Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
Misfolded proteins implicated in more brain diseases
Alzheimer’s, other disorders show similarity to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion infections.
- Anthropology
Minutes after encountering danger, lemurs yawn
Madagascar primates yawn within minutes of encountering threats.
- Animals
A monkey uses a stick to pick its teeth and nose
A wild bearded capuchin monkey in Brazil was caught using tools to pick its nose and teeth.
- Environment
Latest BPA replacement seeps into people’s blood and urine
Replacements for BPA called BPS and BPSIP may raise health risks for cashiers.
- Health & Medicine
With flibanserin approval, a complicated drug takes the spotlight
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug to increase women’s sexual desire. But whether the benefits outweigh the side effects depends on who you ask.
- Health & Medicine
How farm life can prevent allergies
Farm dust prevents allergies by turning on an anti-inflammatory enzyme in the cells lining mice’s lungs.
- Science & Society
Why enforced ‘service with a smile’ should be banned
If management wants workers to maintain false cheer, those workers should be trained, supported and compensated for the emotional labor, a new review suggests.
- Anthropology
Ancient pottery maps route to South Pacific
New Guinea pottery points to a key meeting of island natives and seafarers at least 3,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Microbes make the meal, new diet book proposes
Researcher Tim Spector skewers conventional thinking about weight loss in ‘The Diet Myth’
- Materials Science
Nanogenerators harvest body’s energy to power devices
Nanogenerators offer body-harvested energy to fuel bionic future
- Neuroscience
The need to feed and eating for pleasure are inextricably linked
Scientists used to think that the hunger and the pleasure from food could be easily distinguished. But new results show these systems are inextricably intertwined.
- Psychology
Psychology results evaporate upon further review
Less than half of psychology findings get reproduced on second tries, a study finds.
