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Dogs can understand words for objects, researchers say

Our dogs understand us better than they’ve been given credit for — and scientists say they have the brain wave

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Spread of organic farms may prompt use more pesticides

To help California fight climate change, air quality regulators would like to see 20% of the state’s farmland go organic

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State faults L.A. hospital that suffered power outage

A power outage that forced hundreds of patients to be evacuated at a Boyle Heights hospital last summer was the

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Hiltzik: Who made the COVID debate so toxic?

In a Dec. 2 tweet, Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University, stated that

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California has to worry about measles again

The measles virus is resurging in the U.S. despite the long-standing availability of a vaccine that provides nearly life-long immunity.

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California communities are banning syringe programs. State fights back

As Indiana officials struggled to contain an outbreak of HIV among people who injected drugs, then-Gov. Mike Pence reluctantly followed

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Parasite that’s deadly for dogs now confirmed in California

For five years, an elusive tormentor of animals hid from authorities in east Riverside County as 10 dogs were injured

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SpaceX Starship successfully blasts off on third test flight

The SpaceX rocket that is intended to take humans back to the moon and someday to Mars completed its third

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Many U.S. teens are using delta-8 THC derived from hemp, survey finds

A molecular lookalike of the intoxicating compound found in marijuana has become popular among teens in the United States, especially

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More parents are delaying kids’ vaccines, posing risk to toddlers

As measles cases pop up across the country this winter — including several in California — one group of children

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Opinion: Mars rocks are a science prize the U.S. can’t afford to lose

NASA does difficult, inspiring and ambitious things — and it does them, in the immortal words of President Kennedy, because

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Microplastics may be risk factor for cardiovascular disease

Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and

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NASA budget deal offers hope for JPL’s Mars Sample Return mission

A bipartisan congressional agreement on NASA’s final budget for the current fiscal year offers a glimmer of hope that the

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California plan to confront doctors’ bias comes under legal attack

Los Angeles anesthesiologist Dr. Marilyn Singleton was outraged about a California requirement that every continuing medical education course include training

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California babies aren’t getting vital preventive care. Here’s why

Maria Mercado’s 5- and 7-year-old daughters haven’t been to the doctor for a check-up in two years. And it’s not

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San Francisco will start prosecuting drug dealers for murder

SAN FRANCISCO —  County by county in California, as fentanyl overdoses escalate, local prosecutors are turning to a novel legal strategy

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A bioethicist explores the moral questions of Alabama’s IVF ruling

Is a frozen embryo a child? The Alabama Supreme Court says yes. In ruling this month that three couples who

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Inside a NASA-JPL engineer’s mission to Jupiter

Think of meticulously handcrafted objects, and certain things come immediately to mind: fine art, exotic cars, luxury timepieces. But Pasadena

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Why California schools shouldn’t be limited to phonics

A child’s individual differences, skills and experience matter a lot in the learning process, and learning to read is no

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How to see April’s total solar eclipse in the U.S.

Paul Maley has spent much of his life chasing solar eclipses. He has witnessed 83 solar eclipses from 1960 to

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An essential medical device is failing people of color

Roots Community Health Center was slammed in 2020, with lines for its COVID-19 testing stations stretching around the block and

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Column: Seeking the fountain of youth? Don’t drown in hype

Given the long list of major catastrophes in the world — melting polar ice, raging wars, the disappearance of early-bird

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New synthetic molecule may outsmart drug-resistant bacteria

An estimated 2.8 million people in the U.S. contract infections each year from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to the

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What is Alaskapox? The disease has claimed its first fatality

Public health officials in Alaska have disclosed the first known human death from Alaskapox, a virus typically found in small

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Risk for chronic fatigue soars among COVID-19 patients, study says

People who have had COVID-19 have a significantly higher risk of suffering chronic fatigue than those who haven’t had the

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The plan to diagnose Alzheimer’s in people with no memory problems

In a darkened Amsterdam conference hall this summer, a panel of industry and academic scientists took the stage to announce

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Policymakers try to catch up with rise of AI in healthcare

Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are starting to puzzle over how to regulate artificial intelligence in healthcare — and the

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6,000 pearly octopuses are gathered off California. Why?

