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For decades, new therapies were routinely tested only in men, and assumed to work the same way in women. The landmark NIH Revitalization Act, with its requirement that women be included in clinical trials, rang in a new era. But on the law’s 30th anniversary, progress remains incomplete. Research into many conditions that primarily affect women are underfunded, findings ar...
Reproductive health, critical though it is, is not the sum of women’s health. The distinctive development of female bodies across the lifespan requires targeted study to uncover the pathways of acute and chronic conditions and the treatments that will control or cure them. Women generally live longer than men, but are at greater risk of osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, a...
The #MeToo movement has inspired a sister movement called #USToo, designed to expose and eliminate sexual harassment in the sciences. A sweeping new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine looks at the extent to which women in these fields are harassed on campuses, research labs, medical centers and other academic environments. The chillin...
Best known to the public as the Trump Administration’s White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator, physician Deborah Birx is a clinical immunologist who has also served as US Global AIDS coordinator and a colonel in the US Army. Challenged to speak the truth about COVID-19, she balanced candor and political pragmatism to get out accurate information. Her new book, Sile...
If we are lucky enough to reach age 85, we face a 25 percent chance of dementia, and the odds worsen with time. Some 50 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2017, and that number is predicted to double every 20 years so that by 2050, the afflicted population will reach 132 million. The most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease, an invariably progressive con...
For many women reaching middle age, menopause is a liberating signal that the childbearing years have come to an end. But with its characteristic hot flashes and complex effects on memory, sleep, sexual functioning, bones, and mental health, this inevitable part of aging is also marked by physical and emotional challenges. Misinformation, research gaps, cultural myths, and...
NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars earlier this year, continuing decades of research and fascination with the Red Planet. What can we learn from the rocks and soil the rover is tasked with collecting — and why should we care? What fuels the need to explore? In this conversation, Perseverance Flight Director Diana Trujillo sits down with Marina Koren, who covers space...
The ability to endure is the essential trait in every extreme athletic endeavor. Hundred-mile races, Himalayan Mountain expeditions, and cross-continental treks all require humans to push harder and achieve more than we ever thought possible. How important is the delicate interplay between mind and body in the struggle to keep pushing despite an agonizing will to stop? Wha...