A prosthetic hand is a critical tool that allows amputees to find normalcy in their lives, but some elements, such as complete freedom of movement and sensations of touch, are not the same as a real hand. “They’ve come a long way and they have a long way to go,” said amputee Charity McFarland, who lost her left hand in a car accident almost four years ago. McFarland said of the accident, “All I saw were lights and I basically was trying to avoid getting hit, but then the accident …

How does a former stay-at-home mom become an employee of a tech company that could be worth more than $1 billion? For Ellein Cheng, mom to a 5½- and a 2½-year-old, the answer involved a “returnship.” So-called returnships are internships that target men and women who have been out of the workforce, either for childrearing or other caregiving. It gives them a chance to retrain in a new field. In Cheng’s case, the former math teacher and tutor took a returnship at AppNexus, an online advertising company. For companies, returnships …

When the ebola crisis erupted in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent staff to help West African countries contain the pandemic. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research and supported pharmaceutical giants to produce a vaccine that would save lives but not turn a profit. In his budget proposal, President Donald Trump seeks big cuts in spending on global health research. Those cuts could affect work being done to end malaria and AIDS and protect against other infectious diseases.  Trump’s proposed 2018 budget calls for an …