It was the last hour of a 30-hour dive, nearly two murky miles below the ocean’s surface. A remotely operated

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She competed in Tough Mudder; pustular rash was her prize

When Nicole Villagran signed up to do her first Tough Mudder course, she thought she’d be getting an entertaining, if

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Opinion: After Stanford president controversy, we’re retracting papers. That’s part of how science must work

As the movie “Oppenheimer” has shown to millions, scientists disagree, have fragile egos, experience office politics and have problems in

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Californians bring fire forensic expertise to Maui search

After recovery comes identification. With new rapid DNA technology, investigators no longer have to send all their material to labs

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Biden and Newsom fail when it comes to overdoses

SAN FRANCISCO —  Isaias Lopez was dying, but he didn’t know it. Lopez was slumped against a wall in the Tenderloin

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How a South L.A. hospital is trying to improve births for Black women

Brianna Mckenzie was feverish and shaking in her bed as night drew near at MLK Community Hospital. The pregnant woman

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L.A. County sues pharmacy benefit firms over opioid crisis

Los Angeles County has become the latest local government to accuse pharmacy benefit managers — the little-known middlemen of the

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California pharmacies make millions of prescription errors each year

Sharri Shaw walked out of the CVS on Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles in 2019 believing she had a

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How to avoid dangerous prescription errors at the pharmacy

Pharmacists are trained to safely dispense medications and avoid mistakes. But in recent years, a chorus of pharmacists have spoken

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Halfway through Medicaid purge, enrollment is down about 10 million

Halfway through what will be the biggest purge of Medicaid beneficiaries in a one-year span, enrollment in the government-run health

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Budget cuts to Mars project prompt hundreds of JPL layoffs

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lay off hundreds of employees this week in anticipation of massive funding cuts in the

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NASA tech helps detect virus that can devastate California wineries

Cutting-edge NASA imaging technology can detect early signs of a plant virus that, if unaddressed, often proves devastating for wineries

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When’s the best time to get a flu shot? What kind should I get?

Flu season is just around the corner, and the time is fast approaching for residents to consider getting their annual

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L.A. Zoo treks into SoCal mountains, returns rare frog to home

The Los Angeles Zoo has released about 170 endangered frogs to their native habitat in the San Gabriel Mountains as

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‘Dr. Google’ meets its match: Dr. ChatGPT

As a fourth-year ophthalmology resident at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Riley Lyons’ biggest responsibilities include triage: When a

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Law punishing doctors who spread COVID misinformation may be undone

Tucked into a state Senate bill revising aspects of the Medical Board of California is a brief but unambiguous clause

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Opinion: Should you sleep with your dog? It depends

Do you sleep with animals? No, I don’t mean people who, you know, do wild and crazy things in bed.

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California scientist blasts climate change research

For climate change deniers, it was confirmation of a long-held suspicion: Scientists cannot be trusted. Days after publishing research that

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Panda Express founders donate $100 million to City of Hope cancer center

Chinese food has been an American favorite for well over 100 years, but it wasn’t until the success of Panda

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Hiltzik: Cancel culture comes to zoological science

We are all familiar by now with the movement to eradicate the names of racists and other villains from the

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Los Angeles County has its first measles case since 2020

A recently arrived traveler at Los Angeles International Airport is the source of the first case of measles in L.A.

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Need an STD test? L.A. County wants your insurance to pay

Inside the glassy waiting room of a Hollywood clinic, a 33-year-old man sat and listened for his number to be

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A newly discovered green comet! See it in Southern California

With a little work, you may be able to see a rare celestial sight in the next few days just

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California could require workplaces to stock naloxone

A new bill would require California workplaces to stock their first-aid kids with a nasal spray that can prevent opioid

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More COVID shots are coming. How many people will get them?

