Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Animals

    Mosquitoes Remade

    Scientists reinvent agents of illness to become allies in fight against disease.

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  2. Archaeology

    Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave

    New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Male contraceptive shows promise

    Two hormones in gels applied to the skin effectively lower sperm counts, a study finds.

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  4. Humans

    Lead poisoning stymies condor recovery

    California’s iconic comeback species may need human help as long as even a small percentage of the carcasses they eat contain lead shot.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Endocrine Society Annual Meeting

    Highlights from the 94th annual meeting held June 23-26 in Houston.

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  6. Humans

    What Silicon Valley can learn from Mother Russia

    Imperial tax records from the last decades of the Empire offer clues to what makes a start-up succeed.

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  7. Humans

    Ozone: Heart of the matter

    As reported this week, breathing elevated ozone levels can mess with the cardiovascular system, potentially putting vulnerable populations — such as the elderly and persons with diabetes or heart disease — at heightened risk of heart attack, stroke and sudden death from arrhythmias. Is this really new? Turns out it is.

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  8. Psychology

    Thirtysomethings flex their number sense

    A mental feel for estimating amounts maxes out later in life and may influence math achievement.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Testosterone therapy takes off pounds

    A five-year study shows that men getting the hormone consistently lose weight.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Learn to play piano in your sleep

    That’s still impossible, but an experiment suggests hearing a previously learned ditty while snoozing improves later performance of the piece.

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  11. Humans

    De-papering environmental summits

    One token — but highly visible — gesture toward sustainability at the UN's 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio was a request for all attendees to shrink their paper footprints. Apparently, most complied.

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  12. Humans

    Ancient North Africans got milk

    Pottery study unveils early dairy practices among Saharan cattle herders.

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