Marianne Guenot

Jorg Greuel via Getty Image
livescience.com •

Man nearly guaranteed to get early Alzheimer's is still disease-free in his 70s — how?

A man whose genetics almost guaranteed that he would develop Alzheimer's disease by his 50s has somehow made it to his mid-70s with nary a symptom.The now-75-year-old man, Doug Whitney, is one of only three people known to have escaped their genetic fate, sidestepping a rare form of Alzheimer's disease called dominantly inherited Alzheimer's disease (DIAD). Caused by several gene mutations, DIAD makes up less than 1% of all Alzheimer's cases, and its symptoms typically set in between ages 35 and...
Business Insider •

A Harvard professor is risking his reputation to search for aliens. Tech tycoons are bankrolling his quest.

Harvard's Avi Loeb has been setting the astrophysics world on fire with his claims that extraterrestrial tech could be behind recent near-Earth observations, his rising public persona, and his upcoming off-Broadway one-man show.

In this story, I spoke to the controversial professor to understand his motivation to search for signs of alien intelligence in Earth's backyard. I also investigated how he piqued the interest of wealthy counter-culture philanthropists to fund his quest.
European Union, 2019
European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi speaks at Brussels - EP, Brussels - European Parliament
The Lancet •

New EU Health Commissioner appointed amid controversy

Olivér Várhelyi's tempestuous confirmation process has seen pandemic preparedness and reproductive health stripped from his portfolio. Marianne Guenot reports.
Europe has a new Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare. Olivér Várhelyi, the former European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, began his term on Dec 1, as part of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's second College of Commissioners.
The new role for Hungary's Várhelyi was among the most disputed, with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) raising his connection to President Viktor Orbán and the controversial right-wing Fidesz party during his confirmation. Negotiations eventually led to sexual and reproductive health and pandemic preparedness being stripped from Várhelyi's portfolio.
Nature Medicine •

Can quantum computing crack the biggest challenges in health? - Nature Medicine

Cleveland Clinic in the USA and the
UK National Health Service are both part of a burgeoning community of researchers, health systems and companies exploring applications of quantum computing in health. Although this nascent technology is at least a few years away from having practical applications — and some are warning of the
impending burst of the ‘quantum bubble’ —
many experts believe that biomedical and
healthcare research needs to be ready for the
quantum revolution of tomorrow.
“I know we are taking a gamble,” says
Lara Jehi, Cleveland Clinic’s chief research
information officer, who leads the institute’s
quantum research. Jehi hopes that “there is a
strategic, long-term advantage in being the
group that was first.”
British Medical Journal (BMJ) •

How do GLP-1 drugs work for weight loss . . . and everything else?

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists like semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) are constantly in the news for their staggering slimming effects. But it’s becoming clear that there is more to this drug class than weight loss.GLP-1 receptor agonists were once thought to be simple insulin regulators. Now, they’re known to act on the kidneys, heart, liver, brain, and more. “I think it’s absolutely fascinating and definitely very unusual that the potential indications are expanding so dramatical...
Business Insider •

Climate change is already costing us money, but we have a chance to limit the worst of it and prosper. Here's how.

The ultimate goal, Amir Jina, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago, told Insider, should be to create a world where "climate or weather is a problem as boring as plumbing."
But to get there, we'll need to spend a lot of money up front and be real about the climate costs we're already paying — even if we don't always notice them.
Business Insider •

The moon is open for business, and entrepreneurs are racing to make billions

The moon could soon represent a market worth over $100 billion, piquing the interests of private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Nokia, Lockheed Martin, and General Motors, to develop solutions for its lunar missions such as space-worthy rides, moon streaming, lunar GPS, and more.

This new market — worth over $100 billion— could be game-changing for humanity.

"Definitely the moon is going to be a big business," said Prachi Kawade, a senior analyst at NSR, a research-and-consulting company focused on the space market.
Business Insider •

I'm an expert in obesity, a condition that is rampantly misunderstood. Here is why I'm very comfortable with a patient weighing 300 pounds.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Fatima Cody Stanford, a leading expert in obesity medicine and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. It has been edited for length and clarity.

When I first saw this patient, I was working on my fellowship in obesity medicine in Boston. As soon as I walked into my waiting room, I recognized him.

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

He was a train conductor
Business Insider •

Over 600 cubes of Nazi uranium made their way to the US after the war. 2 scientists are trying to figure out where they are now.

These paperweight-like cubes wouldn't raise an eyebrow on someone's desk.

"Marie Curie's granddaughter has one. She uses it as a doorstop," said an expert.

But these 2-inch uranium cubes were once important enough for the Allied forces to send a special task force, codenamed 'Alsos' to bring them back from Nazi Germany.

This story follows two science sleuths as they trace fourteen hand-sized uranium cubes back to Nazi Germany's first efforts to build a nuclear reactor, and the Manhattan Project's attempts to derail this plan.

Journalist with nearly a decade's experience writing and editing science news, opinion, features, and investigations. 

I turn around factchecked, tight, readable copy within the deadline without compromising on accuracy. I can write for a range of audiences, from broadsheet news readers, to B2B, to high-level policymakers.