A new coronavirus shot will be available starting this week, but the big question is how many people will get

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NASA has hired a UAP research chief to study UFOs

NASA’s new official instruction to the U.S. public regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena — the odd things in the sky that

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Tens of thousands of Kaiser workers approve possible strike

Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers have voted to authorize a strike if no agreement is reached with their

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Opinion: That pain in your back? It’s really a pain in your brain

As a chronic pain sufferer, I sometimes surprise people by telling them that my pain doesn’t have a physical cause.

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Photos: Rocket makes a SoCal spectacle in launch from Vandenberg

It wasn’t a bird! It wasn’t a plane! It was a rocket that lit up the Southern California sky Thursday

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Hiltzik: The DeSantis team targets the COVID vaccine

The latest government advisories on the new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines were not much of a surprise. On Monday, the Food

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Where you can find the new COVID-19 vaccine

Although shipments of the newest COVID-19 vaccines started arriving in Southern California pharmacies and clinics last week, Kaiser Permanente members

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Bacterial outbreak at DTLA hotel sickens at least 32 people

At least 32 people attending a union conference at the Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles last month were sickened

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Opinion: From COVID to climate, scientists need defending

Nearly a century ago, when global dominance in scientific research began shifting to the United States from Europe, our nation

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A record number of Californians are visiting emergency rooms for dog bites

Those pandemic puppies are growing up to be a public health concern. The latest California data shows increased rates of

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California workers who cut countertops are dying of silicosis

Inside the row of workshops in an industrial stretch of Pacoima, men labored over hefty slabs of speckled stone, saws

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Why high-risk patients aren’t getting anti-COVID drugs

As the toll from the COVID-19 pandemic continued to mount, antiviral medications such as Paxlovid were hailed by health officials

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Hiltzik: The FDA, the courts and the zombie ‘cure’ ivermectin

To anyone who has paid even a modicum of serious attention to COVID-19 and its treatment, ivermectin is the zombiest

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Dianne Feinstein’s cause of death likely wasn’t dementia

No cause of death has been disclosed for Dianne Feinstein, the longtime California senator who struggled with evident health problems

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Scientists whose work paved way for COVID vaccines win Nobel

Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman, American scientists whose long collaboration has revolutionized the making of vaccines and raised the

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Inside the long battle to maintain Mt. Wilson Observatory

Los Angeles was once the best place in the world to see the universe. The most important things we know

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How an autistic L.A. teenager created a 70-minute symphony

The orchestra tuned as the last musicians ambled into Schoenfeld Hall at USC. On a muggy Sunday afternoon in September,

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Opinion: California’s new rules allow COVID-positive kids in school. Here’s the problem

The California Department of Public Health recently updated its COVID guidance to allow people who have tested positive to exit

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How plagiarism-detection programs became a political weapon

The plagiarism accusations first struck Claudine Gay when a right-wing activist published several examples of unattributed text from the Harvard

Technology

NASA finally figures out how to open a $1-billion canister

Late last year, a spacecraft containing samples of a 4.6-billion-year-old asteroid landed safely in the desert after a 1.2-billion mile

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The Kaiser strike may be on the leading edge of a trend

More than 75,000 nurses, nursing assistants, technicians, pharmacists and other healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente went on strike in California

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This fall NASA is all about asteroids. What we could learn from these three missions

An unusual disc-shaped object from space landed last month on the barren sands of a U.S. military testing ground. Scorched

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California bans controversial ‘excited delirium’ diagnosis

SACRAMENTO —  California is the first state to ban doctors and medical examiners from attributing deaths to the controversial diagnosis known

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Pregnant and addicted: Homeless women see hope in street medicine

REDDING —  Five days after giving birth, Melissa Crespo was already back on the streets, recovering in a damp, litter-strewn water

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Arthur Yu’s life-saving stem cell donor needs permission to enter U.S.

