Researchers have found an approximately 1-million-year-old fossil pelvis that, in their view, indicates that Homo erectus females gave birth to surprisingly big-brained babies. (p. 14)

Using fluorescent markers, scientists are discovering that men and women divide chromosomes differently. The research may help explain Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders.

When it comes to sensory information detected by the body, pain is king, and itch is the court jester. But that insistent, tingly feeling—satisfied only by a scratch—is anything but funny to the millions of people who suffer from it chronically. Garden-variety itches related to histamine, like the kind caused by an angry rash of chicken pox or poison ivy, annoy everyone, but most can be subdued with drugs like Benadryl. But another type of itch is not mollified by these drugs, and therein lies the rub. Pathological itch — called the “itch that laughs at Benadryl” by neuros... (p. 16)

Early exposure to peanuts in a baby’s diet seems to lessen the risk of developing a peanut allergy later. (p. 8)

A research team in Israel has uncovered one of the oldest known graves of a shaman. The 12,000-year-old grave hosts a woman’s skeleton surrounded by the remains of unusual animals. (p. 14)

Excavations in southern Jordan have incited controversy about whether a copper-producing society existed there 3,000 years ago, and whether it was controlled by Israeli kings described in the Old Testament. (p. 10)

Researchers present findings at the annual New Horizons in Science meeting.