deathmtn

The ability to evade immune responses could allow bacteria to cause lethal infections as they multiply unchecked. Unlike viruses, bacteria don’t need to interact with specific molecules to infect an organism, and mirror bacteria could infect a broad range of hosts, including humans, other animals, and plants. And a lack of predators could enable mirror bacteria to spread widely through ecosystems.

Many of the authors initially thought mirror bacteria would not survive outside of a lab, given the lack of mirror nutrients, Glass says, but the report concludes that there are enough nutrients that would nourish mirror bacteria to sustain them.

He is unconvinced that raising an alarm so far in advance of any threat, or even the existence of technology that could be used to directly create it, is appropriate. “This is like banning the transistor because you're worried about cybercrime 30 years down the road,” Ellington says. He is also concerned governments and regulators may not respond as the authors expect, potentially stifling beneficial research. “I’m not particularly worried about a mostly unknown threat 30 years from now versus the good that can be done now,” he says.

The insurer that has been paying for her son’s therapy, UnitedHealthcare, has begun — to the befuddlement of his clinical team — denying him the hours they say he requires to maintain his progress. Inside the insurance conglomerate, the nation’s largest and most profitable, the slashing of care to children like Benji does have a reason, though it has little to do with their needs. It is part of a secret internal cost-cutting campaign that targets a growing financial burden for the company: the treatment of thousands of children with autism across the country.

ProPublica has obtained what is effectively the company’s strategic playbook, developed by Optum, the division that manages mental health benefits for United. In internal reports, the company acknowledges that the therapy, called applied behavior analysis, is the “evidence-based gold standard treatment for those with medically necessary needs.” But the company’s costs have climbed as the number of children diagnosed with autism has ballooned; experts say greater awareness and improved screening have contributed to a fourfold increase in the past two decades — from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36.

So Optum is “pursuing market-specific action plans” to limit children’s access to the treatment, the reports said.

ocial profiles of Mangione have suggested support for right-wing thought and interest in forms of violent resistance, including the Unabomber, against liberal modernity. He also expressed or reposted concerns about secularization and the decline of Christianity in the Western World, fertility rates, DEI programs, and "wokeism" in society.[63][64] Other displayed interests included Asperger's Syndrome and Pokémon.[63]