Science

To try to stay ahead of any future pandemics, scientists at Scripps Research in La Jolla are taking a deeper look into the proteins that coronaviruses depend on to survive. And with their findings, they hope to develop next-generation treatments and adjust to potential mutations. Related Articles How to get a COVID-19 shot and ensure it’s covered by your insurance Major California health insurers side with Newsom and medical groups to cover COVID shots West Coast states issue joint vaccine recommendations ahead of CDC advisers meeting COVID-19: Bay Area physicians go ‘full court press’ on vaccine access Kennedy’s vaccine committee plans to vote on COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox shots A study published in June in the scientific journal PLOS Biology uncovered 32 proteins “essential for the earliest stage of infection” of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, as well as cellular pathways that are exploited and the 27 proteins the virus uses later. When resea...

Hoping to reduce flooding risk for thousands of people living in low lying areas and expand habitat for fish and wildlife, Silicon Valley’s largest water agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday announced they have completed a $197 million project to build two miles of new levees along San Francisco Bay’s southern shoreline. The new 15-foot-high clay and dirt structures stretch from Alviso Marina County Park to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge Environmental Education Center. They are designed to protect homes and businesses against the type of winter storms that have severely flooded the low-lying community of Alviso multiple times with water up to 6 feet deep and which are posing more risk as sea level rises due to climate change. “I lived through the floods of the 1950s, 60s 1983 and 1995,” said Dick Santos, an Alviso native who serves as vice chairman of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “Not just the water, but the damage, the destru...

By MATTHEW PERRONE, Associated Press WASHINGTON  — When President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would repurpose an old, generic drug as a new treatment for autism, it came as a surprise to many experts — including the physician who suggested the idea to the nation’s top health officials. Dr. Richard Frye told The Associated Press that he’d been talking with federal regulators about developing his own customized version of the drug for children with autism, assuming more research would be required. RELATED:  California health officials say Trump’s claims linking Tylenol and autism are false and harmful “So we were kinda surprised that they were just approving it right out of the gate without more studies or anything,” said Frye, an Arizona-based child neurologist who has a book and online education business focused on the experimental treatment. Related Articles California health officials say Trump’s claims linking Tylenol and autism are false and harmful ...

By MIKE STOBBE and LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press ATLANTA  — Access to COVID-19 shots is the big question as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisers meet again Friday, after putting off a controversial vote on a different vaccine for newborns. Related Articles Kennedy’s panel recommends new restrictions on chicken pox, measles, mumps and rubella vaccines Major California health insurers side with Newsom and medical groups to cover COVID shots Kennedy’s advisory panel recommends new restrictions on MMRV vaccines West Coast states issue joint vaccine recommendations ahead of CDC advisers meeting COVID-19: Bay Area physicians go ‘full court press’ on vaccine access People in many states already are reporting frustration as they they try to determine, or prove, if they qualify for updated COVID-19 vaccines — even as infections have climbed over the past month. The Food and Drug Administration recently put new restrictions on this year’s shots from...

By Gene Johnson | Associated Press SEATTLE — Four Democratic-led Western states announced joint recommendations Wednesday about who should be vaccinated for seasonal respiratory viruses, including the flu and COVID-19, saying the Trump administration has jeopardized public health by politicizing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii early this month formed the West Coast Health Alliance in an effort to combat what they describe as the “weaponization” of federal health agencies to advance anti-vaccine policies , despite decades of scientific research showing that vaccines are safe and effective . RELATED: Bay Area sees COVID-19 wave and ‘tremendous confusion’ about vaccines Their recommendations follow those of major medical organizations and came a day before a panel of CDC advisers were due to begin meeting to review recommendations for some vaccines, including COVID . Related Articles COVID-19: Bay Area physicians go...

By Maggie Eastland, Bloomberg US lawmakers are asking Futurewei, a subsidiary of the blacklisted Chinese firm Huawei Technologies Co., to explain why it shared buildings in Silicon Valley with Nvidia Corp. , thrusting the US chipmaker into the crossfire of an investigation into possible Chinese espionage. A letter penned by Republican Chairman John Moolenaar and Democratic Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi of the House Select Committee on China shows a decadelong history of a shared address for Futurewei Technologies Inc. at Nvidia’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The lawmakers say that Futurewei held the prime lease on three buildings at the site before Nvidia acquired full control in 2024. The letter also cites a May filing that shows Futurewei is a subsidiary of Huawei. Related Articles Nvidia scoops up Santa Clara building as company widens holdings Broadcom to help OpenAI create AI chip to take on Nvidia Nvidia’s venture arm invests in Honeywell’s Quantinuum Bi...

