Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Humans

    Ancient blades served as early weapons

    African find reveals complex toolmaking 71,000 years ago.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Highlights from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Los Angeles, November 3-7

    Multivitamins may not reduce heart attacks, two drugs could protect heart from chemo damage, and more.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Your brain on speed dating

    Activity in two regions helps calculate compatibility with potential mates.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Statin substitutes go beyond drawing board

    A new generation of cholesterol-lowering drugs might help people who can’t take the usual pills or who don’t benefit adequately from them.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Heart bypass surgery outperforms stents in diabetics

    Among patients getting multiple coronary blockages cleared, those assigned to surgery fared better.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

    by David K. Randall.

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  7. Psychology

    Too little money, too much borrowing

    A contested study suggests that poverty contracts attention and detracts from financial decisions.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Monkeys keep the beat without outside help

    Nerve cells in the brain may regulate a precise sense of internal time-keeping.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Smoking laws limit heart attacks

    A county that banned smoking in bars, restaurants and other workplaces saw a one-third decrease, a new study finds.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    An enlightened idea

    Technique lights up neurons at work in living animals.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Same neurons at work in sleep and under anesthesia

    Drugs boost activity in nerve cells that usually induce a slumber.

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  12. Humans

    Shoulder fossil may put Lucy’s kind up a tree

    Fossils of an ancient child suggest the more than 3-million-year-old hominid mixed climbing with walking.

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