Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Psychology

    Thinking better with depression

    Study suggests people with the mood disorder have an advantage when making certain decisions.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    Sleeping babies are growing babies, plus the body-brain connection and women’s circadian clocks in this week’s news.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Blame brain cells for lack of focus

    Denser tissue in a particular brain region may result in higher distractibility, a new study finds.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Coronary bypass rates drop

    Heart patients have been less likely to undergo the surgery since 2001, with many getting a less invasive procedure.

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  5. Life

    Sickle-cell may blunt, not stop, malaria

    Once thought to keep parasite out of cells, the trait appears to diminish the severity of infection.

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  6. Humans

    No nuts for you, Nutcracker Man

    Tooth analysis shows huge-jawed hominid grazed on grasses and sedges.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Body & Brain

    A genetic cause for small brains, heart links to HIV and calcium, and more in this week’s news.

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  8. Humans

    Most Neandertals were right-handers

    Right handedness, and perhaps spoken language, originated at least a half million years ago, a new study suggests.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Armadillos may spread leprosy

    A new strain of the disease has shown up in patients and in the animals in parts of the Deep South, suggesting a cause of rare U.S. cases.

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  10. Life

    Half-asleep rats look wide awake

    In a discovery with ominous implications for sleep deprivation, researchers find that some brain regions can doze off while an animal remains active.

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  11. Tech

    Robot based on cartwheeling caterpillars

    GoQBot curls itself up and takes off spinning.

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  12. Humans

    Humans

    Soothing loneliness with Facebook, plus mapping crowds and making a good first impression in this week’s news.

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