By Emma Court, Bloomberg At a church parking lot near Los Angeles, two hazmat-suit-clad workers vacuumed and wiped most of the contents of Elle Schneider’s house. Surrounded by stacked plastic bins of books and clothes, they opened up the drawers of a squat wooden dresser and swabbed the outside of a tall white cabinet. Elle Schneider (Alex Welsh/Bloomberg)  The blaze that ravaged the LA suburb of Altadena in January stopped some 50 feet short of the freelance cinematographer’s home, but its plumes filtered through doors and windows, leaving behind lead and other hazardous substances. “It’s embarrassing and it’s dehumanizing to have to do this in front of the entire neighborhood,” said Schneider, who relied on the makeshift remediation center at the church to clean many of her belongings. “It’s bad enough to have to throw out so much of your stuff.” Months after the smoke from California’s destructive fires cleared from LA skies, residents are still reckoning with a t...

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY, Associated Press Fifty-five heat waves over the past quarter-century would not have happened without human-caused climate change , according to a study published Wednesday. Related Articles Stanford graduates’ startup turns almond shell waste into organic fertilizer Are EVs really better for the environment? Study checks role of coal, battery and range ‘Weird and gorgeous’: Massive fish washes up on Bay Area beach Wildfire threats to California water resources demand attention, group warns Opinion: Masquerading as green, state bill would unleash toxins into poor neighborhoods Planet-warming emissions from 180 major cement, oil and gas producers contributed significantly to all of the heat events considered in the study, which was published in the journal Nature and examined a set of 213 heat waves from 2000 to 2023. The polluters examined in the study include publicly traded and state-owned companies, as well several countries where fossil fuel produc...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP/MARCIA DUNN) — NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has uncovered rocks in a dry river channel that may hold potential signs of ancient microscopic life, scientists reported Wednesday. They stressed that in-depth analysis is needed of the sample gathered there by Perseverance — ideally in labs on Earth — before reaching any conclusions. Roaming Mars since 2021, the rover cannot directly detect life. Instead, it carries a drill to penetrate rocks and tubes to hold the samples gathered from places judged most suitable for hosting life billions of years ago. The samples are awaiting retrieval to Earth — an ambitious plan that’s on hold as NASA seeks cheaper, quicker options. Calling it an “exciting discovery,” a pair of scientists who were not involved in the study — SETI Institute’s Janice Bishop and the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Mario Parente — were quick to point out that non-biological processes could be responsible. “That’s part of the reason why we...

DENVER — The toxic gas eyed as a possible culprit in the deaths of six dairy workers in Colorado’s Weld County in August is an infrequent but potentially dangerous feature of this type of agricultural work, while experts say the number of victims has little precedent in modern American history. First responders reported the fatalities at the Prospect Valley Dairy outside Keenesburg on Aug. 20 were possibly associated with exposure to high levels of hydrogen sulfide , known as H2S, a colorless, flammable and corrosive gas that smells like rotten eggs. Hydrogen sulfide naturally occurs in sewers, manure pits, well water, oil and gas wells and volcanoes. It’s also produced in a number of industries, including mining, tanning, oil and gas refining and certain types of agriculture. Its effects depend on how much of it a person breathes in and for how long. Low levels of H2S can produce headaches or eye, nose and throat irritation. But higher levels can cause nausea, vomiting, shortness...

Riverhead, New York — Evidence derived from cutting-edge DNA technology that prosecutors say points directly at Rex Heuermann being the Gilgo Beach serial killer will be admissible at his trial, a Suffolk County judge ruled Wednesday. The decision by Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Timothy Mazzei is an important win for prosecutors and a blow for the defense team that challenged the validity of this type of technology that specializes in extracting nuclear DNA from damaged or hard-to-get samples, such as rootless hair. Related Articles Handmade cards from classmates comfort a girl wounded in Minneapolis church shooting, aunt says Minneapolis shooting reignites debate over gun control and prayer Letters: Reaction to latest shooting will be predictably ineffective Shooting in Minneapolis is the latest carnage at a US school or college over the past 25 years A shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school kills 2 children, injures 17 people It was these types of individual str...

Liver specialist Maurizio Bonacini is in the race for a cure for hepatitis B, one of the world’s most widespread diseases and a top cause of liver cancer around the globe. “It’s the last frontier,” said Dr. Bonacini, a San Francisco-based clinical researcher who has spent his career studying the chronic version of the disease estimated to affect more than 2 million people in the United States. Related Articles As football season begins, UCSF announces study aiming to diagnose CTE in living people CDC dramatically scales back program that tracks food poisoning infections Cottom: Why Make America Healthy Again is a gateway to gimmicks West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes detected in San Jose ICE agents create fear at California hospitals The World Health Organization estimates that one of three people worldwide has been infected by acute hepatitis B. The likelihood of developing chronic hepatitis B is higher for the young — the risk is 90 percent for babies with the bloodborn...