Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

More Stories in Humans

  1. Anthropology

    Big Neandertal noses weren’t made for cold

    Tiny cameras threaded inside a Neandertal skull provide evidence that their big noses were not an adaptation to cold climates.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    How a bacterial toxin linked to colon cancer messes with DNA

    A closeup look at colibactin’s structure reveals chemical motifs that guide its mutation-wreaking “warheads” to specific stretches of DNA.

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  3. Psychology

    Chatbots spewing facts, and falsehoods, can sway voters

    Chatbots that dole out fact-laden arguments can sway voters. Those facts don’t have to be true.

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  4. Humans

    Ancient southern Africans took genetic evolution in a new direction

    An ancient, shared set of human-specific genes underwent changes in a geographically isolated population after around 300,000 years ago, scientists say.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Self-hypnosis with cooling mental imagery could ease hot flashes

    Postmenopausal women who listened to self-guided hypnosis recordings daily for six weeks saw meaningful improvements in hot flash symptoms.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Personalized ‘prehabilitation’ helps the body brace for major surgery

    A small study finds that individualized prehab can dampen harmful immune responses and may reduce complications after an operation.

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  7. Humans

    A therapeutic HPV vaccine shrank cervical tumors in mice

    An HPV vaccine delivered into the nose can treat cervical tumors in mice. The vaccine targets a cancer protein produced by the virus.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Canada just lost its measles elimination status. Is the U.S. next?

    Canada has had more than a year of continuous measles transmission. The United States has until January to limit cases before losing status.

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  9. Anthropology

    A foot fossil suggests a second early human relative lived alongside Lucy

    Foot bones and other fossils have been attributed to Australopithecus deyiremeda, a recently discovered species that may shake up the human family tree.

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