Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Exploring NASA’s quirky places
Best known for its role in crafting and commanding spacecraft such as Curiosity, JPL is also home to decades’ worth of accumulated oddities.
By Nadia Drake - Humans
A Cancer Patient’s Best Friend
Similarities between tumors in people and dogs mean canine studies can inform human disease.
By Laura Beil - Humans
Radial routes ran outside Mesopotamia
Cold War–era imagery reveals transportation networks extended throughout Middle East.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Surgery shows promise in treating persistent heartburn
Ring-shaped device around esophagus prevents acid reflux so that patients can stop taking drugs.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Smoking damages mouse brains
Signs of Alzheimer’s disease appear after the rodents breathe cigarette smoke.
- Humans
Origins of alcohol consumption traced to ape ancestor
Eating fermented fruit off the ground may have paved way for ability to digest ethanol.
By Erin Wayman - Health & Medicine
A surprise makes memories wobbly
Drug that interferes with recollection works only when people face the unexpected.
- Health & Medicine
Smoking ban cuts preterm births
Belgium sees drop in preterm births after initiating no-smoking policies.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Newborn babies walk the walk
Infants strut a runway wearing electrodes to show how the walking reflex works.
- Health & Medicine
To develop male behavior, rats need immune cells
Research reveals unexpected role for cells called microglia in shaping the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Compound linked to IVF success
Women with high blood concentrations of anti-Müllerian hormone were more likely to conceive and give birth after in vitro fertilization.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
U.S. breast-feeding rates up
Between 2000 and 2008, the fraction of women breast-feeding babies increased, as did the fraction breast-feeding for a year.
By Nathan Seppa