Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Experimental MERS vaccine shows promise
An experimental vaccine against the MERS virus triggers immune protection, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Study finds early signs of bookishness in a child’s brain
Children from book-friendly homes show higher brain activity when they hear a story, but there’s more to learn about how reading affects growing brains.
- Anthropology
Oldest humanlike hand bone discovered
Found at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, pinkie bone is 1.84 million years old.
- Health & Medicine
Teen e-cig users more likely to smoke tobacco
E-cigarette use is linked to later tobacco use in teens.
- Anthropology
Bones revive a 7,000-year-old massacre
Bones suggest Central Europe’s first farmers had an extremely violent streak.
- Psychology
Baby marmosets imitate parents’ sounds
Vocal learning may work similarly in marmoset monkeys, songbirds and humans.
- Astronomy
Lucy’s new neighbor, downloading New Horizon’s data and more reader feedback
Readers discuss why Pluto's data will take so long to get to Earth, the role the cerebellum plays in creative thinking and more.
- Health & Medicine
Football games come with more head hits than practices do
As football intensifies from practice to games, the number of impacts increases, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Building standards aren’t to blame for chilly offices
A recent study made headlines for finding differences between men and women in comfort level for heating and cooling. But that’s not why women are cold in the office.
- Health & Medicine
Fish oil may counter schizophrenia
Three months of omega-3 fatty acids protects against psychosis for years, a small study suggests.
- Psychology
Decision tree for soldiers could reduce civilian deaths
A new, three-part decision formula may help soldiers save civilians’ lives.
- Neuroscience
A voyage into Parkinson’s disease, led by patient and journalist
Jon Palfreman’s Brain Storms explores Parkinson’s disease in the past, present and future.
