Tuesday, May 26, 2026
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URI scientists working on advanced cancer treatment
Genetically reengineered bacteria targets cancerous tumors
However, when oncolytic (cancer-killing)
bacteria are injected into a tumor, the immune system is alerted to the invader
and destroys it, simultaneously attacking the tumor.
While previous research from Johns Hopkins University is successfully completing clinical trials, University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Kaitlin Dailey is expanding on that work to more specifically target tumors that are difficult or impossible to access, especially those associated with pancreatic cancer—one of the deadliest types.
Scientists Discover Metformin Doesn’t Work the Way We Thought
How wonder drug works
By Kristin Samuelson, Northwestern University
However, a new study from Northwestern
University using mice suggests the drug’s primary target is actually
the gut. Researchers found metformin lowers blood sugar by increasing glucose
use in cells that line the intestine, helping prevent excess sugar from
building up in the bloodstream.
Glucose is an essential source of energy for the body, but
chronically high levels can contribute to insulin resistance and
damage to blood vessels and organs. The study indicated that metformin reduces
mitochondrial energy production in intestinal cells, forcing those cells to
burn more glucose.
“Metformin essentially helps the intestine suck the glucose
out of the bloodstream, which further highlights that the gut plays a major
role in regulating blood sugar levels,” said corresponding author Navdeep
Chandel, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The study was published in Nature Metabolism.
Nurses say Trump's CDC is "too weak" to handle the Ebola outbreak
Trump regime has gutted US ability to handle disease outbreaks
National Nurses United
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| Trump has other priorities |
Nurses know stopping outbreaks takes
strong public health care systems, global cooperation, and support for
frontline health care workers. Trump’s attacks on all of these have left our
country less prepared to respond in this critical moment.
NNU issued the following statement:
“Nurses understand the life-or-death importance of prevention, and when it comes to infectious diseases, that means having strong infrastructure in place to rapidly detect and respond to new outbreaks before they are out of control.
"The Trump administration has purposely taken a sledgehammer to that infrastructure over the past year. Instead of funding a robust web of public health experts, they have stolen from our public health resources to fund tax breaks for billionaires, ICE terror, and warfare abroad, threatening the lives of working people everywhere.
As a result, we are only
just now learning about hundreds of Ebola cases in the DRC, indicating that the
virus has already been spreading for weeks or months before it was
detected.
Let us be clear: The CDC under Trump is flying blind, and that is by design. Nurses are appalled that over the past year, the Trump administration has destroyed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and exited the World Health Organization (WHO), dismantling response infrastructure and delaying critical communications and information.
Monday, May 25, 2026
What ever happening to the Green New Deal (besides Donald Trump)?
The Green New Deal has evolved. Now it’s all about ‘affordability.’
Kate Yoder, Senior Staff Writer
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.
Eight years ago, three little words took hold of the environmental movement: Green New Deal. Part popular slogan, part political philosophy, the phrase described a sweeping agenda to create jobs, advance social justice, and combat climate change through major public investment inspired by the New Deal of the 1930s.
Kate Yoder, Senior Staff Writer
The term made its way from hats and protest signs to the halls of power, where it shaped local and national policy. Progressives even pressured future president Joe Biden to adopt plans to address the crisis in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Progressives seem to have settled on an answer: Make everything about affordability. A new climate agenda released by the Climate and Community Institute, a left-leaning think tank, aims to lower costs for everyday people through home insurance rate caps, bans on utility shutoffs, and other measures.
Congress eventually whittled his ambitions down to the Inflation Reduction Act, a package of green tax credits and incentives that became the nation’s first comprehensive climate policy. That is, until Republicans dismantled the law last year.
Under Donald Trump, the national policy wins Democrats had scored by leveraging the Green New Deal’s momentum all but vanished. The party was left soul-searching, wondering how it should talk about climate change, or if those calling for solutions should even talk about it at all.
It promotes “green economic populism,” a framework to provide relief for the working class through policies that also happen to cut carbon emissions (such as free transit or a moratorium on data centers), while regulating the corporations contributing to climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.
The architects of the so-called “working-class climate agenda” say they’ve learned lessons from the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act: One lacked political will, while the other failed to deliver tangible results to working-class voters quickly enough.
New research reveals that midlife in the U.S. is becoming more stressful and less secure.
Middle Age Is Becoming a Breaking Point in America, Study Reveals
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In reality,
researchers typically define midlife as the period between about ages 40 and
65, a stage that often brings competing demands rather than calm. Many adults
are supporting children while also caring for aging parents, all while managing
careers, finances, and their own health.
New research suggests that, in the United States, this phase
of life has become increasingly difficult in ways that set it apart from other
wealthy nations.
Another study on the positive health effects of coffee
Scientists Discover How Coffee Impacts Memory, Mood, and Gut Health
By University College Cork
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The study, published in Nature Communications and
supported by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), shows
that regularly drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee can shape the
gut microbiome and influence mood and stress.
Although coffee’s benefits for digestion and mental
well-being are well known, the biological processes behind these effects have
not been fully understood. This study explored how coffee affects the
microbiota-gut-brain axis, the two-way communication system linking the gut
microbiome and the brain, using a wide range of measurements.
Candidates for Governor talk taxes and the economy
Gubernatorial candidates Foulkes, Gregerson, Guckian, and McKee speak out at EPI Tax Policy Summit
“What I’m hearing is visionary leadership,” said Weayonnoh
Nelson-Davies, executive director of the Economic Progress Institute (EPI), to
the audience gathered in the Hotel Providence. “The people in this
room want our leaders to be moved, to dream, and to make things possible. We
want leaders who can confront affordability and energy costs, but what does
that mean when we’re making policy?
