Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s some slim science on temper tantrums
Scientists have mapped the structure of toddlers’ tantrums, but preventives are hard to come by.
- Neuroscience
Left brain stands guard while sleeping away from home
Part of the left hemisphere stands sentry while the rest of the brain and body snooze.
- Health & Medicine
‘Dirty’ mice better than lab-raised mice for studying human disease
Dirtier mice may better mimic human immune reactions.
- Anthropology
Belize cave was Maya child sacrifice site
Bones in Central American cave suggest many Maya sacrificial victims were children.
By Bruce Bower - 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.