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The dirty secret of our food economy is this: In many of the communities that grow and supply our food, far too many people can’t afford basic healthy meals. The government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — once known as food stamps — is a lifeline not just for North Carolinians still living in shelters, but for entire rural economies. (Jose Andres, 4/29)

Two small studies published earlier this month in Nature offer early, but important validation that stem cell treatments for Parkinson’s disease are viable. (Lisa Jarvis, 4/29)

Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, takes issue with calling ASD a disease because it “implies that something has gone wrong to make someone autistic.” Naming it an epidemic conjures up the mistaken notion that autism is contagious. Instead, Gross, who is autistic herself, refers to autism as a disability for which people need different levels of support throughout their lives. (Leana S. Wen, 4/29)

Twenty years ago, the use of human embryonic stem cells in research was among the most fiercely debated topics at the always-crowded intersection of science and politics. As part of that, President George W. Bush restricted such research funding to existing hESC lines. President Barack Obama later relaxed those limits, but for a short period in 2010 hESC funding was blocked by a court injunction. Since then, even during President Trump’s first term, important hESC research funding has continued. (Paul Knoepfler, 4/30)

There is plenty of evidence that prison conditions are dangerous because of the heat. A 2022 Brown University study examined the relationship between mortality risks and heat exposure in Texas prisons, focusing on prisons with and without air conditioning. The research, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, showed that 271 people died between 2001 and 2019 because of extreme heat exposure. (4/29)