Mya Heard – NU Sci Magazine

Alien microbes: The frontier of extraterrestrial research

Extremophiles are microorganisms that survive — and thrive — in extreme conditions not considered suitable for other forms of life. This umbrella term encompasses bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi with unique adaptations allowing them to inhabit extreme temperature, radiation, salinity, pH, and other physical and geochemical conditions. Extremophiles can be found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents […]

Morally permissible but problematic: The complex duality of human challenge studies

Health / Mya Heard / February 21, 2022

Physicians must abide by the well-known ethics of the Hippocratic Oath: first, do no harm. One particular method of research, however, seems wholly counterintuitive to a doctor’s mission. Human challenge studies are a method of studying infectious diseases and their treatments by purposefully injecting a healthy participant with disease-causing microbes such as bacteria and viruses.

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