Month: December 2013

A documentary about hospice program at Iowa State Penitentiary, short-listed for an Oscar nomination, captures the profoundly intimate moment of an inmate’s gentle death.        

Neuroscientists on Tuesday said they had used an inkjet printer to print cells from the eye, making a practical step in the quest to grow replenishment tissue for damaged or diseased organs. Researchers at England's University of Cambridge extracted two types of cells from rat retinas and sent them through a printer nozzle to see if they survived.

By Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union diplomats approved new anti-tobacco legislation on Wednesday, including larger health warnings on cigarette packets and the bloc's first rules on electronic cigarettes. "Agreement on the tobacco directive is a big step towards a healthier and more prosperous society," said Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, the health minister of Lithuania, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency. The deal was struck after governments and the European Parliament resolved a dispute over how tightly to regulate the market for e-cigarettes. Some analysts predict e-cigarette sales will eclipse the $700 billion-a-year market for ordinary cigarettes in 10 years.

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Curtis Skinner LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Concerns among Hispanics that signing up for medical insurance under President Barack Obama's healthcare law may draw the scrutiny of immigration authorities has hurt enrollment, according to advocates of the policy. Convincing Latinos to enroll could be crucial to the law's success, and supporters of Obama's signature domestic policy are aiming their campaign at the 10.2 million Latinos eligible for the new insurance plans or the expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor. As a group, Latinos are younger than the overall population in the United States and signing them up in large numbers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could help offset the costs of covering older and sicker people. But the enrollment effort appears to be falling short.