Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Neuroscience
Hippocampus makes maps of social space, too
The hippocampus is a multitalented mapmaker.
- Psychology
Marijuana use starting in youth implicated in financial woes
Long-term, heavy pot smoking linked to financial troubles by age 38.
- Health & Medicine
Five things to know about Zika
Last week, a public health poll pointed to some myths that have been circulating about Zika. Let’s bust them.
- Archaeology
Possible second Viking site found in Newfoundland
Newfoundland excavation reveals possible Norse settlement.
- Science & Society
Pulling ‘Vaxxed’ still doesn’t retract vaccine misconceptions
The Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to cancel its screening of an antivaccination film has been lauded as a win for science, but irrationality already won.
