Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Daily drug shown effective in preventing HIV infections

    After a history of controversy, preexposure prophylaxis has been demonstrated to work for HIV prevention.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Eating meat officially raises cancer risk

    Eating processed meats like bacon, ham and sausage causes cancer, says the World Health Organization.

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  3. Psychology

    Views on bias can be biased

    When presented with a study showing bias against women, male scientists are more inclined to nitpick the results. But a little intervention can go a long way toward gender equality in science.

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  4. Neuroscience

    Signs of Alzheimer’s seen in young brain’s GPS cells

    Signs of Alzheimer’s can show up in the brain’s compass decades before symptoms strike.

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  5. Anthropology

    Plagues plagued the Bronze Age

    Ancient bacterial DNA provides first clues to Bronze Age plagues in Europe and Asia.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Hollywood-made science documentary series comes to TV

    Breakthrough series gives a closer look at scientists at work.

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  7. Neuroscience

    Signs of Huntington’s show up in the brain in childhood

    Hints of Huntington’s disease show up in the brain long before symptoms do.

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  8. Humans

    An amusing romp through word histories

    From ak to wid, a new book makes etymology fun.

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  9. Chemistry

    Nanoparticles in foods raise safety questions

    As scientists cook up ways to improve palatability and even make foods healthier, some are considering the potential health risks of tiny additives.

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  10. Anthropology

    Sleep time in hunter-gatherer groups on low end of scale

    Hunter-gatherer communities in Africa and South America have similar sleeping patterns as people living in postindustrial societies, researchers find.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    First known case of sexually transmitted Ebola reported

    A Liberian woman contracted Ebola in March by having sex with a survivor of the viral disease, researchers report.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Adolescent brains open to change

    Adolescent brains are still changing, a malleability that renders them particularly sensitive to the outside world.

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