Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Psychology

    Kids’ friendships sometimes illusory

    A substantial minority of third to sixth graders think they're tight with a classmate who actually dislikes them.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Vaccine against cocaine makes headway

    Injections gin up antibodies in mice that limit the drug's effects, a new study shows.

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  3. Humans

    Citation-amnesia paper published

    Many biomedical researchers fail to put their findings into context by citing related, previously published work. I termed this citation amnesia, when I wrote about it 18 months ago, based on data presented at a meeting on peer review and publishing. Readers who seek more details than my initial blog provided can now pore over the stats from that research for themselves. The Johns Hopkins University team that I encountered at the Vancouver meeting has now formally published its analysis.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Tallying the caloric cost of an all-nighter

    Sleep is energy-saving, and missing even one night sends the body into conservation mode, new measurements show.

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  5. Chemistry

    Why olive oil’s quality is in the cough

    An anti-inflammatory compound found in the best presses tickles taste sensors in the throat, a study finds.

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  6. Life

    Making a worm do more than squirm

    A laser used for locomotion control shines light on nematode behavior, one cell at a time.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Tongue piercings worse with metal

    Stainless steel or titanium studs collect bacteria more readily than do studs made of plastic or Teflon, a study finds.

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  8. Humans

    Reviving the taste of an Iron Age beer

    Malted barley from a 2,550-year-old Celtic settlement offers savory insights into ancient malt beverage.

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  9. Psychology

    The write stuff for test anxiety

    A brief writing exercise prompts higher exam scores for students struggling with academic stress.

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  10. Humans

    Night owls may want to dim their lights

    People who spend their evenings in relatively bright light run the risk of stressing their bodies by ratcheting down the production of melatonin. This hormone plays a pivotal role in setting the body’s biological clock – and, potentially, in limiting the development of certain cancers.

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  11. Humans

    Marking penguins for study may do harm

    Metal flipper bands used to tell birds apart hamper survival and reproduction, a 10-year study finds.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    When good cholesterol is even better

    It's quality, not just quantity, of high-density lipoprotein that counts in heart disease, study suggests.

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