Today's Globe: Tufts trauma bid, open science, HIV awareness, no statin-cancer link, preeclampsia's later risks, weight loss, Vioxx payments

Tufts Medical Center is seeking to become a major trauma center, a plan that could affect where ambulances take some of the region's most seriously injured patients.

Barry Canton (left), a 28-year-old biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has posted raw scientific data, his thesis proposal, and original research ideas on an online website for all to see. He is part of a peaceful insurgency in science that is beginning to pry open an endeavor that still communicates its cutting-edge discoveries in much the same way it has since Ben Franklin was experimenting with lightning.

'Survivor' Ethan Zohn (left) will dribble a soccer ball from Gillette Stadium to Washington, D.C., to raise funds for HIV awareness.

The cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins neither cause cancer nor prevent it, US researchers reported yesterday.

Preeclampsia, which produces high blood pressure and other problems in 5 percent of pregnancies, can significantly increase the risk of kidney failure decades later, Norwegian researchers reported yesterday.

An epilepsy drug being tested for use in treating addiction can help obese rats shed weight, US government researchers said yesterday.

Partial payments for people claiming that withdrawn painkiller Vioxx caused heart attacks will go out starting Aug. 28 under the $4.85 billion settlement between drug maker Merck & Co. and plaintiffs' lawyers, the claims administrator said yesterday.