Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Year in review: Gut reacts to artificial sweeteners
Saccharin messes with the body’s ability to metabolize fuel, a condition that often precedes diabetes, obesity and other metabolic problems.
- Anthropology
Year in review: Asian cave art got an early start
Stone Age cave painting began at about the same time in Southeast Asia as in Europe, challenging the idea that Western Europeans cornered the market on creativity 40,000 years ago.
- Archaeology
Year in review: Roster of dinosaurs expands
With the discovery of several new species and a few dogma-shaking revelations, dinosaurs got a total rethink in 2014.
- Humans
Year in review: Genes, bones tell new Clovis stories
The genes and bones of the Clovis people reveal the range and legacy of the early North Americans.
- Health & Medicine
Gene variant linked to robust flu vaccine response
Targeting an immune signaling protein called interleukin-28B might boost protection generated by flu shots.
- Genetics
Early heart attack tied to rare mutations in two genes
Rare mutations in two genes greatly increase the risk of having a heart attack early in life, a study shows.
- Health & Medicine
Hallucinated voices’ attitudes vary with culture
Culture puts good or bad spin on voices heard by people with schizophrenia.
- Life
Imprisoning parasites can deter malaria’s spread
Disabling a protein traps malaria-causing parasites within red blood cells and prevents the organisms from reproducing.
- Genetics
New type of stem cells, fuzzy and flexible
A new way to make stem cells produces fuzzy cells that appear as flexible as other types of stem cells, but are easier to grow in the lab and avoid ethical issues.
- Health & Medicine
Cells in groups may promote cancer’s spread
Cellular gangs, not individuals, form distant tumors from breast malignancies, a new study finds.
- Life
Softer surroundings stifle some chemotherapy drugs
Some anticancer drugs such as Gleevec are less effective when attacking cancer cells grown in soft surroundings.
- Health & Medicine
Fatty coat on cancer drugs protects the heart
Cancer drugs encased in a layer of fat reduce but don’t eliminate heart damage.
