Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
A toe bone hints that Neandertals used eagle talons as jewelry
An ancient eagle toe bone elevates the case for the use of symbolic bird-of-prey pendants among Neandertals, researchers say.
- Health & Medicine
New details on immune system ‘amnesia’ show how measles causes long-term damage
Measles wipes the memories of immune cells in the body.
- Humans
Humans’ maternal ancestors may have arisen 200,000 years ago in southern Africa
New DNA findings on humankind’s maternal roots don’t offer a complete picture of how and when Homo sapiens emerged.
- Humans
Dating questions challenge whether Neandertals drew Spanish cave art
A method used to date cave paintings in Spain may have overestimated the art’s age by thousands of years, putting its creation after Neandertal times.
- Humans
Quarrying stone for Easter Island statues made soil more fertile for farming
Easter Island’s Polynesian society grew crops in soil made especially fertile by the quarrying of rock for large, humanlike statues, a study suggests.
- Science & Society
Bias in a common health care algorithm disproportionately hurts black patients
A machine-learning program that uses past medical costs to identify patients for extra care favors white patients over black patients, a study finds.
- Neuroscience
Lab-grown organoids are more stressed-out than actual brain cells
Compared with real brain tissue, organoids show big differences.
- Health & Medicine
Algae inside blood vessels could act as oxygen factories
Two types of light-responsive algae make oxygen inside tadpoles’ blood vessels.
- Health & Medicine
Prozac proves no better than a placebo in treating kids with autism
In a small clinical trial, drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors didn’t ease obsessive-compulsive symptoms in children with autism.
- Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s may scramble metabolism’s connection to sleep
Mice designed to have brain changes that mimic Alzheimer’s disease have altered reactions to blood sugar changes.
- Animals
New books explore why dogs and humans have such a special bond
‘Dog Is Love’ and ‘Our Dogs, Ourselves’ delve into the complicated, sometimes contradictory relationship that we have with our canine companions.
- Health & Medicine
These tiny aquatic animals secrete a compound that may help fight snail fever
A newly identified molecule from rotifers paralyzes the larvae of worms that cause schistosomiasis, which affects over 200 million people worldwide.
