Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Psychology
Stress hormone rise linked to less risky financial decisions
People given cortisol chose safer options, suggesting inherent risk aversion as an overlooked variable in financial crises.
- Neuroscience
White matter scaffold offers new view of the brain
A new neural map of white matter connections may explain why some injuries are worse than others.
- Health & Medicine
Project to collect 100,000 people’s medical data
Tracking microbiomes, blood tests and more over decades could provide individual health recommendations.
- Health & Medicine
Cocaine use appears to boost stroke risk in young people
A study of young and middle-aged adults adds to evidence of the drug’s harmful effects.
- Neuroscience
Gene adds wrinkle to brain development
Mutations in the gene GPR56 results in misshapen folds in the brain tied to intellectual and language disabilities.
- Health & Medicine
Introducing the first bank of feces
A new nonprofit called OpenBiome is hoping to do for fecal transplants what blood banks have done for transfusions. It’s a kind of Brown Cross.
- Health & Medicine
Drug injection could limit heart attack damage
Study in pigs suggests hydrogel treatment might minimize the risk of heart failure in survivors.
- Humans
Clovis baby’s genome unveils Native American ancestry
DNA from skeleton shows all tribes come from a single population.
- Health & Medicine
Feedback
Calculating vaccines' impact, cat-induced bird death toll revised, taming wildcat genetics, and praise for The Science Life.
- Health & Medicine
Your epigenetics can be a pain
A new study shows that your epigenome can play an important role in pain sensitivity, potentially offering a new target that could make development of a more effective painkiller less of a ... pain.
- Materials Science
Graphene-based material prevents blood clots
When researchers coated a plastic film with the new material, clotting was greatly reduced and continued even after three days.
- Archaeology
Nearly 1-million-year-old European footprints found
Erosion temporarily unveils remnants of a Stone Age stroll along England’s coast.
