Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Wrist bones said to distinguish hobbits
New fossils enter the debate over tiny humanlike species that lived in Indonesia.
- Health & Medicine
Updated Pap smear detects ovarian, uterine cancers
Adding a genetic analysis to the procedure reveals mutations specific to the two malignancies.
- Health & Medicine
Drug restores lost hearing
Loud noises can damage sensitive inner ear cells called hair cells, which in mammals don’t grow back.
- Health & Medicine
Long space missions may be hazardous to your sleep
Crew on simulated Mars trip moved less and slept more during 520-day project.
- Humans
Language learning may begin before birth
Newborns show signs of having tracked moms’ speech while still in the womb.
- Health & Medicine
Inactivated virus shows promise against HIV
Some patients getting an experimental vaccine therapy developed immunity.
- Humans
International Conference on Complex Sciences
Researchers at the meeting, held December 5-7 in Santa Fe, N.M., offer insight into spam blocking and sick leave.
- Humans
Hitting streaks in baseball may be contagious
Teammates of a batter on a streak hit better than their average, a review of baseball records finds.
- Humans
Man the martial artist
The human hand evolved partly as a tool for fighting, researchers argue.
- Health & Medicine
Twin towers dust tied to some cancers, not others
9/11 rescue and recovery workers have higher rates of prostate and thyroid cancers and multiple myeloma, a study shows.
- Tech
Antarctic test of novel ice drill poised to begin
Any day now, a team of 40 scientists and support personnel expects to begin using a warm, high pressure jet of water to bore a 30 centimeter hole through 83 meters of ice. Once it breaks through to the sea below, they’ll have a few days to quickly sample life from water before the hole begins freezing up again. It's just a test. But if all goes well, in a few weeks the team will move 700 miles and bore an even deeper hole to sample for freshwater life that may have been living for eons outside even indirect contact with Earth’s atmosphere.
- Health & Medicine
Zinc may help treat box jellyfish stings
A zinc compound seems to counteract the deadly venom delivered by the sting of the Australian box jellyfish.