Arthur Yu was exhausted, but he chalked it up to being a new father. Usually active, Yu was finding himself

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California studies on psychedelics, addiction treatment held up

At the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, scientists are eager to explore whether a psychedelic chemical found in a

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Newsom would veto bill to ban youth tackle football in California

Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged Wednesday to hold the line against a proposed law that would ban youth tackle football in

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How NASA’s Europa Clipper will survive its trip to Jupiter’s hostile moon

If life exists elsewhere in the solar system, it may well reside in the ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

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Solar eclipse threw Utah town, Navajo workforce into crisis

BLUFF, Utah — When Mayor Ann Leppanen learned that the moon would cross in front of the sun above her

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Hiltzik: The anti-vax and anti-science movements are gaining ground

In the preface of the new book by vaccine expert and pro-science crusader Peter Hotez, there are several acknowledgments of

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Opinion: Do humans have free will and moral responsibility? Of course

A new book by a Stanford neurobiologist offers a jarring proposition: that humans do not have free will and thus

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A risky California volcano has been seeing more earthquakes

One of California’s riskiest volcanoes has for decades been undergoing geological changes and seismic activity, which are sometimes a precursor

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Hiltzik: Why conservatives hate the Endangered Species Act

The removal of a species from the government’s endangered species list is often a cause for celebration, as it means

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Hiltzik: Bad science gets perpetuated by the right wing

Over the weekend, as I pondered a volume of forgotten lore — it was Emily Wilson’s gripping translation of Homer’s

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Space shuttle Endeavour giant fuel tank is installed in L.A.

Space shuttle Endeavour’s giant orange fuel tank that propelled astronauts into space on more than two dozen missions was lifted

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New COVID vaccines are here: Now’s the time to get one

With Halloween just days away, and the wider autumn and winter holiday season fast approaching, now is the time for

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Opinion: If aliens are real, what does that mean?

Are we alone? Is life around us a cosmic accident that only happened once on this lonely planet, making human

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Opinion: Climate research is polluted by fossil fuel money. Medicine can help fix it

When Sultan Al Jaber, the president-designate of COP28, unveiled plans for a first-ever Day of Health at the upcoming United

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Hiltzik: A dubious scientific achievement

As scientific breakthroughs go, the one announced last March by a team from the University of Rochester was especially eye-opening.

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Questions about NASA’s Mars Sample Return mission put JPL jobs in jeopardy

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory laid off 100 contractors last week and will scale back part of the first-ever effort to

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Thousands of nanoplastics found in bottled drinking water

It seems anywhere scientists look for plastic, they find it: from the ice in Antarctica, to the first bowel movement

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Hiltzik: Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, public health menace

It used to be fairly easy to dismiss Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, as a clownish anti-vaccine quack

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Study: Owners’ vaccine hesitancy can extend to pet dogs

Individuals who are skeptical of vaccines for themselves are also more likely to question the need or efficacy of getting

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R.I.P. Shaunzi. Second elephant in a year dies at L.A. Zoo

An elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo died this week, the second in about a year and just days before

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Op-Comic: Is AI more empathetic than your doctor?

Advertisement Advertisement Nathan Gray is an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an

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Opinion: In 2024, why are we still playing make-believe about COVID?

The pandemic is far from over, as evidenced by the rapid rise to global dominance of the JN.1 variant of

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SpaceX soars into 2024 with a burst of color and six special satellites

The first SpaceX launch of 2024, which took place Tuesday night, included something that none of the company’s prior launches

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New type of antibiotic targets drug-resistant bugs, study says

Under a microscope, this drug-resistant superbug looks as benign as a handful of pebbles. Yet carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, or CRAB,

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Medi-Cal Expands Patient Access to Diabetes Supplies

June Voros sprang from her couch as a high-pitched beep warned that she needed a quick dose of sugar. Her

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Space shuttle Endeavour’s giant orange external tank begins final journey

At long last, the final journey of the last space shuttle ever built, Endeavour, and its giant orange external tank

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Orphaned sister mountain lions find home in Oakland Zoo

A pair of months-old mountain lion siblings who were orphaned about a week ago found a temporary home at the

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SpaceX Starship’s second uncrewed launch ends in explosion

SpaceX’s Starship Mars rocket and spacecraft launched for the second time early Saturday morning, making it through liftoff and a

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California countertop workers died of silicosis despite years of warnings

