Contributor

B. David Zarley

Senior Staff Writer

Contact

b.david@freethink.com

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!

Drugs

San Francisco decriminalizes plant-based psychedelics

San Francisco joins Oakland, Santa Cruz, DC, and Denver in decriminalizing some psychedelics.

B. David Zarley

Outer Space

How NASA is planning to prevent a Martian plague

When Mars samples arrive, they may carry more than knowledge. To offset the chance of a Martian pandemic, NASA is learning to contain a Red Planet plague.

B. David Zarley

Clean Energy

Wave energy generator passes 10-month test at sea

A wave energy generator has completed a ten month open ocean trial.

B. David Zarley

Clean Energy

New solar device can pull hydrogen straight from the air

Researchers have created a solar-powered device that can pull water from the air to create hydrogen.

B. David Zarley

Coronavirus

Newly discovered antibody neutralizes all variants of the coronavirus

Using modified mouse models originally designed for HIV, researchers have discovered an antibody that stops all known strains of COVID-19.

B. David Zarley

Drugs

Microdosing’s benefits may be powered by belief

A small, double-blind, placebo-controlled study has found evidence that expectations may be behind microdosing’s beneficial effects.

B. David Zarley

Meta can (kinda) guess what you’ve heard via your brain waves

Meta has created an AI that can tell what you’re hearing based on non-invasive brain scan measurements.

B. David Zarley

The genome of the immortal jellyfish has been sequenced

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the immortal jellyfish, revealing insights into its ability to reverse its life cycle.

B. David Zarley

Synthetic DNA nasal spray could stop COVID, flu, and other viruses

Cal-Berkeley researchers have developed a nasal spray which uses DNA-like molecules to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from replicating.

B. David Zarley

Researchers are fighting to clear brain fog

Brain fog’s prevalence among long COVID patients has researchers focusing on understanding, and treating, it.

B. David Zarley