Bioethics News

December 20, 2024

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Dec. 2, 2024 — Driven by rapid advances in technology and the ever-growing influence of the digital landscape, the art of caring for the physical body and the digital world are becoming increasingly intertwined. The field of cosmetic dermatology is no ...

Experts Call for Clear and Concise Regulation of Exosome-Based Treatments

Oct. 24, 2024 — Clinics that offer exosome therapies claim they have the ability to repair and regenerate tissues and treat inflammatory and other immune-related conditions in a noninvasive way. Now, a team of bioethicists and legal scholars is sounding the alarm ...

Adapting GenAI for the Next Generation of Learning

Oct. 23, 2024 — A new study by learning analytics researchers presents key considerations for generative AI (GenAI) educational tools so they are carefully developed to support, rather than replace, human ...

Transition to Low-Carbon Futures: New Research Uncovers Rise in Legal Challenges to Climate Action

Oct. 8, 2024 — As the global push towards low-carbon societies accelerates, a new study reveals that justice concerns are increasingly surfacing in legal disputes over climate policies and projects. This ...

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Chronic Pain Patients Are More Supportive of Cannabis Access Than Doctors

Oct. 2, 2024 — A study reveals a gap between patient and physician attitudes on medical marijuana ...

Transparency Is Often Lacking in Datasets Used to Train Large Language Models

Aug. 30, 2024 — The Data Provenance Explorer can help machine-learning practitioners make more informed choices about the data they train their models on, which ...

How to Catch a Criminal Using Their 'Skin Shedder' Profile

Aug. 22, 2024 — A pioneering new DNA forensics technique is looking for a reliable method to measure a suspect's individual level of natural shedding of skin and other cells to add to, and compare with, evidence ...

New Research Into Life-Threatening Birth Defect of the Diaphragm

Aug. 6, 2024 — Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a dangerous malformation of the lungs and diaphragm that causes almost a third of affected babies to die from underdeveloped lungs. Medical researchers made ...

People's Moral Values Change With the Seasons

Aug. 6, 2024 — A new psychology study has revealed regular seasonal shifts in people's moral values. The research analyzed survey responses from more than 230,000 people in the U.S. over 10 years and revealed that ...

When Allocating Scarce Resources With AI, Randomization Can Improve Fairness

July 26, 2024 — Researchers argue that, in some situations where machine-learning models are used to allocate scarce resources or opportunities, randomizing ...

Development of 'Living Robots' Needs Regulation and Public Debate

July 22, 2024 — Researchers are calling for regulation to guide the responsible and ethical development of bio-hybrid robotics -- a ground-breaking science which fuses artificial components with living tissue and ...

Greater Focus Needed on How Existing International Law Can Prevent the Increasing Militarization of Outer Space

July 10, 2024 — There is a pressing need for countries and international organizations to understand better how existing international law can help them address ...

Researchers Find Common Immune System Mechanism Between Pregnancy, Cancer

July 8, 2024 — Researchers found a molecular mechanism, shared in cancer and pregnancy, that suppresses the immune system. Block this mechanism, called B7-H4, and the immune system revs up to slow cancer's growth. ...

Scientists Map How Deadly Bacteria Evolved to Become Epidemic

July 4, 2024 — Pseudomonas aeruginosa -- an environmental bacteria that can cause devastating multidrug-resistant infections, particularly in people with underlying lung conditions -- evolved rapidly and then ...

Human-Like Artificial Intelligence May Face Greater Blame for Moral Violations

Dec. 18, 2024 — In a new study, participants tended to assign greater blame to artificial intelligences (AIs) involved in real-world moral transgressions when they perceived the AIs as having more human-like ...

Recovery of Testing for Heart Disease Risk Factors Post-COVID Remains Patchy

Nov. 26, 2024 — Routine screening to detect risk factors for heart disease dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, and some key measurements, such as blood pressure readings, may still lag behind ...

Math-Selective US Universities Reduce Gender Gap in STEM Fields

Nov. 21, 2024 — Nationally, men in colleges and universities currently outpace women in earning degrees in physics, engineering, and computer science (PECS) by an approximate ratio of 4 to 1. To better understand ...

