Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
There’s more to acing interviews than holding the vocal fry
A new study of vocal fry, a low razz in human speech, suggests job interviewees might want to hold the fry. But there's more to a job interview than a little vocal sizzle.
- Neuroscience
Stem cell approach for Parkinson’s disease gets boost
Postmortem study finds Parkinson’s patients can retain transplanted neurons for years.
- Psychology
Why stabbing a voodoo doll is so satisfying
To measure how aggressive a person is, psychologists turn to voodoo dolls and hot sauce.
- Neuroscience
Sleep strengthens some synapses
Mice show signs of stronger neuron connections when allowed to sleep after learning a trick.
- Health & Medicine
Your baby: The ultimate science experiment
Babies may be serious scientists, but parents can join the fun by trying some simple experiments with their kids.
- Health & Medicine
Early malnutrition may impair infants’ mix of gut microbes
Babies’ gut microbiomes fail to fully recover even after fending off bouts with malnutrition.
- Neuroscience
Stress and the susceptible brain
Some of us bounce back from stress, while others never really recover. A new study shows that different brain activity patterns could make the difference.
- Health & Medicine
Health risks of e-cigarettes emerge
Research uncovers a growing list of chemicals that end up in an e-cigarette user’s lungs, and one study finds that an e-cigarette’s vapors can increase the virulence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- Genetics
Blind mole-rats are loaded with anticancer genes
Genes of the long-lived blind mole-rat help explain how the animal evades cancer and why it lost vision.
- Psychology
Stereotypes might make ‘female’ hurricanes deadlier
Precautions may get shelved by those in the path of severe storms with feminine names, leading some to suggest that storms should be named after animals.
- Health & Medicine
Brain’s support cells play role in hunger
Once considered just helpers for neurons, astrocytes sense the hormone leptin and can change mice’s appetites.
- Health & Medicine
Your brain on marijuana: two views
Many of the “facts” that people believe to be true about marijuana are not supported by science, and while the pro-pot lobby cherry-picks data to support its arguments (denying marijuana’s addictiveness, for example), so too do anti-marijuana groups, which play up pot’s dangers.
