Author: Reporter

It was the summer of 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, killing thousands of people as waves of destructive energy obliterated two cities. That decisive move helped bring about the end of World War II, but survivors and the generations that followed were left to grapple with sickness from radiation exposure. At the time, U.S. President Harry Truman called it “the greatest scientific gamble in history,” saying the rain of ruin from the air would usher in a new concept of force and power. What he did not mention was that the federal government had...

Scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year, according to an FBI report released in May that shows a rise in losses through increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics to trick the vulnerable into giving up their life savings. Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before, according to the FBI’s report. Investigators are warning of a rise in brazen schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims. “It can be a devastating impact to older...

A message displayed above a mural of a sailboat bobbing on ocean waves under a cloud-studded azure sky said, “You are the Lighthouse in someone’s storm.” It was an unexpected slogan for a prison wall. On a nearby door painted deep blue, a bright yellow Minion character offers “ways to say hello,” lists of suggestions about how prisoners incarcerated in a segregated unit of Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institution at Albion can best greet each other. A handful of “sensory” rooms in the unit offer calming blue walls where harsh fluorescent lighting is dimmed by special covers. The unique environment...

A new strategy to fight an extremely aggressive type of brain tumor showed promise in a pair of experiments with a handful of patients. Scientists took patients’ own immune cells and turned them into “living drugs” able to recognize and attack glioblastoma. In the first-step tests, those cells shrank tumors at least temporarily, researchers reported recently. So-called CAR-T therapy already is used to fight blood-related cancers like leukemia but researchers have struggled to make it work for solid tumors. Now separate teams at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania are developing next-generation CAR-T versions designed to get...

A blood test for colon cancer performed well in a recently published study, offering a new kind of screening for a leading cause of cancer deaths. The test looks for DNA fragments shed by tumor cells and precancerous growths. It is already for sale in the U.S. for $895, but has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and most insurers do not cover it. The maker of the test, Guardant Health, anticipates an FDA decision this year. In the study, the test caught 83% of the cancers but very few of the precancerous growths found by...