Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
Ancient mud documents the legacy of Rome’s lead pipes
Researchers used lead levels in Rome’s ancient harbors to track lead pipe use and urbanization.
- Anthropology
Nitty-gritty of Homo naledi’s diet revealed in its teeth
Ancient humanlike species ate something that damaged its teeth.
- Health & Medicine
Seeing one picture at a time helps kids learn words from books
A small study found that children were better able to pick up vocabulary from books that show only one picture at a time.
- Health & Medicine
Birth control research is moving beyond the pill
After decades of research, reproductive biologists are on the verge of developing new birth control options that stop sperm from maturing or save a woman's eggs for later.
- Anthropology
Some secrets of China’s terra-cotta army are baked in the clay
Specialized production system lay behind the famous terra-cotta troops found in ancient Chinese emperor’s tomb.
- Health & Medicine
A new tool could one day improve Lyme disease diagnosis
There soon could be a way to differentiate between Lyme disease and a similar tick-associated illness.
- Health & Medicine
Protect little ones’ eyes from the sun during the eclipse
Pay attention to eye safety for kids during the solar eclipse.
- Genetics
Gene editing creates virus-free piglets
Pigs engineered to lack infectious viruses may one day produce transplant organs.
- Health & Medicine
More U.S. adults are drinking, and more heavily
Heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders have risen in the United States, at a cost to society’s health.
- Anthropology
Infant ape’s tiny skull could have a big impact on ape evolution
Fossil comes from a lineage that had ties to the ancestor of modern apes and humans, researchers argue.
- Anthropology
Ancient people arrived in Sumatra’s rainforests more than 60,000 years ago
Humans reached Indonesia not long after leaving Africa.
- Psychology
A look at Rwanda’s genocide helps explain why ordinary people kill their neighbors
New research on the 1994 Rwanda genocide overturns assumptions about why people participate in genocide. A sense of duty, not blind obedience, drives many perpetrators.