I have more than 700 bylines to my name, which have attracted tens of millions of pageviews. I can tackle a wide range of formats, from quick news hits to months-long investigations.

I love writing about health, especially obesity, the business, politics, and economics of science, tech, and the influence of the 1% on health and science. But I also cover quantum computing, AI, fusion, human evolution... If it's about science, I have probably covered it before.

Words in Business Insider, Live Science, The British Medical Journal, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, and others. 

My work has been covered by Fortune, USA Today, The Independent, Libération, Forbes, Al Jazeera, and others.

My Latest Works

Polytechnique Insights •

India's transition to electric vehicles

Peter Wells. India as a whole has done pret­ty well in adopt­ing elec­tric vehi­cles, but there’s plen­ty of scope to do more. The coun­try acknowl­edged ear­ly on that there were oppor­tu­ni­ties for gain with the tran­si­tion, notably when it comes to reduc­ing the health effects of air pol­lu­tion and noise. Accord­ing­ly, they have been sup­port­ing this change since 2015, notably with the Faster Adop­tion and Man­u­fac­tur­ing of Hybrid and Elec­tric Vehi­cles (FAME) sub­sidy scheme that su...
livescience.com •

People who can't 'see with their mind's eye' have different wiring in the brain

People with aphantasia lack the ability to summon crisp images in their "mind's eye." But even though they can't visualize in this way, the blueprints for those imaginary images might still be nestled in their brains, a new study suggests.The work, published in the journal Current Biology Jan. 10, provides early evidence that the brains of people with aphantasia can light up as if they were generating mental images in their primary visual cortex — the main part of the brain responsible for proce...
livescience.com •

Sperm cells carry traces of childhood stress, epigenetic study finds

Fathers may carry traces of their childhood trauma in their sperm cells, a new study finds.The new research, published Jan. 3 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, looked at the "epigenetics" of the sperm cells of fathers who had been exposed to high stress in childhood.Epigenetics involves how DNA — the blueprint used to build the proteins and molecules that make up our bodies — is read. Epigenetics doesn't change DNA's underlying code but rather alters which genes can be switched on. Research s...
Nature Medicine •

Can quantum computing crack the biggest challenges in health? - Nature Medicine

Cleveland Clinic in the USA and the
UK National Health Service are both part of a burgeoning community of researchers, health systems and companies exploring applications of quantum computing in health. Although this nascent technology is at least a few years away from having practical applications — and some are warning of the
impending burst of the ‘quantum bubble’ —
many experts believe that biomedical and
healthcare research needs to be ready for the
quantum revolution of tomorrow.
“I know we are taking a gamble,” says
Lara Jehi, Cleveland Clinic’s chief research
information officer, who leads the institute’s
quantum research. Jehi hopes that “there is a
strategic, long-term advantage in being the
group that was first.”
Business Insider •

A powerful solar storm is due to hit Earth on New Year's Eve, sparking beautiful auroras. Here's how to see them.

A pair of powerful geomagnetic storms are due to strike Earth on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing dazzling auroras across the planet which may be seen farther south than usual.The coming auroras have been predicted after the sun recently released some plasma during two coronal mass ejections that are currently traveling toward us at breakneck speeds.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the first wave of plasma will reach the Earth on Tuesday, exciting our outer atmosphere a...
European Union, 2019
European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi speaks at Brussels - EP, Brussels - European Parliament
The Lancet •

New EU Health Commissioner appointed amid controversy

Olivér Várhelyi's tempestuous confirmation process has seen pandemic preparedness and reproductive health stripped from his portfolio. Marianne Guenot reports.
Europe has a new Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare. Olivér Várhelyi, the former European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, began his term on Dec 1, as part of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's second College of Commissioners.
The new role for Hungary's Várhelyi was among the most disputed, with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) raising his connection to President Viktor Orbán and the controversial right-wing Fidesz party during his confirmation. Negotiations eventually led to sexual and reproductive health and pandemic preparedness being stripped from Várhelyi's portfolio.
Polytechnique Insights •

How AI could humanise robots - Polytechnique Insights

Watch­ing videos released by robot­ics com­pa­nies like Tes­la and Fig­ure, it could seem like robots will walk into our homes tomor­row, able to exe­cute any com­mand a human asks them to do thanks to advance­ments in large lan­guage mod­els (LLMs). That may be com­ing down the pike, but there are some sub­stan­tial hur­dles to over­come first, says Edward Johns, direc­tor of the Robot Learn­ing Lab at Impe­r­i­al Col­lege London.
livescience.com •

'Tour de force' study may explain why trauma can lead to PTSD

Intense stress can lead to fuzzy memories, which can lead to more generalized fear responses. Now, scientists may have just discovered why.A study in mice, published Friday (Nov. 15) in the journal Cell, suggests that stress hormones can distort how memories are recorded, leading to less-precise recollections and a future tendency to be unable to properly distinguish between safe triggers and threats.The new findings could help uncover new avenues to treat people with post-traumatic stress disor...
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels

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