Science needs more shrimp on treadmills
Benjamin Ryan is an independent journalist who has covered science and public health for more than two decades. He writes the Substack 'Hazard Ratio.'
To hear Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their allies tell it, the federal government's apparatus for doling out scientific research grants is a woke slush fund for silly scientific studies that offer nothing in the way of solutions to the world's problems.
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Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
How Animal Testing in US Could Be Transformed Under Trump
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Millions of animals each year are killed in U.S. laboratories as part of medical training and chemical, food, drug and cosmetic testing, according to the non-profit animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). For many animals held captive for research, including a huge range of species from dogs, cats and hamsters to elephants, dolphins and many other species, pain is "not minimized," U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows. The issue of animal testing is something most Americans agree on: it needs to change and gradually be stopped. A Morning Consult poll conducted at the end of last year found that 80 percent of the 2,205 participants either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "The US government should commit to a plan to phase out experiments on animals." Since President Donald Trump began his second term, his administration has been making moves to transform and reduce animal testing in country, although the question remains as to whether it will be enough to spare many more animals from pain and suffering this year. Animal Testing In US Could Be Transformed Animal Testing In US Could Be Transformed Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva What Is The Trump Administration Doing About It? There have been various steps taken in different federal agencies to tackle the issue of animal testing since Trump was sworn in on January 20. In April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it was "taking a groundbreaking step to advance public health by replacing animal testing in the development of monoclonal antibody therapies and other drugs with more effective, human-relevant methods." The FDA said that its animal testing requirement will be "reduced, refined, or potentially replaced" with a range of approaches, including artificial intelligence-based models, known as New Approach Methodologies or NAMs data. A Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official told Newsweek: "The agency is paving the way for faster, safer, and more cost-effective treatments for American patients. "As we restore the agency's commitment to gold-standard science and integrity, this shift will help accelerate cures, lower drug prices, and reaffirm U.S. leadership in ethical, modern science." The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced it was "adopting a new initiative to expand innovative, human-based science while reducing animal use in research," in alignment with the FDA's initiative. The agency said that while "traditional animal models continue to be vital to advancing scientific knowledge," new and emerging technologies could act as alternative methods, either alone or in combination with animal models. The NIH Office of Extramural Research told Newsweek it was "committed to transparently assessing where animal use can be reduced or eliminated by transitioning to [new approach methodologies (NAMs)]." "Areas where research using animals is currently necessary represent high-priority opportunities for investment in NAMs," the agency added. It added that it will "further its efforts to coordinate agency-wide efforts to develop, validate, and scale the use of NAMs across the agency's biomedical research portfolio and facilitate interagency coordination and regulatory translation for public health protection." During Trump's first term, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a directive to "prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30 percent by 2025 and to eliminate it completely by 2035," an EPA spokesperson told Newsweek. Although, the spokesperson added: "the Biden Administration halted progress on these efforts by delaying compliance deadlines." As a member of the House, Lee Zeldin, the EPA's current administrator, co-sponsored various bills during Trump's first term regarding animal cruelty, covering issues such as phasing out animal-based testing for cosmetic products; ending taxpayer funding for painful experiments on dogs at the Department of Veteran Affairs; empowering federal law enforcement to prosecute animal abuse cases that cross state lines; and others, the spokesperson said. What The Experts Think Needs To Be Done The Trump administration's efforts to tackle the issue of animal testing appear to be a step in the right direction, according to experts who spoke with Newsweek. "I was pleasantly surprised and quite frankly a bit shocked to read the simultaneous announcements by the NIH and the FDA regarding a new emphasis on the use of alternatives to animals," Jeffrey Morgan, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown University in Rhode Island, told Newsweek. Morgan, who is also the director of the Center for Alternatives to Animals in Testing at Brown University, said that both agencies are moving together in the same direction on the issue "sends a unified and very powerful message to the research and biotech communities." He added that the announcements showed "a major acknowledgement of the limitations of the use of animals in research and testing." "What is especially exciting is that the NIH announcement will encourage the entry of new investigators into the field, further accelerating innovation in alternatives with exciting impacts for both discovery and applied research across all diseases," he said. He added that the FDA announcement and its emphasis on a new regulatory science that embraces data from alternatives was "equally exciting." "The demands of this new regulatory science will likewise accelerate innovation because it will establish the much-needed regulatory framework for the rigorous evaluation of data from alternatives," he said. While the administration's initiatives to shift research away from animal testing is heading in the right direction, its policies are "overdue," Dr. Thomas Hartung, a professor in the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Maryland, told Newsweek. "The animal tests for safety were introduced more than 50 years ago. There is no other area of science where we do not adapt to scientific progress," he said. Hartung added that animal "testing takes too long and is too expensive to really provide the safety consumers want." He said that running animal tests for new chemicals can cost millions and take years in some cases. "Nobody can wait that long, even if they can afford the testing costs," he said. Hartung also believes the shifts in the industry to reduce animal testing have been "coming for a while," as over the last two decades, America's opposition to animal use in medical research has been increasing. "The alignment of FDA and NIH really makes the difference now, which I think is evidence of a strong relationship of their leaderships," he said. Yet in order to make a real difference, Hartung said clear deadlines are key to show that "this is not just lip service." He also said that he thought "the transformative nature of artificial intelligence in this field is not fully acknowledged." "We also need an objective framework for change to better science, such as the evidence-based toxicology approach," he said.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Fiery explosion for SpaceX Starship in Texas. Will rocket still launch from Florida this year?
