As early as 2026, sexual assault survivors, health care facilities, law enforcement agencies, forensic science laboratories and attorneys’ offices in Kansas will be able to track the status of a sexual assault evidence kit, also known as a rape kit, through an online system. Kansas is among the last states in the country to adopt such a system.
Found in over 180 species of fungi these mushrooms have a long history of use in Indigenous spiritual and healing rituals in parts of Central and South America. Studies have found that 80% of patients who were given psilocybin experienced a drop in anxiety and depression that lasted for six months or more. David Seymour, New Zealand’s associate minister of health, said the new policy is a “real breakthrough.”
45% of US hens, 62% of European hens, and 82% of British hens are now cage-free — up from about 13%, 44%, and 50% respectively a decade ago. Fully 150 million fewer American, European, and British hens are now caged than a decade ago, even as egg demand has risen in all three markets. Most companies with cage-free pledges — over 1,400, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, Amazon, and Costco — have already implemented them.
Just 10 years ago, Rwanda’s gray crowned cranes were vanishing. Once a familiar sight in wetlands across East Africa, their numbers in Rwanda had collapsed, driven by habitat loss and capture for the exotic pet trade. That grim picture has now changed dramatically, thanks largely to the work of Olivier Nsengimana, a veterinarian and founder of the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association, which has led a national campaign to rescue, rehabilitate, and eventually reintroduce captive cranes to the wild.
More than £2.5bn of investment into fusion energy over the next five years has been announced as part of the British government’s Spending Review. It said the money would “cement” Oxfordshire’s role as a “world-leading hub” for the technology, while funds would also be invested into plans to build a fusion power plant in Nottinghamshire. Nuclear fusion is the same energy process that powers the stars, which scientists say has the potential of virtually unlimited supplies of low-carbon, low-radiation energy and is often called the “holy grail” of clean energy.
In a historic and bipartisan move, the State of Texas has approved $50 million in state funding for drug development trials for ibogaine, a powerful, naturally occurring medicine showing extraordinary promise as a breakthrough treatment for substance use disorder, trauma-related conditions, and traumatic brain injury. With the passage of House Bill 3717, Texas now leads the country—and the world—in psychedelic research investment.
The massive new MPA in the South Pacific will cover the semi-autonomous French territory’s entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ), roughly 1.9 million square miles. It will include nearly 420,000 square miles of highly or fully protected ocean, an area twice the size of mainland France. Of this, some about 350,000 square miles will be fully protected. In these areas, no extractive fishing or mining will be allowed. About 72,000 square miles will be an artisanal fishing zone, only allowing traditional line fishing.
The pioneering work from Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University researchers targets pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the most common cancer that plagues the organ. While not the most common form of cancer, pancreatic cancer is particularly insidious, often remaining undetected until it metastasizes. The five-year survival rate is just 13.3%. In preclinical trials, the vaccine eliminated the cancer in more than half of the targets.
In the 90s, the Green Corridor, a 457,000-acre stretch of protected land that links Argentina’s Iguazú National Park and Brazil’s Iguaçu, was home to between 400 and 800 jaguars. By 2005, that number had dropped to 40. Today, thanks to coordinated conservation efforts between the two countries, the population has grown to at least 105. Women-led economic initiatives and formal institutional support, like “Jaguar Friendly” certification for the local airport, have proven vital to strengthening human-wildlife connections and bolstering conservation efforts.
The virus’s ability to conceal itself inside white blood cells is a core challenge for scientists looking for a cure. It means there is a reservoir of HIV in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can access. Now, researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection & Immunity in Melbourne have found a way to make the virus visible, paving the way to fully clear it from the body. UNAids estimates that one person died of HIV every minute in 2023.
