Adrian Quill
Health and Economy Columnist
Writes at the point where health systems meet household budgets. Adrian examines insurance, hospital funding and medicine costs through an economic and public-policy lens. His column asks who pays, who decides, and who is left out when a health policy changes.
Stories
Gas rising through Alba Mons fissures may be venting from hot magma
That is the proposal from an international team led by Alexander Trokhimovskiy, reported by the European Space Agency in a story carried by Phys.org.
A slow dopamine signal from the gut teaches mice to like foods
The findings were published online November 4, 2026, in the journal Nature, according to Sci.News.
Cooking is the largest local PM1 source at mealtimes in London and Beijing
The percentages are shares of particles released at those hours, not the mix in the air people breathe, and the same campaign recorded a different mix in Delhi.
Roughly one in 14 adults say someone made, shared or threatened to share AI-generated sexual images of them
The researchers, led by Professor Nicola Henry of RMIT University, surveyed 7,230 adults in July and August 2024. Their results appeared on September 8, 2026 in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.
Virginia Tech engineers tap buried rocks with vibrations to measure their depth
The method has so far been tested only on stone samples that Ph.D. candidate Yiyan Ruan buried in a large sandbox, not on an actual planetary surface.
IGTP and BST validate GMP-compliant platform for extracellular vesicle manufacturing
Extracellular vesicles are small particles that cells release into their surroundings.
Mineralized red blood cell remnants retain heme chemistry in Aratasaurus bone
The dinosaur lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch, some 115 million years ago, an age estimate given for this species in the Sci.News account of the work.
Toxicology traces psychoactive substances in Inca mountain sacrifice mummies
Those compounds leave durable traces in keratin in hair and nails, so preserved bodies from the capacocha can be read long after the rites ended.
Nitric oxide particles help infected wax moth larvae survive in University of Reading study
In the team’s 2026 survival measurement in infected wax moth larvae, tiny particles that release nitric oxide helped nine in 10 treated larvae survive, compared with around six in 10 that were not treated.
UNESCO is digitizing Radio Mogadishu's tape recordings
In Zambia, the same project is moving National Broadcasting Corporation film and tape onto formats that later equipment can still read.
Ice-sheet loss would remain after warming falls to 1.5 degrees
The Guardian account puts the report's current-policy path at 2.8 degrees, with less than 10 percent of glacier ice left in the Rockies, the Alps, Iceland, and Scandinavia, and about 20 to 35 percent left on a 1.5 degree path.
Carbon reserves rise where Southern Hemisphere conifers outgrow native ranges
University of Mississippi ecologist Stephen Brewer was among more than two dozen researchers across multiple continents who tracked those contrasts.
Carrion crow neurons encode an upcoming motion choice about 70 milliseconds after onset
That early, evidence-weighted buildup is the mechanism the paper puts at the center of an unusually quick visuomotor decision loop.
New megaraptorid genus named from incomplete Late Cretaceous skeleton in northern Patagonia
The animal sits inside Megaraptoridae, a group of medium- to large-sized theropods known for slender hind limbs, strongly curved teeth, and large claws on their hands
Metabolic carbon dioxide from human bodies rose 74% worldwide between 1985 and 2015
The work, published in The Lancet Planetary Health under lead author professor Javier Gonzalez of the university’s Center for Exercise, Nutrition and Metabolism
Sahara meteorite Teghaza 001 samples Mars's primordial crust from at least 4.1 billion years ago
The rock is a coarse-grained igneous body, a plagioclase-rich gabbro, whose texture records slow cooling, probably underground, before an impact lofted it into space and onto Earth.
MutexaGPT converts plain-English enzyme requests into physics-based mutation designs
The report from Vanderbilt University, carried by Phys.org, names Yang’s former doctoral student Qianzhen Shao, now a postdoc at Stanford, among the team members behind the tool
Algal virus carries a tandem potassium channel gene of apparent viral origin
The study, published in 2026 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Spora dataset posted on arXiv is a spatial proteomics corpus of multiplex images
The 15 October 2026 arXiv version counts 13,546 multiplex images from 5,477 patients.
How preterm birth leaves cerebellar cell lineages on clocks that no longer match
A 29 October 2026 Science paper describes the diversion in living infants and in postmortem tissue, and commentators say it is unknown whether the cellular differences last.
FDA proposes updates to eight infant formula nutrient requirements
The agency is accepting comments on the proposal until 120 days from the date it is published in the Federal Register.
US payroll growth stayed small in September
Payroll employment and the unemployment rate both changed little in September.
Gifts to doctors track with heavier prescribing
The review combines randomized trial data with non-randomized, observational comparisons, a mixed design that lets Cochrane describe associations rather than proven cause and effect.
Chronic disease risk still splits by education
On 20 October 2026, the World Health Organization published a report examining how those factors divide the burden of noncommunicable disease across populations.