SpaceX's massive Starship exploded in a spectacular fiery blaze during a routine engine test in Texas – raising questions about what's next for Elon Musk's spaceflight company. The dramatic explosion marked the latest setback for SpaceX, which billionaire Musk founded in 2002, after Starship has failed to repeat the successes of previous missions in its first three test flights of 2025. This time, the mishap didn't occur during a launch, but rather during a test to prepare the rocket for its 10th overall flight since 2023. The spacecraft, standing nearly 400 feet tall when fully stacked, did not injure or endanger anyone when it exploded in a fireball that could be seen for miles, SpaceX said. Musk, whose public rift with President Donald Trump recently cast into doubt the future of the U.S. spaceflight program, appeared to initially make light of the mishap – saying "Just a scratch" in a post on social media site X. Here's what to know about the explosion of a vehicle that could be launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by the end of 2025, as well as what could be next for a vehicle critical to both NASA and Musk's plans for human spaceflights in the years ahead. Starship is regarded as the world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship towers over SpaceX's famous Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active – which stands at nearly 230 feet. When a Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, it's possible to see it from Jacksonville to West Palm Beach. The Starship launch vehicle is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage spacecraft, or capsule where crew and cargo would ride. Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX's Raptor engines that give the initial burst of thrust at liftoff. The upper section, also called Starship or Ship for short, is the upper stage powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit. Like Falcon 9, SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is intended to carry both cargo and humans to Earth's orbit and deeper into the cosmos. NASA's lunar exploration plans, which appear to be in jeopardy under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface. The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time Wednesday, June 18, while SpaceX was preparing for Starship's upcoming flight test, known as Flight 10, from Starbase – the company town in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The Starship spacecraft was standing alone on the test stand prior to being mounted on top of the booster when it blew up. The company attributed it to a "major anomaly,' and said all personnel were safe. SpaceX test-fires the engines on the Starship before it is mated with Super Heavy. In this case, the Starship vehicle had already undergone a single-engine fire earlier in the week and SpaceX was preparing to test all six when the explosion occurred. The mishap, which SpaceX later referred to on its website as "a sudden energetic event," completely destroyed the spacecraft and ignited several fires that caused damage in the area surrounding the test stand. While SpaceX is investigating the mishap, Musk said in a post on X that preliminary data suggests that a pressurized tank failed at the top of the rocket. 'If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,' Musk added. Musk has aggressively sought for his commercial spaceflight company to develop its Starship spacecraft to fulfill his ambitious dream of sending the first humans to Mars. In a video SpaceX shared Thursday, May 29 after the most recent Starship test flight, Musk told his employees that he still believes it's feasible to send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars by the end of 2026. Under his vision, human expeditions aboard the Starship could then follow in the years after But Starship still has a long way to go in its development before it's ready to take humans to the moon or Mars. It does not appear as if the Federal Aviation Administration will not conduct an investigation into the latest explosion since "the activity and anomaly were not associated with licensed activity," the agency said Friday, June 20, in an email to the USA TODAY Network. But in addition to simply being able to fly safely – in other words, without exploding – Starship also needs to be capable of refueling in orbit. The maneuver would be an especially difficult one that's never before been accomplished. SpaceX is planning to increase the number of Starship launches after receiving key regulatory approval to conduct 25 flight tests a year. Just four Starship test missions were conducted in 2024. Following the latest Starship launch in late-May, Musk had previously said the next 3 test flights would occur in quicker succession, with a Starship launch taking place every three-to-four weeks. The previous three missions have fallen far short of previous Starship flight tests. For three tests between June and November 2024, Starship flew halfway around the world before reentering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down as planned in the Indian Ocean. In its most recent demonstration May 27, Starship spun out of control roughly halfway through its flight and disintegrated in a fireball before achieving some of its most important objectives. Still, the distance the vehicle traveled far surpassed the previous 2025 flights in January and March, when Starship exploded within minutes. In both January and March 2025, the vehicles used in the tests instead met their demise in dramatic explosions that sent cascades of fiery debris streaking across the sky in Caribbean countries and Florida – disrupting air traffic. In both cases, the upper stage, the vehicle where astronauts and cargo would ride, came apart mere minutes into its flight during the ascent. While both explosions occurred at about the same point in the flight, the causes were 'distinctly different,' SpaceX said in an update May 22. In the latest fiery mishap in March, it wasn't a fire in the attic, but rather a "flash" closer to the bottom section that caused "an energetic event" that led the vehicle to shut down, lose communication and trigger its own self destruction, SpaceX determined. Contributing: Reuters Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: After SpaceX Starship explosion, is Cape Canaveral launch still a go?
