Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
FDA approves the first smallpox treatment
Concerns about bioterrorism fueled the development of the first treatment for smallpox.
- Anthropology
Butchered rhino bones place hominids in the Philippines 700,000 years ago
Stone tools and butchery marks point to an ancient hominid presence on islands in the Philippines.
- Health & Medicine
Synthetic opioids involved in more deaths than prescription opioids
Winning a ghastly contest, synthetic opioids become most common drug involved in U.S. overdose deaths, bypassing prescription opioids in 2016.
- Archaeology
How a backyard pendulum saw sliced into a Bronze Age mystery
A saw no one has seen may have built Bronze Age Greek palaces.
- Anthropology
Anthropologists in Peru have unearthed the largest known child sacrifice
The largest known mass sacrifice of children occurred around 550 years ago in the Chimú empire in Peru.
- Archaeology
Footprints prove humans hunted giant sloths during the Ice Age
Footprints of humans and giant sloths show a dramatic chase sequence from more than 10,000 years ago.
- Psychology
In China, coffee shop habits show cultural differences tied to farming
Farming histories have shaped behavior in northern and southern China.
- Archaeology
Clues to an Iron Age massacre lie in what the assailants left behind
Ancient Scandinavian massacre may reflect power struggles after Rome’s fall.
- Health & Medicine
The first penis-scrotum transplant is the latest to go beyond lifesaving
Advances that give patients new faces, hands and more aim to improve quality of life
- Health & Medicine
Though often forgotten, the placenta has a huge role in baby’s health
Recent research in mice suggests that a lot of early problems in the embryo may actually have roots in the placenta.
- Science & Society
Informed wisdom trumps rigid rules when it comes to medical evidence
Narrative reviews of medical evidence offer benefits that the supposedly superior systematic approach can’t.
- Anthropology
A hole in an ancient cow’s skull could have been surgery practice
Before performing skull operations on people, ancient surgeons may have rehearsed on cows.
