Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Humans

    Mysterious Denisovans emerged from the shadows in 2019

    Denisovan fossil and DNA finds this year highlighted the enigmatic hominid’s complexity and our own hybrid roots.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Measles got a foothold in the United States this year and almost didn’t let go

    Areas of low vaccination are blamed for the United States' largest number of measles cases in more than 25 years.

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  3. Genetics

    The first U.S. trials in people put CRISPR to the test in 2019

    Trials of the gene editor in people began in the United States this year, a first step toward fulfilling the technology’s medical promise.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Surplus chromosomes may fuel tumor growth in some cancers

    Extra copies of some genes on excess chromosomes may keep cancer cells growing. Without those extras, cancer cells form fewer tumors in mice.

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  5. Life

    Prions clog cell traffic in brains with neurodegenerative diseases

    Prions may derail cargo moving inside brain cells, perhaps contributing to cell death in prion diseases.

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  6. Archaeology

    A nearly 44,000-year-old hunting scene is the oldest known storytelling art

    Cave art in Indonesia dating to at least 43,900 years ago is the earliest known storytelling art, and shows otherworldly human-animal hunters.

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  7. Archaeology

    Archaeologists have finally found ancient Egyptian wax head cones

    Newly discovered wax caps are the first physical examples of apparel shown in many ancient Egyptian art works.

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  8. Science & Society

    Why Rembrandt and da Vinci may have painted themselves with skewed eyes

    A strongly dominant eye, not an eye disorder, may explain why some great artists painted themselves with one eye turned outward.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    A once-scrapped Alzheimer’s drug may work after all, new analyses suggest

    An antibody that targets Alzheimer’s sticky protein amyloid showed promise in slowing mental decline, according to the company that’s developing it.

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  10. Humans

    50 years ago, income inequality was severe in the U.S. It still is

    In 1969, lower-income households tended to be nonwhite and in the U.S. South. That still holds true today.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Scientists’ brains shrank a bit after an extended stay in Antarctica

    The experience of an isolated, long-term mission at an Antarctic research station slightly shrunk a part of crew members’ brains, a small study finds.

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  12. Humans

    A gene tied to facial development hints humans domesticated themselves

    Scientists may have identified a gene that ties together ideas about human evolution and animal domestication.

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