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX Starship exploded again. What's next for Elon Musk's company after latest setback?
SpaceX's massive Starship exploded in a spectacular fiery blaze during a routine engine test in Texas – raising questions about what's next for Elon Musk's spaceflight company. The dramatic explosion marked the latest setback for SpaceX, which billionaire Musk founded in 2002, after Starship has failed to repeat the successes of previous missions in its first three test flights of 2025. This time, the mishap didn't occur during a launch, but rather during a test to prepare the rocket for its 10th overall flight since 2023. The spacecraft, standing nearly 400 feet tall when fully stacked, did not injure or endanger anyone when it exploded in a fireball that could be seen for miles, SpaceX said. Musk, whose public rift with President Donald Trump recently cast into doubt the future of the U.S. spaceflight program, appeared to initially make light of the mishap – saying "Just a scratch" in a post on social media site X, which he owns. Here's what to know about the latest Starship explosion, and what could be next for a vehicle critical to both NASA and Musk's plans for human spaceflights in the years ahead. Starship is regarded as the world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship towers over SpaceX's famous Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active – which stands at nearly 230 feet. The launch vehicle is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage spacecraft, or capsule where crew and cargo would ride. Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX's Raptor engines that give the initial burst of thrust at liftoff. The upper section, also called Starship or Ship for short, is the upper stage powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit. SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is intended to carry both cargo and humans to Earth's orbit and deeper into the cosmos. NASA's lunar exploration plans, which appear to be in jeopardy under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface. The explosion occurred around 11 p.m. local time Wednesday, June 18, while SpaceX was preparing for Starship's upcoming flight test, known as Flight 10, from Starbase – the company town in South Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. The Starship spacecraft was standing alone on the test stand prior to being mounted on top of the booster when it blew up. The company attributed it to a "major anomaly,' and said all personnel were safe. SpaceX test-fires the engines on the Starship before it is mated with Super Heavy. In this case, the Starship vehicle had already undergone a single-engine fire earlier in the week and SpaceX was preparing to test all six when the explosion occurred. The mishap, which SpaceX later referred to on its website as "a sudden energetic event," completely destroyed the spacecraft and ignited several fires that caused damage in the area surrounding the test stand. While SpaceX is investigating the mishap, Musk said in a post on X that preliminary data suggests that a pressurized tank failed at the top of the rocket. 'If further investigation confirms that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design,' Musk added. Musk has aggressively sought for his commercial spaceflight company to develop its Starship spacecraft to fulfill his ambitious dream of sending the first humans to Mars. In a video SpaceX shared Thursday, May 29, after the most recent Starship test flight, Musk told his employees that he still believes it's feasible to send the first uncrewed Starship to Mars by the end of 2026. Under his vision, human expeditions aboard the Starship could then follow in the years after But Starship still has a long way to go in its development before it's ready to take humans to the moon or Mars. It does not appear as if the Federal Aviation Administration will not conduct an investigation into the latest explosion since "the activity and anomaly were not associated with licensed activity," the agency said Friday, June 20, in an email to the USA TODAY Network. But in addition to simply being able to fly safely – in other words, without exploding – Starship also needs to be capable of refueling in orbit. The maneuver would be an especially difficult one that's never before been accomplished. SpaceX is planning to increase the number of Starship launches after receiving key regulatory approval to conduct 25 flight tests a year. Just four Starship test missions were conducted in 2024. Following the latest Starship launch in late-May, Musk had previously said the next three test flights would occur in quicker succession, with a Starship launch taking place every three to four weeks. The previous three missions have fallen far short of previous Starship flight tests. For three tests between June and November 2024, Starship flew halfway around the world before reentering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down as planned in the Indian Ocean. In its most recent demonstration May 27, Starship spun out of control roughly halfway through its flight and disintegrated in a fireball before achieving some of its most important objectives. Still, the distance the vehicle traveled far surpassed the previous 2025 flights in January and March, when Starship exploded within minutes. In both January and March 2025, the vehicles used in the tests instead met their demise in dramatic explosions that sent cascades of fiery debris streaking across the sky in Caribbean countries and Florida – disrupting air traffic. In both cases, the upper stage, the vehicle where astronauts and cargo would ride, came apart mere minutes into its flight during the ascent. While both explosions occurred at about the same point in the flight, the causes were 'distinctly different,' SpaceX said in an update May 22. In the latest fiery mishap in March, it wasn't a fire in the attic, but rather a "flash" closer to the bottom section that caused "an energetic event" that led the vehicle to shut down, lose communication and trigger its own self destruction, SpaceX determined. Contributing: Reuters Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Starship rocket explodes again in Texas. What's next for SpaceX, Musk?
