Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Therapy flags DNA typos to rev cancer-fighting T cells

    Genetic tests help identify cancer patients who will benefit from immune therapy.

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  2. Humans

    For humans, the appeal of looking at faces starts before birth

    New research suggests that 8-month-old fetuses, like newborns, are particularly interested in looking at faces.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    It’s best if babies don’t drink their fruit as juice

    New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend no fruit juice for babies younger than 1 year old.

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  4. Anthropology

    Oldest known Homo sapiens fossils come from northern Africa, studies claim

    Moroccan fossils proposed as oldest known H. sapiens, from around 300,000 years ago.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Choosing white or whole-grain bread may depend on what lives in your gut

    Gut microbes determine how people’s blood sugar levels respond to breads.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    When preventing HIV, bacteria in the vagina matter

    Vaginal bacteria affect how well microbicide gels used to prevent HIV work.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    50 years ago, antibiotic resistance alarms went unheeded

    Scientists have worried about antibiotic resistance for decades.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Babies categorize colors the same way adults do

    Babies divide hues into five categories, much like adults, a result that suggests color categorization is built into the brain.

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  9. Genetics

    Mummy DNA unveils the history of ancient Egyptian hookups

    A study of DNA extracted from Egyptian mummies untangles ancient ancestry and attempts to resolve quality issues.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Some topics call for science reporting from many angles

    There’s heartbreak in this issue. Science News investigates different facets of the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    For babies exposed to opioids in the womb, parents may be the best medicine

    A surge in opioid-exposed newborns has U.S. doctors revamping treatments and focusing on families.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Researchers stumble onto a new role for breast cancer drug

    At first, ophthalmologist Xu Wang thought her experiment had failed. But instead, she revealed a new role for the breast cancer drug tamoxifen — protection from eye injury.

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