event of a threat.

  • Hurricanes Have Become Deadlier, Especially for Socially Vulnerable

    Following a tropical cyclone, deaths can result from several major causes, including deaths from injuries, infectious and parasitic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neuropsychiatric conditions, and respiratory diseases.  Over recent decades, there has been a large variation in cyclone-related excess deaths by hurricane, state, county, year, and social vulnerability across the United States, with 83 percent of hurricane-related deaths occurring more recently and 94 percent in more socially vulnerable counties.

  • Fame-seeking Mass Shooters More Likely to Plan “Surprise” Attacks; Novelty of Their Locations, Targets Brings Added Fame

    Mass shooters pursuing fame often plan their attacks as “surprises,” carefully crafting them in ways that set them apart from previous incidents, which makes them uniquely challenging to prevent. Fame-seekers — unlike those mostly motivated by personal grievance or revenge — planned their crimes around the novelty of the location and targets.

  • The Nuclear Arms Race’s Legacy at Home: Toxic Contamination, Staggering Cleanup Costs and a Culture of Government Secrecy

    By William J. Kinsella

    The Manhattan Project spawned a trinity of interconnected legacies. Among other things, it led to widespread public health and environmental damage from nuclear weapons production and testing. And it generated a culture of governmental secrecy with troubling political consequences.