Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Neuroscience

    Brain holds more than one road to fear

    A study on rare patients suggests that fear can take many paths through the brain.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. Humans

    Pacific islanders got a double whammy of Stone Age DNA

    Neandertal and Denisovan genes influence the health of present-day Melanesians.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Efforts to control mosquitoes take on new urgency

    The major mosquito that is spreading Zika virus has quirks that make it one of the toughest to fight.

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  7. Neuroscience

    Lost memories retrieved for mice with signs of Alzheimer’s

    Using light, scientists coaxed a forgotten memory from the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s-like symptoms.

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  8. Anthropology

    Ancient DNA reveals who is in Spain’s ‘pit of bones’ cave

    Ancient DNA shows Neandertals lived in northern Spain 430,000 years ago; the early date raises new questions about Neandertals’ origins.

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  9. Ecosystems

    FDA predicts no significant environmental impact from GM mosquitoes

    The FDA has taken a step in the process of deciding whether to allow the first test release in the United States of genetically modified mosquitoes to fight diseases such as Zika.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Here’s how dust mites give dermatitis sufferers the itch

    Dust mites can make people with eczema truly miserable. Now, scientists have figured out why they make some people scratch, and resolved a dermatological debate.

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  11. Quantum Physics

    Finding wonders in fat

    In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks fat cells, thermodynamics, and lead poisoning.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Readers respond to stress, tattoos, and the universe

    Stress, tattoos, cosmic origins and more reader feedback.

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