Lori Youmshajekian

New York, Sydney, Yerevan

Science Journalist at Freelance

Freelance science journalist | #SHERP41 @NYU_journalism | words: @sciam @newscientist @abcnews @RetractionWatch @YaleE360 @Medscape and more

Articles

Former Italian university head faces retractions and criminal investigations

2 weeks ago | retractionwatch.com | Lori Youmshajekian

A prominent Italian pharmacologist under investigation for embezzlement and rigging university contracts has garnered a dozen and a half retractions in the last year for image alterations and duplications. But Salvatore Cuzzocrea, the former rector of the University of Messina, told us he did not agree with the retractions because they were decided “without clear communication,” and that none of the papers had problems that he wasn’t able to reply to.
Cortisol rises during intense workouts. Is that really a bad thing?

1 month ago | nationalgeographic.com | Lori Youmshajekian

Fitness influencers claim intense workouts such as HIIT or running can spike cortisol and hinder weight loss, while gentler alternatives like walking keep it in check. But cortisol’s role in exercise is far more than simply “good” or “bad.”Often branded as the “stress hormone,” cortisol is blamed for everything from belly fat to burnout. But it plays a crucial role in keeping the body running.
Are Foodborne Illnesses and Deaths in the U.S. Worsening? New Data on Recalls Explain

1 month ago | scientificamerican.com | Lori Youmshajekian

Food recalls seemed relentless in the U.S. last year. Cucumbers, eggs, even big-brand products such as McDonald’s Quarter Pounders and Boar’s Head deli meats were implicated in dozens of foodborne illness cases, leaving many questioning whether their favorite foods were safe to eat.
Seven years after ‘noncompliance’ finding, whistleblowers push for retractions

1 month ago | retractionwatch.com | Lori Youmshajekian

Seven years after investigations uncovered “serious noncompliance” in the collection of biological samples at a California VA hospital, the original whistleblowers say several papers related to the work use these problematic samples and should be retracted. But the principal investigator of the work says there’s no reason to question the findings.
Does Stopping Ozempic Cause Rebound Weight Gain and Health Problems?

1 month ago | scientificamerican.com | Lori Youmshajekian

The class of weight-loss drugs including semaglutide, sold as Wegovy, have become immensely popular new treatments for obesity. One key factor in their effectiveness is that people need to take them indefinitely—but in practice, many don’t. A recent JAMA Network Open analysis found the vast majority of people quit taking these drugs within two years—such stops in treatment often reverses weight loss and health gains.
‘The fraud was not subtle’: Chemist blames students after ten papers retracted

2 months ago | retractionwatch.com | Lori Youmshajekian

While reviewing a manuscript for the Journal of Organic Chemistry, Caroline Kervarc-Genre and her colleague, Thibault Cantat, researchers at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, noticed something unusual. The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra buried in the supplementary information had striking irregularities: The baseline was interrupted in some parts, and the noise was the same from one spectrum to the next.
Which Foods Are the Most Ultraprocessed? New System Ranks Them

2 months ago | scientificamerican.com | Lori Youmshajekian

Most grocery stores seem to offer endless options in their aisles, which are full of cereals, pastas and baked goods available in hundreds of shapes and flavors. But a closer look at the ingredient lists of these foods shows that for some of them, there’s not much choice at all. A new study has found that most of the products on our grocery shelves have one thing in common: they’re highly processed.
Why Finding a Quality White T-Shirt Now Feels Like a Chore

Dec 27, 2024 | slate.com | Lori Youmshajekian

Moneybox This is Checking Out, a column about how we shop, what we buy, and how it all makes us feel. Email tips and ideas to [email protected]. There is perhaps no more universal wardrobe staple than the plain white T-shirt: It can be dressed up or down. Most of the time, a tee won’t cost you an arm and a leg (although that’s not always the case). But even though the price hasn’t changed for a while, something else has.
Journals investigating dozens of papers by leading Canadian urologists

Dec 23, 2024 | retractionwatch.com | Lori Youmshajekian

A high-profile Canadian urologist received an editorial expression of concern for one of his papers this month, after anonymous comments on PubPeer flagged suspected data duplication in dozens of his articles. By our count, sleuths have flagged 30 papers co-authored by Martin Gleave, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada and co-founder of the Vancouver Prostate Centre.
Former Harvard researcher, now at Moderna, loses paper following postdoc’s report

Dec 9, 2024 | retractionwatch.com | Lori Youmshajekian

PLOS Pathogens has retracted a paper by a former group at Harvard following a postdoc’s allegations the work contained manipulated data. The retracted paper, “Pseudomonas aeruginosa–induced nociceptor activation increases susceptibility to infection,” appeared in 2021 from the lab of Mihaela Gadjeva, an immunologist previously based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. It has been cited 22 times, according to Clarivate’s Web of Science.