Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Pieces of Homo naledi story continue to puzzle
Researchers defend Homo naledi as a new hominid species and debate how it reached an underground cave.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Clusters of cancer cells get around by moving single file
Clusters of cancer cells squeeze through thin blood vessels by aligning single file.
- Science & Society
‘House of Lost Worlds’ opens vaults of renowned natural history museum
'House of Lost Worlds' pays homage to Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and to the colorful scientists who made the museum great.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: Assessing risk, mosquito range, a transmission first and more
Several new reports document Zika infection in U.S. pregnant women, a case of male sexual transmission, the range of Zika-carrying mosquitoes and more.
By Meghan Rosen - Anthropology
Viking-era woman sheds light on Iceland’s earliest settlers
Viking-era woman accompanied island’s early settlers as a child from Scandinavia or Britain.
By Bruce Bower - Life
Having worms can be good for the gut
Parasitic worms shift gut microbes and protect against bowel disease.
- Health & Medicine
Zika’s role as a cause of severe birth defects confirmed
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention confirms that Zika virus infection causes microcephaly and other severe birth defects.
By Meghan Rosen - Neuroscience
Spinal cord work-around reanimates paralyzed hand
A neural prosthesis can bypass a severed spinal cord, allowing a paralyzed hand to once again move.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: New mouse model, virus vs. placenta, nerve insulation loss
In three new papers, scientists present a tool for studying Zika, strike down a theory of infection and offer a broad look at what the virus does to the brain.
By Meghan Rosen - Health & Medicine
A sugar can melt away cholesterol
A sugar called cyclodextrin removes cholesterol from hardened arteries in mouse studies.
- Climate
Science’s inconvenient (but interesting) uncertainties
In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks climate change, mouth microbes, and synthetic life.
By Eva Emerson - Health & Medicine
Gum disease opens up the body to a host of infections
Researchers are getting to the root of gum disease's implications for other diseases.
By Laura Beil