Dossier
Emily Mitchell
Coverage of Emily Mitchell in the Nexus archive.
- Mom’s bladder mistakenly removed during routine surgery, wins $17M
Emily Mitchell's bladder was mistakenly removed during a routine ovarian cyst surgery, leading to a $15.75 million jury award from a Maine court three years later. The medical error resulted in a substantial compensation ruling.
- Lack of sex may have slowed evolution for millions of years
A study suggests that early animals' reliance on asexual reproduction slowed evolutionary diversification for millions of years until environmental pressures prompted a shift to sexual reproduction, triggering rapid species expansion. Researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed Ediacaran period fossils, finding that asexual cloning reduced competition, while stressful conditions like storms and tides later drove increased dispersal and diversity.