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Daniel Lawler
A nurse prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 27, 2020, at Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. Five years since COVID-19 started upending the world, the virus is still infecting and killing people across the globe — though at far lower levels than during the height of the pandemic.
WORLD / Society
Jan 20, 2025
Vaccine misinformation: A lasting side effect from COVID-19
Concerns have emerged over whether vaccine hesitancy could inhibit the world's ability to fend off another pandemic.
Palestinians at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
WORLD
Jan 10, 2025
Gaza death toll 40% higher than recorded, peer-reviewed study estimates
New study used data from Gaza's health ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries to reach a best estimate of 64,260 deaths by June 30 last year.
One researcher claims that the much-touted long lifespans of Japan, Italy and other countries may be propped up by faulty data.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 25, 2024
The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, says Ig Nobel Prize winner.
The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to "move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying," the researcher has said.
There is no guarantee that bird flu will ever begin transmitting between humans, and U.S. health authorities have emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low.
WORLD
Dec 12, 2024
'Knocking on our door': Experts warn of bird flu's pandemic threat
U.S. health authorities have emphasized that the risk to the general public remains low.
A researcher works in the Ruvkun Lab in the Richard B. Simches Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on Monday. U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated.
WORLD
Oct 8, 2024
What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
Several treatments and tests are under development using microRNAs against cancer, heart disease, viruses and other illnesses.
Of the 384 people who died from all mpox strains in Congo this year, more than 60% were children, the World Health Organization has said.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 27, 2024
Fears emerge over new 'most dangerous' mpox strain crossing borders
The new deadlier strain transmits more easily between people — including through nonsexual contact — and is killing children and causing miscarriages in Congo.
The Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, glow on the horizon as seen from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, on May 10.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
May 18, 2024
'Danger behind the beauty': More solar storms could be heading our way
For those charged with protecting Earth from powerful solar storms such as the one that caused the recent auroras, a threat lurks beneath the stunning colors.
3M’s Cottage Grove, Minnesota, factory had been churning out varieties of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances since the 1950s. Recent studies have linked widely used compounds within the chemical family to reduced immune response and cancer.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 4, 2024
How PFAS 'forever chemicals' affect human health
There is firm evidence that at least one of the more than 4,000 human-made chemicals called PFAS causes cancer.
Aissam Dam, 11, the first person to receive gene therapy in the U.S. for congenital deafness, signs to an interpreter during an interview at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Jan. 16.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 28, 2024
'Game changer': Gene therapy offers hope for children born deaf
The treatment focuses on a rare genetic mutation that affects only a small number of the 26 million people with congenital deafness globally.
A street thermometer marks 40 degrees Celsius in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 15, 2023
Heat projected to kill nearly five times more people by 2050
A team of international experts warned that without climate change action, the "health of humanity is at grave risk."
French-Swedish physicist Anne L'Huillier, one of this year's Nobel laureates in physics, celebrates with students and colleagues in Lund, Sweden, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2023
What are attoseconds? New ways to measure time win physics Nobel.
There are around as many attoseconds in a single second as there have been seconds in the 13.8-billion year history of the universe.
A radiographer prepares a patient to undergo a mammogram to look for early signs of breast cancer in the radiology unit at a hospital in Nairobi.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2023
AI could halve time reading breast cancer scans, study suggests
The interim results of the trial were hailed as promising, but the authors cautioned that more research is needed.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 20, 2023
How heatwaves are dangerous to human health
Research recently found that more than 61,000 people died due to the heat in Europe last summer — and 2023 is shaping up to be even hotter.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 3, 2023
Experts warn bird flu virus changing rapidly in largest ever outbreak
While emphasizing that the risk to humans remains low, experts said that the surging number of bird flu cases in mammals was a cause for concern.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 11, 2023
Human pangenome ushers in 'new age of genetic diagnosis'
Scientists hope that the more diverse and accurate DNA blueprint for our species will help shed light on a range of diseases.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 2, 2023
Scientists use brain scans and AI to 'decode' thoughts
While the main goal is to help people who have lost the ability to communicate, the research raises concerns about 'mental privacy.'
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 7, 2023
Why was the Turkey-Syria earthquake so deadly?
Timing, location and the weak construction of the collapsed buildings are some of the factors that made the quake particularly deadly, experts said.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 4, 2023
Experts skeptical that China travel curbs will be effective
China has branded the restrictions 'unacceptable' and vowed to take countermeasures.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 29, 2022
Soaring China COVID cases increase risk of new variants, experts say
With the virus now able to circulate among nearly one-fifth of the world's population, other nations and experts fear China will become fertile ground for new variants.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 23, 2022
Three years into COVID-19, are we ready for the next pandemic?
Preparations to stave off the next pandemic are starting to ramp up, but far more needs to be done to avoid repeating past mistakes.

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Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go