Jessica Wapner

2 weeks ago | undark.org | Jessica Wapner

By age 43, Ofelia, who lived in the hills north of Medellín, Colombia, could no longer hold down a job because of the mistakes she made. She started collecting garbage and bringing it home for no apparent reason. She lost the ability to write words; all she could manage were senseless doodles. She died in 1996 at the age of 44, just as science was uncovering the cause of her early-onset, rapidly progressing dementia.

Sep 11, 2024 | zmescience.com | Jessica Wapner

On a sweltering day in July 2023, a ragtag group of data wonks sat around a table at U Zlatého Tygra, or the Golden Tiger, a historic bar in Prague’s Old Town. A mild sense of outrage hung in the air between jokes about who among them looked the most Medieval. The group was discussing the issue of manipulated images and fabricated data in scientific publishing. Soon someone was passing around a phone showing a black-and-white image with clear traces of tampering.

Sep 10, 2024 | undark.org | Jessica Wapner

On a sweltering day in July 2023, a ragtag group of data wonks sat around a table at U Zlatého Tygra, or the Golden Tiger, a historic bar in Prague’s Old Town. A mild sense of outrage hung in the air between jokes about who among them looked the most Medieval. The group was discussing the issue of manipulated images and fabricated data in scientific publishing. Soon someone was passing around a phone showing a black-and-white image with clear traces of tampering.

Sep 15, 2023 | medium.com | Jessica Wapner

What Science Tells Us About Letting Things Go In the fall of 2009, I stood at my stepmother's hospital bed as she slowly died from late-stage breast cancer. I told her that I loved her and thanked her for being a grandmother to my two children. That was the last time I saw her. A few months later, I found out that she'd created a secret will. My father had put various assets of theirs in her name to keep them safe from lawsuits directed at his construction business.

Aug 15, 2023 | scientificamerican.com | Jessica Wapner

David Rothman delivered his last baby in 2003 and shut down his obstetrics practice at the age of 62. A couple of years later he became the medical director of a newly opened clinic, called Medcore, that specialized in HIV care. The clinic was in a nondescript office building in Miami, out near the airport. Reyes Cruz, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1994, first visited in the summer of 2005. He told Rothman that he had stomach cramps, bleeding gums and diarrhea.