Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Going Under
While every anesthetic drug has its own effect, scientists know little about how the various versions work on the brain to transport patients from normal waking awareness to dreamless nothingness.
- Psychology
Thinking better with depression
Study suggests people with the mood disorder have an advantage when making certain decisions.
- Health & Medicine
Body & Brain
Sleeping babies are growing babies, plus the body-brain connection and women’s circadian clocks in this week’s news.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Humans
No nuts for you, Nutcracker Man
Tooth analysis shows huge-jawed hominid grazed on grasses and sedges.
- Health & Medicine
Body & Brain
A genetic cause for small brains, heart links to HIV and calcium, and more in this week’s news.
- Humans
Most Neandertals were right-handers
Right handedness, and perhaps spoken language, originated at least a half million years ago, a new study suggests.
- 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.
- 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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