All posts tagged: affecting

We want to hear how Medicaid work requirements are affecting you

We want to hear how Medicaid work requirements are affecting you

Published by Sam Flores

NBC News is looking to speak with patients, medical providers and healthcare advocates about the changes they are experiencing due to a new Medicaid work mandate. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The law, passed last year as part of the Trump administration’s “big, beautiful bill,” requires some Medicaid participants to work, volunteer or go to school for at least 80 hours each month. The requirements have already rolled out in some states, including Nebraska, and will be implemented across the country by Jan. 1. The rules apply to some Medicaid patients in states that expanded access under the Affordable Care Act. Certain people, such as those who are pregnant or medically frail, are exempt. But experts have warned that the administrative burden placed on states could result in millions of people losing coverage, even if they should still be receiving Medicaid. We want to hear from you: Are you or others in your community subject to the work requirements? If you or someone you know …

Versions of You in Other Universes May Be Subtly Affecting Your Destiny, Oxford Physicist Says

Versions of You in Other Universes May Be Subtly Affecting Your Destiny, Oxford Physicist Says

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech You may think you’re the protagonist of your own story. According to Oxford physicist Vlatko Vedral, however, you’re more like a puppet — whose strings are being pulled into a million parallel universes at any given time. As Vedral argues in a recent issue of Popular Mechanics, the pop-sci version of the “observer effect” — where the act of observation or measurement affects a system — gets the cause-and-effect backward. The typical story goes something like this: quantum objects hang out in multiple states at once, until some observer glances over. At this point, the multiple states collapse and only one is left, an assumption that can lead various woo-woo interpretations, like that we create reality simply by observing it. Physics, Verdal says, does not support that idea. That collapse effect isn’t a special power of human consciousness, but rather a fact of physics that says interactions — any interaction — forces a quantum system to commit to …

Why everyone is talking about the vagus nerve – and how it’s really affecting your health

Why everyone is talking about the vagus nerve – and how it’s really affecting your health

Published by Daniella Wilson

How long have you got?” is Professor Owen Epstein’s response when I ask what the vagus nerve does. A pioneering consultant gastroenterologist, his areas of special interest include the role of the vagus nerve in gastrointestinal health and disease. Like everything else in life, parts of our physiology tend to become “fashionable” in line with genuine medical breakthroughs that advance our understanding of their importance and function. Take the gut microbiome – seemingly overnight, it went from something almost no one had heard of to a mainstream buzzword bandied about by professionals and civilians alike. Now, it’s the turn of the vagus nerve to undergo the trendy treatment. Never heard of it before? Just you wait – now that you’ve seen it once, you’ll see it everywhere, as dictated by the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, aka the frequency illusion. It’s only in the last 10 to 15 years that the uniqueness of this remarkable internal communication superhighway has really been appreciated, and only in the last five that chatter has gone from niche to nearing critical mass. …

A dysfunctional phenomenon affecting influencers

A dysfunctional phenomenon affecting influencers

Published by José Betancourt

For many aspiring artists and musicians, achieving fame on social media represents the ultimate career goal. A new study published in Administrative Science Quarterly challenges this assumption, revealing that gaining a massive following often triggers a psychological struggle that threatens the creator’s well-being. The research identifies a phenomenon called “audience entanglement,” describing how creators must actively manage their deep emotional connection to their audience to prevent burnout and sustain their careers. The creator economy has grown rapidly in recent years. It is now a multi-billion dollar industry where individuals can earn a living by sharing their work directly with fans. Academic research and popular advice have historically viewed the attainment of a large audience as the endpoint of a creator’s journey. The prevailing logic suggests that once a creator builds a substantial fanbase, they have succeeded. The researchers behind the new study argue that this view is incomplete. They suggest that gaining an audience is not an endpoint but rather a new starting point that introduces unique challenges. While traditional gig workers interact with clients …