Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Shifting vaccine guidelines inject uncertainty into getting fall COVID shots
Respiratory viruses often surge in the fall. We asked an infectious diseases expert how best to protect ourselves given a shifting vaccine landscape.
- Health & Medicine
mRNA vaccines hold promise for many diseases. Now the tech is under fire
Researchers warn that halting federal contracts for mRNA vaccine research could weaken pandemic preparedness and slow medical advances.
- Health & Medicine
Measure blood sugar with a grain of salt
Continuous glucose monitors are now readily available. With guidance, they can help people make small dietary and lifestyle changes for better health.
- Health & Medicine
Could babies get bird flu through breast milk? Maybe, a study hints
H5N1 bird flu might infect human mammary glands, potentially allowing the virus to show up in breast milk.
- Humans
These female divers spend more time underwater than any other humans
At an average age of 70, these women divers in South Korea still forage in the sea up to 10 hours a day and spend more than half of that time underwater.
- Archaeology
Ancient hominids made long road trips to collect stone for tools
A Kenyan site shows early hominids transported stone 13 kilometers for toolmaking as early as 2.6 million years ago.
- Anthropology
A 104-centimeter-long hair could rewrite recordkeeping in Inca society
Analysis of the hair used in a knotted device reveals the owner’s simple diet. That suggests commoners, not just the elite, kept records in Inca society.
- Humans
Stopping menopausal hormones may require more bone monitoring
Women face a small rise in fracture risk within 10 years of stopping therapy, suggesting the need for additional monitoring.
- Health & Medicine
The sugar substitute sucralose makes immunotherapy less effective
Found in Splenda, sucralose reduces immunotherapy efficacy via its effects on the gut microbiome, but arginine supplements might counter the outcome.
- Health & Medicine
How flossing a mouse’s teeth could lead to a new kind of vaccine
Flu viruses often enter the body through mucous tissue in the nose. Researchers are developing new ways to protect such areas.
- Health & Medicine
New clues emerge on how foods spark anaphylaxis
In two studies of mice, a molecule called leukotriene helped trigger food-induced anaphylaxis. A drug approved for asthma — zileuton — diminished it.
- Archaeology
This ancient Siberian ice mummy had a talented tattooist
Researchers reconstructed a roughly 2,000-year-old woman’s tattoos, from prowling tigers to a fantastical griffinlike creature.
