EurekAlert: Inoculating against the spread of viral misinformation. “In a year that has seen the largest measles outbreak in the US in more than two decades, the role of social media in giving a platform to unscientific anti-vaccine messages and organizations has become a flashpoint.”
public health
Harvard Business Review: Using AI to Understand What Causes Diseases
Harvard Business Review: Using AI to Understand What Causes Diseases. “Health care leaders are embracing AI. But by conducting an extensive review of case studies and research literature, we’ve found that their AI initiatives are predominantly focused on developing algorithms that can predict a problem such as cancer in order to make diagnoses better, faster, and less expensively. Rarely, are their organizations devoting resources to AI efforts aimed at understanding why diseases occur. To intervene as effectively as possible, both kinds of algorithms are crucial.”
EurekAlert: NUS engineers invent smartphone device that detects harmful algae in 15 minutes
EurekAlert: NUS engineers invent smartphone device that detects harmful algae in 15 minutes. “A team of engineers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a highly sensitive system that uses a smartphone to rapidly detect the presence of toxin-producing algae in water within 15 minutes. This invention can generate test results on-site, and findings can be reported in real-time using the smartphone’s wireless communications capabilities.”
Insights: As Social Media Sites Fiddle Over Cannabis Creator Bans, Public Health Suffers (Tubefilter)
Tubefilter: Insights: As Social Media Sites Fiddle Over Cannabis Creator Bans, Public Health Suffers. “What if a health crisis was brewing that hit young people in particular, yet none of the social-media platforms that depend on that audience would allow influencers to talk about it? That’s pretty much what’s happening right now in the world of vaping. People are dying, says Instagram influencer Koala Puffs (she goes by Koala Puffss there, because her original two-year-old account was shut down; she uses variants of the shorter version on other platforms), but it can be risky to talk about the issue on social media.”
‘Up close and personal’: Mütter Museum maps the spread of Philly’s 1918 flu epidemic (WHYY)
WHYY: ‘Up close and personal’: Mütter Museum maps the spread of Philly’s 1918 flu epidemic. “When the Mütter Museum began looking into the historic epidemic five years ago, it discovered a trove of information in archives around the city, including tens of thousands of death certificates. Part of the project was to create a public online database of all those death certificates and place them on an interactive map. Users can search by name or neighborhood to track how the flu swept the city.”
PR Newswire: The Lead in School Drinking Water Database (PRESS RELEASE)
PR Newswire: The Lead in School Drinking Water Database (PRESS RELEASE). “The Lead In School Water Project is the first web-based application to rank and track every US state in terms of school-related lead exposure, testing and policy. This project’s goal is to provide a free public resource for parents, facility managers and regulators to monitor the latest data on their school’s waterborne lead concentrations.”
BuzzFeed News: Dozens Of YouTube Videos Are Showing People How To Make Potentially Dangerous Vape Oil
BuzzFeed News: Dozens Of YouTube Videos Are Showing People How To Make Potentially Dangerous Vape Oil. “As health agencies scramble to control a rash of mysterious vaping-related lung injuries, YouTube is playing host to dozens of videos that offer step-by-step instructions on how to make black-market THC vape oil. Some of these videos, which are rife with safety hazards, including the use of potentially harmful chemicals, have been viewed millions of times.”
