your science briefing for 02.11.2025

Mapping vaginal biomes to improve reproductive health, how global warming will put senior citizens at risk, the looming threat at the NIH, and more...

You contain multitudes. No, that’s not some heavy-handed platitude about belonging, or mental health, or social psychology. You are literally a walking, talking ecosystem of not just cells, tissues, and organs, but also symbiotic microbes that we now know play a role in your digestion, personality, and mood regulation. This is why scientists are so busy studying the biomes in belly buttons, guts, and now, vaginas. The goal is to get a new understanding of ecosystems in reproductive organs to help treat both common and unusual infections, and get insights into reproductive health… (LiveScience)

Doctors got a very pleasant surprise a few years ago as studies showed that the HPV vaccine significantly decreased rates of six types of cancers. That meant fighting an already common and problematic virus led us to create effective cancer vaccines as a side effect. In a similar vein, some researchers are optimistic that a shingles vaccine may lower the lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer’s… (Deplatform Disease)

We may be done with COVID but that doesn’t mean COVID is done with us, as a new study from New Zealand hints. Turns out that even young, healthy adults with who’ve had the illness show different patterns of blood flow in the prefrontal cortex, and just over a third of them show a notable decrease in performance in at least one task that requires decision making and a working memory. This study is small and preliminary, but its results definitely indicate the need for a followup… (PsyPost)

According to popular sentiment, senior citizens don’t care about climate change and global warming because they won’t be around the see its worst effects. But given how quickly the planet has been warming up, just another half of a degree more in average global temperatures will increase the regions where those 60 and older are in danger of being killed by a heat wave by 35%… (Science Daily)

I’ve already laid out why RFK Jr. is the worst candidate to lead the HHS and the NIH, but it seems important to highlight just how his denialist attitude towards infectious disease — and the current freeze on all research for ideological purity — will put us in a terrible position to fight the next pandemic. Viruses don’t care about our politics or who’s in charge. They will come for us no matter what, and there’s a growing risk that we will not be ready as 2020 repeats itself. But don’t just take it from me. Take it from a researcher at the NIH trying to warn the public… (Mother Jones)