Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
Easter Island’s farmers cultivated social resilience, not collapse
A Polynesian society often presumed to have self-destructed shows signs of having carried on instead.
- Genetics
You are what your dad ate, perhaps
Your development is affected by what your mother ate while she was pregnant with you. Is it also affected by what your father ate? A new study suggests that folate deficiency in dads can affect their offspring through epigenetic changes.
- Neuroscience
Concussion-free head blows may still affect brain
Some college athletes who played contact sports had more changes in their brain’s white matter than varsity competitors in less violent games.
- Health & Medicine
For babies, walking opens a whole new world
Walking and talking are linked as babies develop, anecdote and data show.
- Health & Medicine
Staph bacteria linger deep in our noses
The nasal cavity has hidden crevices where the disease-causing bacteria like to hang out.
- Life
Dietary changes affect gut microbes within a day
Menu restricted to meat, egg and cheese alters bacterial mix more than eating only plants.
- Materials Science
Nanoglue attaches tissues to each other
Silica particles could repair and help engineer human organs.
- Health & Medicine
Heartburn drugs linked to vitamin deficiency
People who take Nexium, Prilosec and other medicines more prone to low B12 levels.
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- Humans
Fossils reveal a strong-armed, dead-end hominid
Olduvai Gorge finds suggest extinct hominid both walked and hung out in trees.
- Health & Medicine
Watching media coverage of disasters linked to stress
Watching hours of media coverage of traumatic events may worsen symptoms of distress.
- Neuroscience
Brain chip enables injured rats to control movements
Prosthesis bypasses damaged area to connect distant neurons.
