Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Some brains may be primed for pain
When people keep hurting long after an injury heals, a process similar to addiction may be at work.
- Health & Medicine
Body and Brain
Good touch, bad touch A leg caress can delight or feel totally skeevy, depending on who’s doing the caressing. A touch’s emotional baggage can be seen in the brain’s initial response to that touch, scientists report in the June 19 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Heterosexual men’s somatosensory cortices, brain regions that detect […]
- Animals
Mosquitoes Remade
Scientists reinvent agents of illness to become allies in fight against disease.
- Archaeology
Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave
New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Male contraceptive shows promise
Two hormones in gels applied to the skin effectively lower sperm counts, a study finds.
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
Endocrine Society Annual Meeting
Highlights from the 94th annual meeting held June 23-26 in Houston.
- 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.
- 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.
- Psychology
Thirtysomethings flex their number sense
A mental feel for estimating amounts maxes out later in life and may influence math achievement.
- Health & Medicine
Testosterone therapy takes off pounds
A five-year study shows that men getting the hormone consistently lose weight.
- 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.
