Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Science & Society
In play, kids and scientists take big mental leaps
Acting Editor in Chief Elizabeth Quill explores the science behind children's play and how kids like to mimic the same things adults do.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists are tracking how the flu moves through a college campus
Researchers are following the spread of viruses and illness among students in a cluster of University of Maryland dorms to learn more about how the bugs infect.
- Psychology
When it’s playtime, many kids prefer reality over fantasy
Given a choice between fantasy play and doing the things that adults do, children prefer reality-based tasks, studies suggest.
- Anthropology
Ancient kids’ toys have been hiding in the archaeological record
Some unusual finds from thousands of years ago are actually toys and children’s attempts at mimicking adult craftwork.
- Science & Society
‘Death: A Graveside Companion’ offers an outlet for your morbid curiosity
A coffee-table book explores how humans have tried to understand death through the ages.
- Neuroscience
A blood test could predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease
A blood test can predict the presence of an Alzheimer’s-related protein in the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Zika may not be the only virus of its kind that can damage a fetus
Zika may not be alone among flaviviruses in its ability to harm a developing fetus, a new study in mice finds.
- Archaeology
Sharp stones found in India signal surprisingly early toolmaking advances
Toolmaking revolution reached what’s now India before Homo sapiens did, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Babies’ kicks in the womb are good for their bones
A new study adds to the evidence that fetal workouts are important for strong bodies.
- Anthropology
An ancient jaw pushes humans’ African departure back in time
If an ancient jaw found in an Israeli cave belongs to Homo sapiens, the humans left Africa tens of thousands of years earlier than we thought.
- Anthropology
Human brains rounded into shape over 200,000 years or more
Ancient humans’ brains slowly but surely became round, scientists say.
- Cosmology
Readers wonder about the universe’s expansion and more
Readers had questions about the universe's accelerating expansion, a hidden void in the Great Pyramid of Giza and what happens to human waste in space.
