Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Can humans get chronic wasting disease from deer?
Tests on brain organoids suggest the disease-causing prions face a tough barrier to infect people, but ruling out transmission is a difficult task.
- Anthropology
Fossil finds amplify Europe’s status as a hotbed of great ape evolution
A kneecap and two teeth belonged to the smallest known great ape, a study contends. If so, it’s the first to coexist with another great ape in Europe.
- Health & Medicine
Wildfire smoke may cause tens of thousands of premature deaths
A modeling study of California wildfires from 2008 through 2018 estimates that smoke exposure was responsible for as many as 55,700 premature deaths.
- Genetics
Horses may have been domesticated twice. Only one attempt stuck
Genetic evidence suggests that the ancestors of domestic horses were bred for mobility about 4,200 years ago.
- Science & Society
Scientists are fixing flawed forensics that can lead to wrongful convictions
People have been wrongly jailed for forensic failures. Scientists are working to improve police lineups, fingerprinting and even DNA analysis.
- Health & Medicine
Bird flu can infect cats. What does that mean for their people?
Pet owners can take precautions to avoid H5N1, such as keeping cats indoors and making sure they don’t eat raw meat or milk.
- Health & Medicine
Privacy remains an issue with several women’s health apps
Inconsistent privacy policies and dodgy data collection in popular fertility and pregnancy tracking apps put women’s health information at risk.
- Health & Medicine
Malnutrition’s effects on the body don’t end when food arrives
Children may struggle with inflammation, a weakened immune system and gut problems. New treatments may repair some damage.
- Neuroscience
Biological puzzles abound in an up-close look at a human brain
Mirror-image nerve cells, tight bonds between neuron pairs and surprising axon swirls abound in a bit of gray matter smaller than a grain of rice.
- Neuroscience
Two distinct neural pathways may make opioids like fentanyl so addictive
A study in mice looked at how feelings of reward and withdrawal that opioids trigger play out in two separate circuits in the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Young people’s use of diabetes and weight loss drugs is up 600 percent
Young people’s use of diabetes and weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy is surging, especially among females ages 18 to 25.
- Health & Medicine
Human body lice could harbor the plague and spread it through biting
Rats and fleas previously got all the blame, but humans’ own parasites could be involved.
