EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs
The agency's Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for EPA's mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA said in May it would shift its scientific expertise and research efforts to program offices that focus on major issues like air and water.
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Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The One Protein Mistake That Makes Weight Loss Harder On Semaglutide—And How To Avoid It
You might already know that it's important to eat enough protein while taking a weight-loss medication, but a new study explains why this macro is so essential. People on weight-loss drugs often lose muscle mass while they lose weight, but new scientific findings suggest boosting your protein can help combat this, keeping you healthy and strong. Here's what experts have to say about the study and what you should know. When you start losing weight on a weight loss medication, it can happen pretty fast. And chances are high that you're not just losing fat, but essential lean muscle mass, too. Why does this matter? Well, losing lean muscle mass can have a negative impact on your metabolism and blood sugar levels, which will ultimately work against your weight loss efforts. It can even mess with your bone health. But a new study presented at ENDO 2025 found that there's a relatively easy, simple way to combat this: Eat more protein. To be fair, weight loss specialists and dietitians have been preaching this for years. But it's helpful to see the reasons spelled out so clearly in scientific research. So, here's what the study found, what you need to know about the connection between protein and muscle, and why protein is so crucial when you're on a weight loss drug. Meet the experts: Kais Rona, MD, is a bariatric surgeon at MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA; Sonya Angelone, RDN, is a nutritionist and registered dietitian based in San Francisco, California; Scott Keatley, RD, is co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy What did the study find? For the study, researchers followed 40 adults with obesity for three months. Of those, 23 were taking a semaglutide medication (a GLP-1 receptor agonist medication and the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic), while the other 17 went through a weight loss program called Healthy Habits for Life, which encourages diet and lifestyle changes to achieve weight loss. The researchers analyzed the participants' muscle mass during the study period. While the study participants who took semaglutide lost more weight than those who followed the diet and lifestyle program, people in both groups lost the same amount of lean muscle mass. The researchers found that people in the semaglutide group who were older, female, or ate less protein had more muscle loss. As a result, the study concluded that eating more protein may help protect against muscle mass loss linked to semaglutide. Why is protein helpful in maintaining and building muscle mass? Protein is an important component for muscles, says Scott Keatley, RD, co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy. 'Protein provides the building blocks necessary to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, the process through which the body repairs and builds muscle tissue,' he says. When you consume enough protein, you're more likely to retain and even build muscle, Keatley explains. But when you don't have enough protein, your body will 'cannibalize' some of your muscle mass for energy, he says. Why is it so important to consume protein on a GLP-1? For starters, GLP-1 receptor agonist medications like semaglutide are designed to tamp down on appetite, points out Sonya Angelone, RDN, a nutritionist and registered dietitian based in San Francisco. And since some people experience medication side effects like nausea, they may end up eating smaller amounts of protein and more carb-rich foods, which are usually better tolerated with nausea, she says. 'It is super important to eat more protein when losing weight to minimize the amount of muscle lost during weight loss. Otherwise, you are more likely to regain the lost weight since you will end up with less muscle, which naturally burns calories.' Protein also helps to keep you feeling fuller, longer, Angelone says. 'That helps you eat less, which is a good strategy in any weight loss program,' she says How much protein should you be taking on a GLP-1? If you're unsure how much protein you should be eating while you're taking a GLP-1 medication, it's a good idea to talk to your prescribing doctor for personalized advice. 'I often recommend patients to have 1.2 grams to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily,' says Kais Rona, MD, a bariatric surgeon at MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA. He also suggests that his patients on these medications do resistance training to maintain their muscle mass. Strength training is also super important to combat bone density loss, which can occur while taking a GLP-1. Check out our Protein Playbook here for the best recipes, the latest science, and clear info on your favorite macro. What are some of the best ways to consume protein? Your body can only absorb and use 20 to 30 grams of protein per sitting to support muscle repair and growth, according to Keatley. Because of this, 'it's important to space protein intake throughout the day, rather than loading it all into one meal,' he says. That means trying to load up on protein at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with a snack or shake if needed. As for what kind of protein to reach for, Angelone recommends lean proteins like fish, chicken, tofu, eggs, and lean meat. 'Beans and quinoa are also good sources of protein which contain fiber—that can offset a side effect of constipation in people taking GLP-1 agonists,' she says. 'For someone who tolerates dairy products, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are rich sources of protein.' Experts stress the importance of combining all this protein intake with exercise, too. 'If you're not working out, start,' Keatley says. 'Pairing this protein intake with resistance training is what really drives lean mass preservation.' You Might Also Like Jennifer Garner Swears By This Retinol Eye Cream These New Kicks Will Help You Smash Your Cross-Training Goals
Gizmodo
37 minutes ago
- Gizmodo
The ‘Alien: Earth' Premiere Just Blew Away Hall H at Comic-Con
