Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Early treatment may stave off esophageal cancer
Zapping precancerous tissue in patients with Barrett’s esophagus might reduce incidence of cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Telling kids lies may teach them to lie
In a new study, kids who were told a lie were more likely to later tell a fib themselves. The results should encourage parents not to lie to their kids.
- Health & Medicine
E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit, study finds
People who tried e-cigarettes no more likely to give up smoking a year later.
- Humans
Former baseball players have big, strong bones in old age
Decades later, health benefits of exercise persist in male athletes’ bones.
- Health & Medicine
Sudden death
Cardiologists disagree on whether electrocardiograms should be used to screen student athletes for a rare heart condition that can cause them to die suddenly and without warning.
- 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.
