Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Mom Brain: Few Areas Of The Brain Are 'Untouched' By Pregnancy
CNN: Pregnancy Changes The Brain More Than Previously Known, Study Finds
Researchers have created one of the first comprehensive maps of how the brain changes throughout pregnancy, substantially improving upon understanding of an understudied field. Certain brain regions may shrink in size during pregnancy yet improve in connectivity, “with only a few regions of the brain remaining untouched by the transition to motherhood,” according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience. (Rogers, 9/16)
Other science and research —
The Washington Post: Scientists Just Figured Out How Many Chemicals Enter Our Bodies From Food Packaging
Shrink-wrap sealed around a piece of raw meat. Takeout containers filled with restaurant leftovers. Plastic bottles filled with soft drinks. These are just a few types of food packaging that surround humans every day. And a new study released Monday shows the chemical toll of all that wrapping — and how it might affect the human body. (Osaka, 9/16)
CNN: Microplastics Found In Nose Tissue At Base Of Brain, Study Says
Tiny plastic shards and fibers were found in the nose tissue of human cadavers, according to a small new study. The threads and microplastic pieces were discovered in the olfactory bulb, the part of the nose responsible for detecting odors that sits at the base of the brain. (LaMotte, 9/16)
Futurism: Organisms Created In Laboratory Are "Third State" Beyond Life And Death, Scientists Say
Over the past several years, scientists have repeatedly demonstrated that the cells of various organisms can be repurposed into biological robots, representing stunning advancements in the field of synthetic biology. Some types, like anthrobots, used human cells that could self-assemble into small, hairy structures capable of moving by themselves. Others, like xenobots, are a bit freakier: scientists created these from the cells of already dead frogs, which seemingly cheated death by remaining capable of performing simple tasks and even self-replication. Now, in a new review published in the journal Physiology, researchers are contemplating the implications of taking cells — from organisms dead or alive — and essentially turning them into machines with totally new functions. Namely, that this points to a biological "third state" — one that doesn't neatly fit into the categories of life and death. (Landymore, 9/14)
Also —
Axios: HHS Updates Rules For Probing Research Misconduct
The Biden administration has finished the first update in 20 years of rules for investigating fraud in federally funded research but backed away from some aggressive changes after getting blowback from universities. Research misconduct hit an all-time high last year, with the number of journal article retractions hitting more than 10,000, Nature reported. (Goldman, 9/16)
