Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Archaeology

    Big eats from a 12,000-year-old burial

    Middle Eastern villagers may have feasted around a shaman’s grave 12,000 years ago, before the dawn of agriculture.

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  2. Plants

    Evergreen source of Tamiflu

    Pine and spruce needles brim with flu-drug precursor.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Dairy foods may cut heart attack risk

    The reputations of milk, cheese and many other dairy products have taken a bit of a hit in recent years for their constituting a major dietary source of saturated fats — a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. How ironic, then, that a Swedish study now correlates intake of dairy fats with a reduced risk of heart attacks.

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  4. Plants

    Most energy drinks lag in added health benefits

    Many caffeinated tonics lack natural antioxidants and other beneficial compounds found in coffee, yerba maté and other plant-based drinks.

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  5. Tech

    New help for greasy works of art

    NMR technique identifies oil stains, guiding art conservation efforts.

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  6. Anthropology

    Prehistoric ‘Iceman’ gets ceremonial twist

    Rather than dying alone high in the Alps, Ötzi may have been ritually buried there, a new study suggests.

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  7. Earth

    ‘Bug traps’ in Gulf to use BP oil as bait

    To assay how appetizing polluting oil is to native Gulf micobes — and how rapidly they degrade it — researchers plan to set 150 “bug traps” on August 26.. Their bait: the same oil that had been spewed for months by BP’s damaged Deepwater Horizon well.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    New drug fights metastatic melanoma

    A novel compound joins two other promising therapies to offer hope for patients with the advanced form of the skin cancer, who currently have poor treatment options.

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  9. Chemistry

    Deep-sea plumes: A rush to judgment?

    A new report suggests a deep-sea plume of oil in the Gulf of Mexico has been gobbled up by microbes. But the scientist who described the incident doesn't "know" that. He can't — yet.

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  10. Chemistry

    Tracking bird flu one poop at a time

    Mice can sniff out duck droppings laced with the virus.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    New gel seals wounds fast

    A synthetic material revs up blood clotting at low cost.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Amphetamine abusers face blood vessel risk

    The odds of sustaining aorta damage are more than tripled in people who abuse or are dependent on amphetamines, a review of hospital records finds.

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