In the first few days of the four-month ban on all vaping products in Massachusetts, Laura Lee Medeiros, a medical marijuana patient, began to worry.The 32-year-old massage therapist has a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from childhood trauma. To temper her unpredictable panic attacks, she relied on a vape pen and cartridges filled with the marijuana derivatives THC and CBD from state dispensaries.There are other ways to get the desired effect from marijuana, and patients have filled dispensaries across the state in recent days to ask about edible or smokeable forms. But Medeiros has come to depend on her battery-powered pen, and wondered how she would cope without her usual supply of cartridges.”In the midst of something where I’m on the floor, on the verge of passing out, my pen has been very helpful for me to grab,” she said. She carries her vape pen in her purse in …

At the edge of an ancient lava flow where jagged black rocks meet the Pacific, small off-the-grid homes overlook the calm blue waters of Papa Bay on Hawaii’s Big Island — no tourists or hotels in sight. Here, one of the islands’ most abundant and vibrant coral reefs thrives just below the surface.   Yet even this remote shoreline far from the impacts of chemical sunscreen, trampling feet and industrial wastewater is showing early signs of what’s expected to be a catastrophic season for coral in Hawaii.     Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed nearly half of this coastline’s coral, federal researchers are predicting another round of hot water will cause some of the worst coral bleaching the region has ever experienced.  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer Jamison Gove talks about coral bleaching at the NOAA regional office in Honolulu, Sept. 16, 2019.”In 2015, we …

NASA’s InSight lander on Mars has captured the low rumble of marsquakes and a symphony of other otherworldly sounds.Scientists released an audio sampling Tuesday. The sounds had to be enhanced for humans to hear.InSight’s seismometer has detected more than 100 events, but only 21 are considered strong marsquake candidates. The rest could be marsquakes — or something else. The French seismometer is so sensitive it can hear the Martian wind as well as movements by the lander’s robot arm and other mechanical “dinks and donks” as the team calls them.“It’s been exciting, especially in the beginning, hearing the first vibrations from the lander,” said Imperial College London’s Constantinos Charalambous, who helped provide the audio recordings. “You’re imagining what’s really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape,” he added in a statement.InSight arrived at Mars last November and recorded its first seismic rumbling in April.A German drilling instrument, …

A hurricane packing a punch rarely witnessed in the mid-Atlantic Ocean is bearing down on the Azores Islands, placing emergency services on red alert for waves that could reach eight stories high, winds that could flatten homes and heavy rains that could turn into torrents on steep mountains.The Category 2 Hurricane Lorenzo is expected to hit the Portuguese islands Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Waves up to 22 meters (72 feet) high and hurricane wind gusts over 200 kilometers mph (124 mph) are forecast for some islands.The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami issued hurricane warnings for seven of the Azores’ nine volcanic islands and a tropical storm warning for the other two. The remote islands are home to about 250,000 people.Two workers install a protection board before the arrival of Hurricane Lorenzo in Angra do Heroismo in the Azores islands, Portugal, Oct. 1, 2019.Lorenzo was previously a Category 5 …

The European Leagues group and FIFPro, the global network of national unions, said Tuesday they will make country-by-country agreements “over the course of the coming two seasons.”European governing soccer body UEFA also wants better awareness of concussion after incidents in its games in March involving Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes and Switzerland defender Fabian Schaer.   The campaigns come as soccer’s rule-making body IFAB is being urged to explore the idea of temporary substitutes to replace players being assessed for a head injury.“This is a critical issue for our players’ long term wellbeing,” said Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, general secretary of FIFPro’s Europe division. “Other sports such as rugby or American football have been able to improve the management of and awareness for concussions significantly in their sports. Football needs to now follow suit.”European Leagues and FIFPro want domestic league rules to incorporate international standards of “concussion management procedures on the field as well …

Botswana has started offering free anti-retroviral therapy (ARV) to foreign sex workers, following a decision to extend treatment to non-citizens. An estimated 30,000 foreigners living in Botswana are HIV positive, and most are sex workers. Until now, the southern African nation was one of only few countries that did not offer treatment to non-citizens. From Gaborone, Botswana, Mqondisi Dube has more. …

Botswana has started offering free antiretroviral therapy (ARV) to foreign sex workers, following a decision to extend treatment to non-citizens. An estimated 30,000 foreigners living in Botswana are HIV positive, and most are sex workers. Until now, the southern African nation was one of only a few countries that did not offer treatment to non-citizens. Thirty-five-year-old Mary Banda is an HIV-positive sex worker from Zambia.  In deteriorating health, she has struggled to get treatment since she arrived in Botswana in 2018.Now, she has a lifeline, thanks to a Botswana government decision to offer life-prolonging antiretroviral therapy to non-citizens.”I am very happy, because most people’s (lives) will be saved. Especially those who were struggling to get ARVs from back home. When they called us and started helping us, we couldn’t believe that it was really happening. We thought they were just talking,” Banda said.Banda says health officials have been helpful and monitor how …

Scientists who gave fruit flies a triple drug combination treatment and found that it extended their lives by almost 50% say their work offers clues on how to fight aging in people.The researchers said their aim is not to find the secret of eternal life, but to figure out the mechanism of the aging process to find ways to help people stay healthy for longer.”We are not trying to cheat death, but help people be healthy and disease-free in their final years,” said Linda Partridge, a professor at University College London’s Institute of Healthy Ageing and the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing who co-led the work.The three drugs – the mood stabilizer lithium, a cancer treatment called trametinib and an immune regulator called rapamycin – target different cellular processes and had a “quite remarkable” impact on the flies’ lifespans, the scientists said.And since the three drugs are all …

Eating red meat is linked to cancer and heart disease, but are the risks big enough to give up burgers and steak?A team of international researchers says probably not, contradicting established advice. In a series of papers published Monday, the researchers say the increased risks are small and uncertain and that cutting back likely wouldn’t be worth it for people who enjoy meat.Their conclusions were swiftly attacked by a group of prominent U.S. scientists who took the unusual step of trying to stop publication until their criticisms were addressed.The new work does not say red meat and processed meats like hot dogs and bacon are healthy or that people should eat more of them. The reviews of past studies generally support the ties to cancer, heart disease and other bad health outcomes. But the authors say the evidence is weak, and that there’s not much certainty meat is really the …