Josie Glausiusz

Marthe Gautier, 96, Dies; Had Key Role in Down Syndrome Breakthrough

Physician-researcher Dr. Marthe Gautier discovered that people with Down syndrome have an extra chromosome; a fellow doctor stole the credit.

Dr. Gautier died on April 30, 2022. She was 96. For some reason the New York Times published her obituary yesterday.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/h...

"The Latvian Parliament votes in favor of withdrawing from the treaty against violence against women."

my god, what a paragraph

(from tonight's @hcrichardson.bsky.social)

Dr. Jérôme Lejeune leaped to her assistance, offering to get the pictures made. She handed over her slides, all exquisitely prepared, and never saw them again.

Dr. Gautier was stunned to learn that soon after, at a scientific meeting in Montreal, Dr. Lejeune had described the findings as his own.

Virginia Giuffre's family celebrate Andrew's 'prince' title being stripped The relatives of the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused the royal of sexual abuse, say she would be "proud".

"She'd be so proud. He's just Andrew."

The family of the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused ex-Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, have celebrated his title of 'prince' being stripped from him as a victory which is "unprecedented in history".

www.bbc.com/news/article...

I know! And it took the New York Times THREE YEARS to run her obituary after Gautier died.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could unlock the next revolution in cancer treatment – new research The researchers found that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines could potentially help patients whose tumors don’t respond well to traditional immunotherapy.

Extraordinary. Cancer patients who received either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were more than twice as likely to be alive after three years compared with those who didn’t receive either vaccine.

theconversation.com/covid-19-mrn...

Marthe Gautier, 96, Dies; Had Key Role in Down Syndrome Breakthrough

In 1958, peering through her microscope at tissue she had cultured from children with Down syndrome, Dr. Gautier saw that every cell had an extra chromosome.

“I was alone, but I shouted out, ‘Yes!’” she told New Scientist magazine in 2014.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/h...

Marthe Gautier, 96, Dies; Had Key Role in Down Syndrome Breakthrough

Physician-researcher Dr. Marthe Gautier discovered that people with Down syndrome have an extra chromosome; a fellow doctor stole the credit.

Dr. Gautier died on April 30, 2022. She was 96. For some reason the New York Times published her obituary yesterday.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/h...

‘Not So Bulletproof’: A Far-Right Party Faces Rebuke in the Netherlands

“We thought [...] that the radical right was always going to become bigger — that they were bulletproof,” said Kristof Jacobs, a political scientist at Radboud University. “Not so bulletproof after all.”

Center-left party in the Netherlands staged major gains:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/w...

Who Is Dr. Casey Means? The MD on How to Improve Metabolism, Lose Weight and Treat Healthcare ‘Blind Spots’ Stanford-trained surgeon Casey Means, M.D., wasn’t satisfied with the status quo in healthcare, where patients seemed to stay sick. So she quit. And she became one of the most well-known and influenti...

“Our modern diets and lifestyles are synergistically ravaging our cellular mitochondria,” says Means. Whatever the heck that means.

Why are these "wellness disruptors" obsessed by mitochondria?

www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/dr...

Opinion | The Doctor Who Hates Medicine

Casey Means, whose Senate hearings for Surgeon-General begin on Thursday, is a strange choice for the job. She is simultaneously boastful of her academic accomplishments and insistent on their uselessness.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/o...

Here's another cheery spider story:

The most recent survey estimates the total number of female fen raft spiders is now into the thousands, with potentially 3,750 individuals.

Adult female Fen Raft Spiders grow up to the size of your palm.

www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen...

I'm here for the optimism as well as all the gloom 'n' doom.

‘White-knuckled wolf spider’ thought lost is rediscovered on Isle of Wight Conservationists hail ‘remarkable’ rediscovery after 40 years, at nature reserve only accessible by boat

A tiny spider thought to have vanished for ever from the UK has been rediscovered.

Aulonia albimana, "the white-knuckled wolf spider" was found on the Isle of Wight in a spot grazed by a flock of Hebridean sheep.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

From genocide to ecocide: After years of war, Gaza faces an environmental crisis ‘above imagination’ A new report by scientists in Israel details the emerging environmental crisis in Palestine.

According to a new report by the Arava Institute, an environmental research institute based in Israel, Gaza is covered with an estimated 61 million tons of rubble, much of which contains asbestos, unexploded munitions, and unburied human remains.

grist.org/internationa...

Gaza’s Ceasefire is Vital, but Only a Start | International Crisis Group Trump’s Gaza ceasefire is holding, aid is flowing and captives have been freed, but unless bolstered by sustained international diplomacy and pressure, the plan may collapse or simply stall at phase o...