Front runners Foulkes and McKee
“I’m really inspired by the message that we don’t want a
Rhode Island where we are surviving, we want a Rhode Island where we can
thrive. That is my dream. I’m so competitive. Rhode Island has been my home
state since I immigrated to the United States at 16. I want us to win so bad. I
want that fire in our guts. We can make everyone jealous because they don’t
live in Rhode Island.
“I’m also very grateful to the candidates running for
governor who showed up to not just share with us what they think,” concluded
Nelson-Davies, “but to listen to what the people they might be leading tomorrow
think as well.”
The Economic Progress Institute held the People’s
Tax Policy Summit and Gubernatorial Candidates Reception on Wednesday.
The event brought together residents, advocates, and state leaders to discuss
rising living costs, tax equity, and the state’s financial future. Here’s the
video:
Four candidates for governor, including Helena Foulkes, Will Gregerson, Aaron Guckian, and incumbent Daniel McKee, were provided
three minutes to address those in attendance. The candidates were introduced
by Chelsea Speaks, from the RICJ (Rhode
Island for Community and Justice), and Joseph Ortiz, a “Tax
Justice Ambassador” with ARISE (Alliance
of Rhode Island Southeast Asians).
The following has been edited for clarity.
Helena Foulkes
“It’s been so fascinating to listen to all of this, and I especially love Weayonnah’s call to all of us to be bold. It’s important. It’s easy to think about the barriers, but her challenge to dream big puts us on the map.
“Four years ago, I walked into a room of about 75
carpenters, and I’ll be honest with you, I thought I knew what that
conversation was going to be about: wages, job sites, material costs, etc. Then
the first man stood up and started talking about childcare. He talked about
what it was doing to his family. I looked around the room and watched them nod,
one after another, like he was saying out loud what all of them had been
experiencing for years. That moment has never left me because that man wasn’t
asking for anything special. He was asking for a Rhode Island that works for
families like his, and we have not given it to him.
“The cost of infant care in this state is now higher than
in-state college tuition and the average rent. The people who have been running
this state will tell you we have universal pre-K, but they are not the parents
on the waitlist, the ones who, year after year, get a letter that says there’s
no more space.
“It’s not universal if it doesn’t apply to everyone. Less
than a third of low-income children are enrolled in Head Start or pre-K. That
is not a gap. That is a choice the people in charge of our state government
have made year after year, with a $15 billion budget at their disposal. That
ends with me.
“Earlier today, I announced the Rhode Island Employer Match
Childcare Fund, a $20 million pilot that brings the state and Rhode Island
employers together to share the cost of childcare. Employers who invest in
childcare retain their workers, grow their teams, and build stronger companies.
When families win, Rhode Island wins. I’ll expand tax credits for childcare
assistance, and by the end of my second term, every Rhode Island family will
have access to universal pre-kindergarten, not universal in name, universal in
practice. Childcare is only the beginning because the truth is the squeeze does
not stop there: Rhode Island is ranked dead last in the country in new housing
starts last year. There’s not a single community in this state where a family
making $100,000 a year can afford to buy a home.
“I hear it everywhere I go. People who grew up here, want to
stay here, and love this state are being told by the cost of living that
there’s no room for them anymore. That’s wrong, and it has to stop. My Rhode
Island housing program will build 20,000 new homes and apartments that Rhode
Islanders can actually afford, and the wealthiest Rhode Islanders will pay for
it.
“And we’re done cutting RIPTA one year and then funding it
again in an election year. If people can’t afford to live here and can’t afford
to get to work, it doesn’t matter how many good jobs we attract or grow. I will
invest $15 million in job access transit routes connecting workers to Quonset,
hospitals, and other work sites. No one should have to leave a place they love
because they can’t afford to stay.
“So here’s what I’m asking of you: Do not let them tell you
this is the best we can do. Do not accept taglines that say ‘affordability for
all’ when our state is not affordable. Talk to your neighbors, coworkers, and
the parents on the wait list. Tell them things can be different.
“Sixteen years ago, I lost my mother to cancer. It was the
hardest thing I’ve ever been through, but before she died, she gathered my
siblings and me together, and she said something I’ve always carried with me:
‘Take care of each other.’ That’s why I’m running for governor, because that is
what Rhode Island has always been at its best: Neighbors looking out for
neighbors and people who show up for each other even when it’s hard. That’s the
Rhode Island I believe in, and that is the Rhode Island we’re going to build
together.”
Sunday, May 24, 2026
US researchers say how the Trump administration’s science policies have affected them
Self‑censorship, more stress, tougher recruiting
Eric Welch, Arizona State University and Timothy P. Johnson, University of Illinois Chicago
The American academic research engine has long been the envy of the world. Generally well-funded, labs in the United States have been able to attract the best minds who generate breakthroughs and train the next generation workforce that powers the U.S. economy. But since the start of the second Trump administration in January 2025, new federal policies have destabilized the American scientific enterprise.
The disruption generated by the Trump administration’s funding, DEI and visa policies has been well reported by the media. On an individual level, though, what do academic researchers think of all these changes and how have they been directly affected?
We are researchers affiliated with Arizona State University’s scientist opinion panel survey, known as SciOPS, a 5-year research program designed to monitor, understand and improve how scientists communicate with the public. We wanted to know more about the reality inside today’s universities as researchers grapple with Trump administration policies.
Along with our colleagues, we fielded a survey of randomly sampled members of the academic science community participating in the SciOPS panel. We obtained responses from 280 scientists from several fields, including biology, chemistry, civil and environmental engineering, computer and information science engineering, geography and public health from 131 universities.
Our results show dramatic, mostly negative, effects of federal policy changes on researchers, the research system and American competitiveness.
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May 30 open house and free paddling
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