Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Science & Society

    Human evolution, biomimicry and more go on display

    A new human evolution gallery and a lecture series on Europa are among science events to explore in February 2016.

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  2. Genetics

    Bubonic plague hung around in Europe

    DNA from plague victims suggests that a European reservoir of the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis could have fueled the medieval pandemic.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    CDC issues travel guidelines for pregnant women

    Pregnant women should consider postponing travel to much of Latin America and the Caribbean.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Low-fiber diets make gut microbes poop out

    A low-fiber diet makes for low bacterial diversity in mice. A new study shows those mice can then pass a denuded microbiome on to their offspring.

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  5. Neuroscience

    Measuring brain waves may help predict a patient’s response to anesthesia

    Brain signatures hint at whether a person will resist or succumb to anesthesia.

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  6. Archaeology

    Humans visited Arctic earlier than thought

    Human weapon injuries on mammoth bones show humans were in the Arctic up to 15,000 years earlier than researchers thought.

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  7. Science & Society

    Insights into sexes’ differing responses to stress

    Chronic stress takes its toll on everyone. One of our reporters follows a line of research suggesting that stress hits women harder (or at least differently) than men.

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  8. Life

    Signs of food allergies may be present at birth

    Overactive immune cells may prime babies for food allergies.

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  9. Genetics

    Drug candidate fails to improve symptoms of fragile X syndrome

    A drug designed to treat fragile X syndrome has proven ineffective in clinical trials.

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  10. Genetics

    Drug candidate fails to improve symptoms of fragile X syndrome

    A drug designed to treat fragile X syndrome has proven ineffective in clinical trials.

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  11. Archaeology

    Ancient stone tools raise tantalizing questions over who colonized Sulawesi

    Hominids reached an island not far from hobbits’ home by around 200,000 years ago.

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  12. Anthropology

    Iceman has the world’s oldest tattoos

    A more than 5,000-year-old European mummy gets his tattoos confirmed as world’s oldest.

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