Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Little Red Riding Hood gets an evolutionary makeover
A statistical analysis attempts to track the rise of several widespread folktales.
- Humans
Babies may have basic body perception at birth
Newborns may enter the world with the basic systems to distinguish their bodies from those of other people.
- Health & Medicine
Eating nuts may extend a person’s life
People who regularly ate peanuts or tree nuts were less likely to die during decades-long studies.
- Genetics
Ancient Siberian bones clarify Native American origins
Some New World ancestors came from western Eurasia, not East Asia.
- Life
Blood clotting disorder blocked in dogs
Gene therapy stopped severe bleeding in dogs with the blood clotting disorder hemophilia.
- Health & Medicine
Cage temps change tumor growth in mice
Cooler living conditions may influence lab mice's responses to experimental cancer therapies that target the immune system.
- Anthropology
Human ancestors threw stone-tipped spears at prey
African discoveries show that hunting weapons thrown from a distance appeared by 279,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Quick cooling after cardiac arrest questioned
For a decade, doctors have made induced hypothermia standard practice.
- Health & Medicine
Changes in malaria parasite may make Africans more susceptible
Ominous signals are emerging simultaneously in population studies and under the microscope that Plasmodium vivax, a malaria parasite well known in Asia and Latin America, may have found a way to infect Africans.
- Humans
Humans’ music and genes may have evolved together
Music may be a tool scientists can use to trace human migrations.
- Health & Medicine
Old drug, new tricks
Metformin, cheap and widely used for diabetes, takes a swipe at cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Exercise while pregnant may boost baby’s brain
Babies born to moms who exercised during pregnancy showed higher levels of brain maturity.
