Life

Health, science, climate, and society-focused reporting.

Briefing: A world‑first quantum battery charges faster when it gets bigger—but it's tiny and only lasts nanoseconds

Strategic angle: Imagine charging your phone almost instantly by exploiting the strange rules of quantum physics.

Briefing: Rapid melting of Antarctic sea ice is largely driven by ocean warming, research reveals

Strategic angle: Research from the University of Gothenburg uncovers the factors behind the decline of Antarctic sea ice since 2015.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Widely Attended Gatherings (WAGs) Determinations Announced

Strategic angle: NASA reveals upcoming events that qualify as widely attended gatherings for 2026.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about TrumpRx prices, a J&J psoriasis pill, and much more

Strategic angle: U.S. health officials claim TrumpRx offers Americans the world’s lowest prices on prescription drugs, but a new analysis found that is not true.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: FDA and NIH announce more initiatives to reduce animal testing in drug development

Strategic angle: The HHS has made reducing animal testing a priority over the past year.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Quiz – How Well Do You Understand Your Health Insurance – Frameless

Strategic angle: Test your knowledge on health insurance with this 10-question quiz to make informed decisions about your coverage.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: NASA Grappling with Planetary Science Funding Shortfall

Strategic angle: NASA's planetary science program faces a funding shortfall, prompting strategic decisions on mission continuations.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Snail-derived compound could be a safer anticoagulant compared to heparin

Strategic angle: A new study suggests a snail-derived compound may reduce the risk of excessive bleeding associated with traditional anticoagulants.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: J&J Wins Approval for First-of-its-Kind Psoriasis Pill

Strategic angle: Johnson & Johnson's new daily psoriasis pill offers benefits comparable to injectable treatments, potentially disrupting a multibillion-dollar market.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Reasons for illegal fishing 'more nuanced' than previously thought, international research shows

Strategic angle: New research reveals the complex causes behind the resurgence of illegal fishing in northern Australian waters.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Microwave Quantum Network Shows Resilience Against Heat-Related Disturbances

Strategic angle: A new study reveals how quantum communication systems can maintain functionality despite thermal disruptions.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Prodrug lipid nanoparticle could unlock universal immunotherapy for solid cancers

Strategic angle: Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new type of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that could one day serve as a universal immunotherapy for cancers that form solid tumors.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Protein sequencing advance offers new insights into life's foundations

Strategic angle: Proteins, one of the smallest building blocks of life on Earth, hold promise for answering some of biology's biggest questions.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Drug smoking can lead to severe burns, complicating harm reduction efforts

Strategic angle: A new study reveals that opioid smokers are four times more likely to suffer severe burns compared to those who inject drugs.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Opinion: Exposed and invisible in an ER hallway bed

Strategic angle: Hallway beds cut into the bones that sustain emergency medicine, shaving away layers of moral tenets and high standards.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Opinion: I was a surgeon. The hardest part of leaving medicine was believing that I could

Strategic angle: Leaving her career as a surgeon, Frances Mei Hardin writes, “was the beginning of a life I actually wanted.”

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Scientists race to decode data from Europe’s vanishing glaciers

Strategic angle: Glacier ice contains valuable information about the climates of the past. Researchers are scrambling to study it before it's too late.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: The Supreme Court takes up a Guam munitions case with high stakes for CHamoru lands

Strategic angle: The ruling won't just dictate the fate of a CHamoru beach. It could set a major precedent for Indigenous rights and federal power across U.S. territories.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: Government to lift paywall from large parts of the Land Registry

Strategic angle: Finding out who owns land will become simpler under plans to make the best use of green spaces and hit net zero targets.

Editorial Staff Mar 18

Life

Briefing: A 'consortium' of bacteria cooperates to eat phthalate plasticizers that single microbes can't stomach

Strategic angle: Plastic trash has reached the world's most remote locations, from the bottom of the Mariana Trench to the summit of Everest.

Editorial Staff Mar 18