EurekAlert! News by Subject: Policy & Ethics - News by Subject: Policy & Ethics

Policy & Ethics

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jul-2025 05:11 ET (21-Jul-2025 09:11 GMT/UTC)

10-Mar-2025

Study: Climate change will reduce the number of satellites that can safely orbit in space

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT aerospace engineers found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can safely operate there.

Journal: Nature Sustainability
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Air Force, U.K. Natural Environment Research Council

10-Mar-2025

Post-Dobbs decision changes in obstetrics and gynecology clinical workforce in states with abortion restrictions

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: While practitioner supply increased overall, the Dobbs decision was associated with moderate but significant relative decreases in obstetrics and gynecology practitioners in the most restrictive vs control states. Findings provide early confirmation of reports that clinicians have migrated from states most impacted by the Dobbs decision. Clinician migration has implications for reproductive care access, quality, and equity as abortion rights are increasingly decided at the state level.

Journal: JAMA Internal Medicine

10-Mar-2025

Promoting sustainable agriculture for pollinators: presenting the newly launched AGRI4POL project

Pensoft Publishers
Business Announcement

The new Horizon Europe project, AGRI4POL, aims to assist the transition of agriculture from being a pressure on pollinators to becoming a positive force for biodiversity, crop pollination services, ecosystems and people.

Funder: Horizon Europe

10-Mar-2025

Deep reinforcement learning optimizes distributed manufacturing scheduling

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a new study published in Engineering, researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the Technical University of Munich have developed an improved proximal policy optimization (IPPO) method. This method is designed to solve the distributed heterogeneous hybrid blocking flow-shop scheduling problem (DHHBFSP), aiming to minimize total tardiness and total energy consumption. The research offers a practical approach for manufacturing scheduling, and its experimental results show better performance compared with other methods.

Journal: Engineering

10-Mar-2025

Hannover Messe: Miniature intra-bone robot implants actively promote fracture healing

Saarland University
Reports and Proceedings

Research engineers at Saarland University and medical researchers at the Saarland University Medical Center are developing smart implants that can both monitor and promote healing in fractured bones. When installed at the fracture site, these implants, which are constructed using shape memory alloys, can stiffen or relax in a continuously controlled manner that optimizes bone healing. As part of an EU-funded project, the researchers are miniaturizing the technology for use in thin intramedullary nails (IMNs), which provide internal support and stability during the healing process. The team will be demonstrating this medical technology at Hannover Messe from 31 March to 4 April. Hall 2, Saarland Stand B10.

Funder: European Union under the Horizon Europe programme as part of the research project SmILE (Smart Implants for Life Enrichment)

10-Mar-2025

Dissociation is a coping mechanism impeding effective climate action

Cambridge University Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Collective dissociation is preventing people from taking effective action to tackle the overwhelming climate emergency, research published in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health has found.

The overwhelming scale and complexity of the climate emergency often leave individuals feeling powerless, leading to a sense of futility in their ability to effect meaningful change. Collective dissociation is a form of trauma processing, and it threatens the cooperation needed to address the climate emergency. Instead, it reinforces isolation and prevents objective assessment of a destructive reality.

Journal: Cambridge Prisms Global Mental Health

7-Mar-2025

Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US

Washington University in St. Louis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The top 20% of high-income, college-educated Americans have far lower rates of cardiovascular disease than the rest of the population, WashU public health researchers find.

Journal: The Lancet Regional Health - Americas
Funder: Rockefeller Foundation