Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Genetics
Ancient DNA suggests people settled South America in at least 3 waves
Genetic studies of ancient remains are filling in the picture of who the earliest Americans were and how they spread through the Americas long ago.
- Life
How a life-threatening allergic reaction can happen so fast
Cells that act as sentries facilitate quick communication between allergens and anaphylaxis-triggering immune cells, a study in mice finds.
- Health & Medicine
A new drug may boost dwindling treatment options for gonorrhea
An antibiotic that targets the bacteria that causes gonorrhea proved effective in treating patients in a clinical trial.
- Archaeology
Like Europe, Borneo hosted Stone Age cave artists
Rock art may have spread from Borneo across Southeast Asia starting 40,000 years ago or more.
- Health & Medicine
Malaysia is ground zero for the next malaria menace
With deforestation in Malaysia, monkeys and humans are getting closer — and mosquitoes are infecting humans with malaria from monkeys.
- Materials Science
Questions about toxic red tides, and more reader feedback
Readers had inquiries about a new deicing material, harmful algal blooms and more.
- Anthropology
Neandertal teeth reveal the earliest known signs of lead exposure
Chemical analyses of teeth from young Neandertals show that lead exposure in hominids goes back some 250,000 years.
- Archaeology
Fossils hint hominids migrated through a ‘green’ Arabia 300,000 years ago
A once-green Arabia may have enabled Stone Age entries by Homo groups.
- Tech
Virtual reality therapy has real-life benefits for some mental disorders
Cheap, user-friendly virtual reality hardware could help VR therapy go mainstream. Some treatments are ready for primetime, while others are still in early testing.
- Health & Medicine
The appendix is implicated in Parkinson’s disease
Removal of the appendix reduced the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, an analysis of nearly 1.7 million health records in Sweden suggests.
- Archaeology
People in the Pacific Northwest smoked tobacco long before Europeans showed up
Ancient indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest used tobacco roughly 600 years before European settlers ventured west with the plant.
- Archaeology
Ancient South Americans tasted chocolate 1,500 years before anyone else
Artifacts with traces of cacao push back the known date for when the plant was first domesticated by 1,500 years.
