Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Psychology
Kids’ friendships sometimes illusory
A substantial minority of third to sixth graders think they're tight with a classmate who actually dislikes them.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine against cocaine makes headway
Injections gin up antibodies in mice that limit the drug's effects, a new study shows.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Life
Making a worm do more than squirm
A laser used for locomotion control shines light on nematode behavior, one cell at a time.
- 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.
- 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.
- Psychology
The write stuff for test anxiety
A brief writing exercise prompts higher exam scores for students struggling with academic stress.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