The risk that Gaza now faces is that predictable clashes over security and governance not only slow the roll-out of the next phase but make it unachievable. One possible result is that the first phase simply lingers on. @crisisgroup.org reports

www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...

Organizers Cancel a University Conference on Censorship After Being Warned It Could Run Afoul of Utah Law Unless It Was Censored. Yes, You Read that Right By Eileen AJ Connelly Organizers at Utah’s Weber State University canceled a two-day conference on censorship after the administration claimed that they risked running afoul of a state law unless the ...

Utah’s Weber State University canceled a 2-day conference on censorship after administration claimed that they risked running afoul of a state law unless the event itself was censored.

"We are censoring discussions of censorship," Jonathan Friedman @penamerica.bsky.social

pen.org/organizers-o...

A Victory for the Freedom to Read, as Judge Orders Banned Books Returned to Shelves in U.S. Military Schools A federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia today ordered the Department of Defense to restore all books banned in five schools at U.S. military installations, a ruling PEN America calle...

A federal judge in the Eastern District Court of Virginia today ordered the Department of Defense to restore all books banned in five schools at U.S. military installations, a ruling @penamerica.bsky.social called a victory for the freedom to read.

pen.org/press-releas...

Survey finds wild cats at record heights One of the most elusive small cats, Pallas’s cat, was photographed for the first time as part of a survey in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul), one of the most elusive small cats, was photographed for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh. Its documentation in the northeast Indian state extends the species’ known range in the eastern Himalayas.

@mongabay.com

india.mongabay.com/2025/10/surv...

Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders The tech giants agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with the Israeli government, documents show

When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn cloud-computing deal in 2021, the Israeli government had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code which would require Google and Amazon to effectively sidestep legal obligations in countries around the world.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Carnivorous ‘death ball’ sponge among new species found in depths of Southern Ocean Researchers previously took first confirmed footage of a juvenile colossal squid in scarcely explored habitat

A carnivorous “death ball” sponge is among 30 previously unknown deep-sea species found by scientists in one of the most remote parts of the planet.

Scientists found new iridescent scale worms, new isopods and amphipods, and rare gastropods and bivalves.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

What Can Break the Shutdown Impasse?

“With less than a month before Thanksgiving, no federal worker should have to turn to a food pantry to help prepare the family table,” said Everett B. Kelley, head of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Federal employees continue to go without pay.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/u...

Katie Lam’s anti-immigrant rhetoric sounds a lot like that of the 1930s The Kent MP is espousing views that would have barred entry to her own ancestors when they were fleeing the Nazis

Anti-immigrant rhetoric of rising Tory star Katie Lam sounds a lot like the 1930s, writes @arusbridger.bsky.social @prospectmagazine.co.uk

She says her family became “totally assimilated into British life.”

Many German Jews felt similarly assimilated.

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/pol...

This horror isn’t what a ceasefire looks like, and it’s clear that our fight is still ahead of us.

We’ll be talking about our Palestinian-Jewish grassroots struggle for an end to the violence and bloodshed in cities on the East Coast starting next week. Please join us. 🔗⬇️

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SNAP benefit freeze will leave millions nationwide struggling to pay for food – including 472,711 people in Philadelphia Starting Nov. 1, 2025, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will stop being distributed in Pennsylvania due to the federal government shutdown, which began Oct. 1.

SNAP benefit freeze will leave millions nationwide struggling to pay for food – including 472,711 people in Philadelphia
@us.theconversation.com
Félice Lê-Scherban
theconversation.com/snap-benefit...

It is, absolutely.

The @thelancet.com report says failure to curb the warming effects of climate change has seen the rate of heat-related deaths surge 23% since the 1990s, to 546,000 a year. In 2024 alone, air pollution from wildfire smoke was linked to a record 154,000 deaths.

Climate inaction is claiming millions of lives every year, warns new Lancet Countdown report WHO and global partners are calling for the protection of people’s health to be recognized as the most powerful driver of climate action, as a new global report released today warns that continued ove...

Governments spent US$956 billion on net fossil fuel subsidies in 2023, more than triple the annual amount pledged to support climate-vulnerable countries. Fifteen countries spent more subsidizing fossil fuels than on their entire national health budgets. @thelancet.com

www.who.int/news/item/29...

On Nov 3, 2025, at 5:30 PM (EST), I’ll join a panel at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs on Human Rights & World Sports: The Saudi Arabia Case and Sport-washing. We’ll discuss how investigative journalism and international law can challenge state power.