When Wendy Solano first heard the word “silicosis,” her husband Jose Raul Garcia Leon was already suffering from the incurable

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Mystery dog illness reaches L.A.; 10 cases reported, one fatality

Los Angeles County public health officials are investigating a mysterious respiratory illness affecting a rising number of dogs. Its origin,

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USC neuroscientist faces scrutiny after data allegations

A star neuroscientist at USC is facing allegations of misconduct after whistleblowers submitted a report to the National Institutes of

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San Francisco’s COVID death rate among lowest in nation

The San Francisco Bay Area fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than many other largely populated areas, with a cumulative

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Backlash to affirmative action hits pioneering maternal health program for Black women

For Briana Jones, a young Black mother in San Francisco, a city program called the Abundant Birth Project has been

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New coronavirus variant JN.1 likely to blame for California COVID rise

Coronavirus transmission is once again spiking in California entering the winter holiday season — and a new subvariant may be

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He’s out to photograph every native plant in L.A. County

At first glance, Matt Smith seems too chill to be a knight. His “shining armor” is just a backpack, a

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Suicides among older adults drove U.S. tally to historic high

Rising rates of suicide among older adults drove the number of such deaths to a historic high in the United

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Trabajadores de mostrador de California murieron de silicosis

Cuando Wendy Solano oyó por primera vez la palabra “silicosis”, su marido José Raúl García León ya padecía la incurable

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COVID, flu, RSV rise in California. Is a ‘tripledemic’ coming?

Respiratory virus season is ramping up in California, prompting health officials to renew their calls for residents to get vaccinated

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November shatters global temperature records

The planet has experienced an astounding six-month run of record-breaking temperatures, including the hottest November on record, federal officials announced

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Could a monthly treatment prevent fentanyl overdoses?

Scientists have developed an antibody treatment that shows promise in blocking the potentially deadly effects of fentanyl for nearly a

Technology

Hiltzik: Out of Texas, more disinformation

In recent times, whenever a government lawsuit swears at common sense, at the facts and at the public interest, it

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Months later, publishers still sorting out plagiarism mess

This week, Simon & Schuster finally published “The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life,”

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What we can learn in the ‘era of cognitive challenges,’ when politicians and celebrities have brain disorders

Rock Hudson’s death in 1985 from AIDS started a robust and overdue public discussion about the disease. Until then, despite

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A man chokes to death on a steak, provoking an obituary like no other

When man bites steak, nobody cares. But when a steak bites back (in a manner of speaking) the world pauses,

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Column: Ketamine is saving someone I love

Every day for the last eight months, someone I love dearly has strained to find a reason to live. There

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A California ER charged wildly different prices for the same care on the same day

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported that the annual cost of family health insurance jumped to nearly $24,000 this year,

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More emojis woudl address the biodiversity crisis, scientists say

Earth has millions of fungi species, but the official emoji library has only one: Amanita muscaria, the red-capped, white-spotted mushroom

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Pregnant people have hit hurdles for RSV shot

When Megan Costello heard on the radio this fall that a newly approved vaccine for pregnant people could protect their

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Thousands overdosed on Ozempic, Wegovy in 2023

Some of those taking Ozempic or Wegovy are learning that too much of a good thing is never good. Semaglutide,

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DeSantis’ debate boast about COVID study: Wrong, author says

During the Fox News debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a study published in the

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Hiltzik: The coming toll in vaccine-preventable diseases

Forecasting the future is difficult. But here’s an easy prediction: The anti-vaccination movement in the U.S. and globally is going

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Chimpanzees and bonobos can recognize long-lost friends

Not long ago, comparative psychologist Christopher Krupenye and a colleague visited the Leipzig Zoo in Germany, where both had worked

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No evidence to support broad restrictions on social media for teens

To understand the path forward in regulating social media, it’s helpful to look to a transformative technology from the previous

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Opinion: Who will make abortion pill rules? A bunch of right-wing judges or FDA scientists?

Here we go again. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court announced that it will decide whether the Food and Drug Administration