Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Should C-section babies get wiped down with vagina microbes?
A study suggests that a post-birth rubdown with vaginal fluid offers starter microbes to babies born by C-section. But it might not always be a good idea.
- Archaeology
Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles
Why did ancient Assyrians bury their dead with turtles? The reptiles may have served as symbolic protectors of the dead.
- Anthropology
Hobbits died out earlier than thought
Tiny Indonesian hominids disappeared earlier than thought, around 50,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer killers send signal of success
Newly designed nanoparticles deliver anticancer drugs and updates on tumor death.
- Genetics
Zika may have flown to Brazil in 2013
The brand of Zika currently floating around the Americas traces its origins to Asia and may have arrived in Brazil by air as early as 2013.
- Life
Racing for answers on Zika
In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks Zika virus, microbes, nutrition and mental health.
- Health & Medicine
Microbes can play games with the mind
Our bodies are having a conversation with our microbiome that may be affecting our mental health — for better or worse.
- Neuroscience
Brain holds more than one road to fear
A study on rare patients suggests that fear can take many paths through the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Three big reasons why U.S. men have a shorter life expectancy
U.S. men’s lives are two years shorter than men in other rich countries for three reasons: guns, drugs and cars.
- Health & Medicine
Special Report: Here’s what we know about Zika
Tracing Zika’s path and its potential links to microcephaly in babies and Guillain-Barré syndrome has scientists planning a new war on mosquitoes.
- Health & Medicine
How Zika became the prime suspect in microcephaly mystery
New evidence in human cells strengthens the case against Zika in Brazil's microcephaly surge, but more definitive proof could come this summer from Colombia.
- Humans
Pacific islanders got a double whammy of Stone Age DNA
Neandertal and Denisovan genes influence the health of present-day Melanesians.