Anyone who has been to a movie recently knows that keeping people quiet to watch something together can be a struggle. Now make that number almost 7,000 people, and what happens is pure captivation as the crowd in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con were wowed by the first episode of Alien: Earth, which comes to FX on August 12. The episode starts in a very familiar way for Alien fans before doing a complete 180 into something totally different. Almost instantly, it's clear that creator Noah Hawley both knows what you want from an Alien show and that he has to give you something new. That something new primarily centers on Wendy, played by Sydney Chandler. In the first episode, we see she's actually a child who had her consciousness transported into a superior robot body resembling an adult. It's one of the new innovations at Prodigy, one of several companies at the center of Alien: Earth as they battle a war to monetize immortality. Not what you expected from an Alien show, right? After a few twists and turns, Wendy and several other similar beings decide they want to help investigate a mysterious (and potentially lucrative) crash by a Weyland-Yutani ship in the middle of the city. That ship houses several creatures on it, including some new ones that will creep and crawl their way into your nightmares, just as they do a few soldiers near the end of the episode. We'll have more specifics on the episode when we get closer to release, but it played like gangbusters to the near 7,000-person Hall H at Comic-Con. They 'ooh'd,' they 'aah'd,' and they made it seem like this Alien: Earth show might be something special. Because the episode was so long, there wasn't a lot of time to actually talk about the show on the panel. Mostly, the attending cast, which included Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Alex Lawther, Samuel Blenkin, and Babou Ceesay, talked about how excited they are to be part of the Alien franchise. But showrunner and creator Noah Hawley did explain a bit about how this show will be different, just on a macro scale, from an Alien movie. 'It's an 8-hour story this year, and each hour has to build and have its horror elements, but my feeling is it really has to work as a drama, and then all the genre elements can be built on top of that,' he said. 'An Alien movie is a two-hour survival story, and a television show has to be more than that. It has to be a character journey that's thematically rich and that you really start to worry that I might kill some of these people. And I might.' 'The thing that's really quite special and I think you guys are going to enjoy is that by the time you get to the third or fourth episode, the things that wake you up in the middle of the night and you're thinking about the next day are just scenes between two people,' Olyphant added. 'They're so riveting. In addition to all the thrills and the scares. the drama and character study is so phenomenal.' We'll see it all on August 12 when Alien: Earth comes to FX. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bonkers NASA Mission Aims to Drop Six Helicopters Onto Mars From Space
Defense tech company AeroVironment and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have shown off a wild concept for deploying six helicopters above the surface of Mars to scout for water and possible human landing sites. The concept, dubbed "Skyfall," builds on NASA's extremely successful and revolutionary Ingenuity Mars helicopter, which became the first manmade object to achieve powered flight on another planet in 2021. It flew a whopping 72 times over three years, vastly exceeding expectations. AeroVironment's plan is to "deploy six scout helicopters on Mars, where they would explore many of the sites selected by NASA and industry as top candidate landing sites for America's first Martian astronauts," according to a press release. As seen in a flashy animation, the "Skyfall Maneuver" will attempt to deploy the six rotorcraft from a much larger spacecraft during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, making it a highly ambitious endeavor. However, the plan would also "eliminate the necessity for a landing platform — traditionally one of the most expensive, complex and risky elements of any Mars mission," per the company. Whether such a venture will receive enough funding to be realized remains unclear at best. While AeroVironment has kicked off internal investments ahead of a planned 2028 launch, budgetary restraints at NASA could pose a major challenge. The Trump administration is planning to massively slash the space agency's budget in what critics are calling an "existential threat" to science, making anything at NASA currently an uncertain bet. Just last week, NASA's JPL reportedly held a "going out of business sale" for existing satellites, signaling tough times ahead. It's not the only concept vying to follow up on the tremendous success of Ingenuity. In December, NASA showed off a SUV-sized "Mars Chopper" with six rotor blades that could allow it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day. AeroVironment's leadership claims its Skyfall concept could explore far more of the Red Planet for a fraction of the price, compared to conventional landers and rovers. "Skyfall offers a revolutionary new approach to Mars exploration that is faster and more affordable than anything that's come before it," said AeroVironment's head of space ventures, William Pomerantz, in the statement. "With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct — making humanity's first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer." Skyfall is planning to borrow heavily from its predecessor Ingenuity, including "its lightweight aircraft structure suitable for the thin atmosphere of Mars." "Ingenuity established the United States as the first and only country to achieve powered flight on another planet," said AeroVironment's president of autonomous systems, Trace Stevenson. "Skyfall builds on that promise, providing detailed, actionable data from an aerial perspective that will not only be of use planning for future crewed missions, but can also benefit the planetary science community in their search for evidence that life once existed on Mars." AeroVironment has worked on space-based laser communication terminals, as well as ground-based phased array antennas, to improve satellite command and control capabilities. How that expertise will translate to launching and landing six rotorcraft on Mars remains to be seen — but we'll be rooting for the project. More on Mars helicopters: NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized "Mars Chopper" With Six Rotor Blades
