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Magazine
In the Feb. 16 SN: Robots roll into the classroom, brain zaps for severe depression, particle colliders of the future, how to walk like a tetrapod, sleepless nights boost Alzheimer's proteins and more.
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News
Why it’s key to identify preschoolers with anxiety and depression
02/03/2019 - 07:00 Human Development, Mental Health, PsychologyThe task was designed to scare the kids. One by one, adults guided children, ranging in age from 3 to 7, into a dimly lit room containing a mysterious covered mound. To build anticipation, the adults intoned, “I have something in here to show you,” or “Let’s be quiet so it doesn’t wake up.” The adult then uncovered the mound — revealed to be a terrarium — and pulled out a realistic looking...
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News
An ancient child from East Asia grew teeth like a modern human
01/16/2019 - 14:12 Anthropology, Human Evolution, Human DevelopmentAn ancient child with a mysterious evolutionary background represents the oldest known case of humanlike tooth growth in East Asia, researchers say.
The child’s fossilized upper jaw contains seven teeth that were in the process of developing when the roughly 6½-year-old youngster died at least 104,000 years ago and possibly more than 200,000 years ago. Using X-rays to examine the teeth’s...
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News
Pregnant women’s use of opioids is on the rise
08/09/2018 - 16:00 Health, Human DevelopmentPregnant women aren’t immune to the escalating opioid epidemic.
Data on hospital deliveries in 28 U.S. states shows the rate of opioid use among pregnant women has quadrupled, from 1.5 per 1,000 women in 1999 to 6.5 per 1,000 women in 2014, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
The highest increases in opioid use among pregnant women were in Maine, New Mexico...
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News
Human brains make new nerve cells — and lots of them — well into old age
04/05/2018 - 14:50 Neuroscience, Human Development, CellsYour brain might make new nerve cells well into old age.
Healthy people in their 70s have just as many young nerve cells, or neurons, in a memory-related part of the brain as do teenagers and young adults, researchers report in the April 5 Cell Stem Cell. The discovery suggests that the hippocampus keeps generating new neurons throughout a person’s life.
The finding contradicts a...
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Feature
How to build a human brain
02/20/2018 - 15:30 Human DevelopmentIn a white lab coat and blue latex gloves, Neda Vishlaghi peers through a light microscope at six milky-white blobs. Each is about the size of a couscous grain, bathed in the pale orange broth of a petri dish. With tweezers in one hand and surgical scissors in the other, she deftly snips one tiny clump in half.
When growing human brains, sometimes you need to do some pruning.
The...
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Scicurious
Even brain images can be biased
12/15/2017 - 07:00 Neuroscience, Human DevelopmentAn astonishing number of things that scientists know about brains and behavior are based on small groups of highly educated, mostly white people between the ages of 18 and 21. In other words, those conclusions are based on college students.
College students make a convenient study population when you’re a researcher at a university. It makes for a biased sample, but one that’s still...
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50 years ago, folate deficiency was linked to birth defects
11/30/2017 - 07:00 Human Development, HealthFolic acid
Pregnant women who do not have enough folic acid — a B vitamin — in their bodies can pass the deficiency on to their unborn children. It may lead to retarded growth and congenital malformation, according to Dr. A. Leonard Luhby…. “Folic acid deficiency in pregnant women could well constitute a public health problem of dimensions we have not originally recognized,” he says...
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News
Animal study reveals how a fever early in pregnancy can cause birth defects
10/18/2017 - 14:00 Health, Human DevelopmentCertain birth defects of the face and heart can occur when babies’ mothers have a fever during the first trimester of pregnancy, a crucial time in an embryo’s development. Now scientists have figured out the molecular players that make it so.
In an experiment with chicken embryos, a temporary rise in incubation temperature — meant to mimic feverlike conditions — was enough to produce...
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Feature
Birth control research is moving beyond the pill
08/22/2017 - 12:30 Health, Human DevelopmentMention “the pill,” and only one kind of drug comes to mind. The claim that oral contraceptives have on that simple noun testifies to the pill’s singular effect in the United States. Introduced in 1960, the pill gave women reliable access to birth control for the first time. The opportunity to delay having children opened the door to higher education and professional careers for many women....
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News
Drinking sugary beverages in pregnancy linked to kids’ later weight gain
07/10/2017 - 00:05 Health, Human DevelopmentAn expectant mom might want to think twice about quenching her thirst with soda.
The more sugary beverages a mom drank during mid-pregnancy, the heavier her kids were in elementary school compared with kids whose mothers consumed less of the drinks, a new study finds. At age 8, boys and girls weighed approximately 0.25 kilograms more — about half a pound — with each serving mom added per...