Political Shadows Cast by the Antarctic Curtain

Nov. 18, 2024 — The scientific debate around the installation of a massive underwater curtain to protect Antarctic ice sheets from melting lacks its vital political perspective. A research team argues that the ...

Organ Donation: Opt-out Defaults Do Not Increase Donation Rates, Study Finds

Nov. 13, 2024 — A recent study shows that switching to an opt-out organ donation policy, where all adults are presumed organ donors unless they explicitly opt out, does not increase donations from deceased ...

New Study Traces Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Movement and Evolution of Seasonal Flu

Nov. 7, 2024 — Increased capabilities for genomic surveillance have offered new insights into global viral evolution. Seasonal flu showed a 'remarkable' bounce back to pre-pandemic levels once ...

From Compliance to Conversation: New Guidelines Push for Ethical Reflection in Research Reporting

Nov. 4, 2024 — A new study highlights key challenges and tensions in research ethics, particularly in light of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and calls for the adoption of new research ...

Remote Medical Interpreting Is a Double-Edged Sword in Healthcare Communication, Researchers Find

Nov. 4, 2024 — Remote medical interpreting (RMI) may be hindering healthcare communication rather than helping it, according to a new ...

How COVID-19 Transformed Family Dinners

Oct. 31, 2024 — While the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic led many families to eat more meals at home, they had an additional benefit: an increase in the quality of family time during those dinners, ...

COVID-19 Pandemic Worsened Patient Safety Measures, Study Finds

Oct. 30, 2024 — A new study has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted patient safety indicators in U.S. hospitals. The study examined data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators ...

Nearly 6 Percent of Pregnant Women Report Marijuana Use, U.S. Study Finds

Oct. 30, 2024 — A new study, using responses from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, has found that about 6 percent of pregnant women reported using marijuana during the last month, and many did not ...

Engineers Unveil AI Model for Predicting, Controlling Pandemic Spread

Oct. 24, 2024 — A team of engineers has published a study on how international air travel has influenced the spread of COVID-19, finding Western Europe, the Middle East and North America as leading regions in ...

Bystanders in a Combat Zone Are Treated as Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Oct. 23, 2024 — People's bias toward sacrificing unknown bystanders appears to stem from assuming the unidentified person is an enemy, according to a new ...

Data Security: Breakthrough in Research With Personalized Health Data

Oct. 23, 2024 — The European research project 'Federated Secure Computing' presents a new approach that allows patient data from different institutions to be analysed securely and ...

H5 Influenza Vaccines: What Needs to Be Done to Reduce the Risk of a Pandemic

Sep. 4, 2024 — As the global threat of H5N1 influenza looms with outbreaks across species and continents including the U.S., three international vaccine and public health experts say it is time to fully resource ...

Explaining the Mechanism of Social Evolution Driven by Gift Giving

Sep. 3, 2024 — New findings provide quantitative criteria for classifying social organizations in human history, together with potential explanatory variables that can be empirically measured for anthropology, ...

COVID-19 Vaccination Mandates Boosted Uptake Among Health Care Workers, Study Finds

Sep. 3, 2024 — A new study has found that state-level COVID-19 vaccination mandates successfully increased vaccine rates among health care workers, a finding that, while perhaps unsurprising, provides evidence of ...

Study Explains Why Laws Are Written in an Incomprehensible Style

Aug. 19, 2024 — A new study on 'legalese' suggests this convoluted language acts to convey a sense of authority in legal documents. The researchers also found that even non-lawyers use legalese when asked ...

Morals Are Key to Consumer Views on Lab-Grown Meat, Study Finds

July 19, 2024 — People's moral values could limit their uptake of lab-grown meat, a study suggests. People who say living a natural life is morally important to them are more likely to reject lab-grown meat -- ...

Charting an Equitable Future for DNA and Ancient DNA Research in Africa

July 11, 2024 — The American Journal of Human Genetics recently published a perspective piece on the need for an equitable and inclusive future for DNA and ancient DNA (aDNA) research in Africa. The paper highlights ...