Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Ivy nanoparticles promise sunblocks and other green products
I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with English ivy that’s been devolving towards hate-hate. But a new paper may temper my antipathy. Apparently this backyard bully also offers a kinder, gentler alternative to the potentially toxic metal-based nanoparticles used in today’s sunscreens.
- Health & Medicine
Controlling blood sugar may prevent eye problems in diabetes patients
Careful monitoring of glucose levels and taking drugs to control blood lipids and cholesterol can pay dividends, a large trial finds.
- Life
Resveratrol shows activity against insulin resistance and retinal disease
A widely touted anti-aging compound shows activity in people and may work in new ways to fight eye disease.
- Computing
Circling the square
The scientist who scanned the first digital image aims to smooth the pixel.
- Archaeology
Serbian site may have hosted first copper makers
Newly identified remnants of copper smelting at a 7,000-year-old Serbian site fuel debate over where and when this practice began.
- Psychology
Social judgments take touching turns
New evidence suggests that the sense of touch influences people’s willingness to drive a hard bargain or endorse a job candidate.
- Health & Medicine
How resveratrol (in grapes, peanuts and wine) fights fat and disease
Resveratrol, a constituent of grapes and certain other plants, can fight the proliferation of fat cells and improve the uptake of sugar from the blood, a pair of new studies indicate. These observations offer some mechanisms to explain why grape products, including wine, have developed a reputation as heart healthy, obesity-fighting and beneficial for people developing diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Snakes on the brain
In a bizarre experiment, researchers delve into the neural roots of courage.
- Health & Medicine
Stopping platelets at the source
An experimental treatment may prevent harmful clotting and less need for drugs that increase bleeding risk, a study in baboons shows.
- Health & Medicine
Abuse of pharmaceuticals is rising sharply
In 2008, the most recent year for which data are available, an estimated 1 million Americans entered a hospital emergency room for treatment of an overdose due to “nonmedical” use of an over-the-counter or prescription drug. That’s double the number of such visits five years earlier, federal data show.
- Life
Baby’s first bacteria depend on birth route
C-section newborns may harbor fewer helpful microbes than infants born vaginally.
- Anthropology
Lucy fossil gets jolted upright by Big Man
Scientists have unearthed a 3.6-million-year-old partial hominid skeleton that may recast the iconic species as humanlike walkers.
