Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Small molecule makes brain cancer cells collapse and die
A small molecule, Vacquinol-1, may provide a different way to target and kill cells in glioblastomas, a type of brain tumor.
- Climate
Climate change may spread Lyme disease
The territory of the ticks that transmit Lyme disease is growing as the climate warms.
- Genetics
Early Polynesians didn’t go to Americas, chicken DNA hints
Contamination of ancient chicken DNA may explain previous report linking Polynesians to South America.
- Psychology
Newborns seem to relate space, time and numbers
Newborns zero to three days old seem to have the ability to relate the concepts of space, time and numbers of objects.
- Health & Medicine
Sugar doesn’t make kids hyper, and other parenting myths
There’s no shortage of advice out there for parents, but some pearls of wisdom simply aren’t true.
- Psychology
How string quartets stay together
New data tracking millisecond-scale corrections suggests that some ensembles are more autocratic — following one leader —while other musical groups are more democratic, making corrections equally.
- Psychology
Attractiveness studies are hot, or not
Studies that link attractiveness to other traits are often misinterpreted, including recent studies of nose bacteria and of cycling ability.
- Archaeology
Roman gladiator school digitally rebuilt
Imaging techniques unveil a 1,900-year-old Roman gladiators’ training center that’s buried beneath a site in Austria.
- Health & Medicine
Imbalance in gut bacteria may play role in Crohn’s disease
Identifying the onset of Crohn’s disease may best be done by looking at bacteria in the cellular linings intestinal tissue.
- Health & Medicine
Experimental drug might get the salt out
Tests in people and rats show sodium levels in blood drop as drug candidate limits the body’s salt absorption.
- Health & Medicine
Overheard, baby edition: Making sense of new words
Eavesdropping babies learn new words when they understand familiar ones.
- Health & Medicine
Second wave of bird flu ups pandemic worries
The H7N9 avian influenza virus, which first appeared in 2013, is sweeping China with a second, larger wave of illness.
