Contributor

B. David Zarley

Senior Staff Writer

Contact

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B. David Zarley is a senior staff writer for Freethink, where he covers health and medicine, including infectious disease, psychedelic research, mental health, and the brain. A graduate of SUNY Fredonia, his work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Verge, Jezebel, Frieze, Sports Illustrated, VICE, Paste Magazine, and numerous other publications. He lives in Chicago and can be reached via Signal by request. Send him story ideas!

Public Health

A new clue in why oral vaccines don’t work as well in developing countries

Oral vaccines are crucial to public health, but work worse where they are needed most. A new mouse study has a potential reason why.

B. David Zarley

Food

Fungus-based “mycoprotein” may be the next future food

Startups around the world are racing to get mycoprotein — food based on fungus — to plates.

B. David Zarley

Can digital twins solve our supply chain problems?

Supply chains around the world are feeling the strain of COVID-19. Are AI-powered, highly detailed “digital twins” the key to a smoother future?

B. David Zarley

Climate Crisis

Using AI to help save wine from wildfires

California startup Tastry is using its wine “tasting” AI to help save wines impacted by wildfire smoke.

B. David Zarley

Artificial pancreas tested for the first time in type 2 diabetes patients

University of Cambridge researchers have tested an artificial pancreas for the first time in patients with both type 2 diabetes and kidney failure.

B. David Zarley

Medicine

Cooling caps can help prevent chemo hair loss

Chemo hair loss is a common side effect for cancer patients, but cooling caps can help limit the loss.

B. David Zarley

Cars

Airless tires get their public test drive

Decades in development, Michelin’s airless tires finally hit the road.

B. David Zarley

Mental Health

Johns Hopkins receives the first NIH grant for clinical psychedelic research in half a century

For the first time in decades, the National Institutes of Health is funding a clinical psychedelic study, perhaps a turning point for the field.

B. David Zarley

Public Health

A malaria antibody prevented infections in purposefully-infected volunteers

In a small study, researchers found an antibody that prevents malaria infection in people purposefully infected with the parasite.

B. David Zarley

Medicine

Johns Hopkins has developed a lung cancer blood test

Researchers at Johns Hopkins are using AI to power a lung cancer blood test.

B. David Zarley