Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Doctors enlisted to turn the tide on antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic stewardship requires education, diligence, and changes in prescribing. At some hospitals, it’s beginning to halt a dangerous trend.
- Health & Medicine
Not all the ‘baby friendly’ rules are rooted in science
The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative has a noble goal of encouraging breastfeeding, but some of its recommendations may be based on shaky science.
- Health & Medicine
Obama takes aim at antibiotic resistance
The White House offers an incentive for better diagnostics and calls for new meds and more stewardship programs against antibiotic resistance.
- Genetics
Genetic data rewrite the prehistory of Europe
The genomes of nine ancient and 2,345 living humans have changed the story of modern Europeans' origins.
- Earth
Shrinking ancient sea may have spawned Sahara Desert
The Saharan Desert probably formed 7 million years ago as the ancient Tethys Sea, the forerunner of the Mediterranean Sea, shrank.
- Anthropology
Strategy, not habitat loss, leads chimps to kill rivals
Human impacts on chimpanzees have not increased their violence.
- Health & Medicine
Rounder waists show obesity continues to rise
The waistlines of U.S. adults continue to expand, running counter to a report that obesity, based on body mass index, did not increase substantially in the past decade.
- Health & Medicine
Sleep drunkenness might be common
A new survey shows that about 15 percent of people sometimes wake up disoriented and confused, a condition called sleep drunkenness.
- Psychology
Training the overweight brain to abstain
A new study shows that brain changes are associated with a weight-loss behavioral intervention, but it may be a while before we can train our brains to prefer peppers over pork chops.
- Agriculture
Drug-resistant staph can cling to farm workers for days
Agricultural exposure to staph bacteria could threaten the health of laborers and people who live near farms, a study of pig farm workers suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Mass EKG screening for athletes inadvisable, panel says
Only athletes with warning signs of cardiac problems should be tested with electrocardiograms, according to the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology.
- Psychology
In PTSD, a good night’s sleep means feeling safe
Studies of PTSD in rats have usually focused on fear and trauma. But a new study in humans shows that learning about safety may be important as well.
