Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Spindles foster sound slumber
In “a very clever study,” researchers show that distinctive brain signals help sustain sleep in noisy environments.
- Health & Medicine
‘Miracle’ tomato turns sour foods sweet
Pucker no more: That seems to be one objective of research underway at a host of Japanese universities. For the past several years, they’ve been developing bio-production systems to inexpensively churn out loads of miraculin — a natural taste-altering protein that makes sour foods seem oh so sweet. Their newest biotech reactor: grape tomatoes.
- Health & Medicine
Chicken poses significant drug-resistant Salmonella threat
More than one-in-five retail samples of raw chicken collected in Pennsylvania hosted Salmonella, a new study found — twice the prevalence reported in a 2007 U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey. And where the bacteria were present, more than half were immune to the germicidal activity of at least one antibiotic. Nearly one-third were resistant to three or more.
- Life
Gene licensing stifles R&D
Making research findings private property can stymie innovation down the road, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Drumming up anthrax
Mention anthrax and about the last thing that comes to mind is whether there’s a drum in the room. Yet tom-toms — or at least the stretched animal hides on their heads — can sometimes spew toxic anthrax spores into the air. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently highlighted the case of a previously healthy 24-year-old woman who nearly died, last December, after attending a “drumming circle” in New Hampshire.
- Health & Medicine
Beneficial bacteria may protect babies from HIV
No one argues that when it comes to feeding baby, mom’s milk is best. But mothers infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, face a dilemma: Because some of their virus can be shed in breast milk, babies risk becoming infected as they drink it. Two research teams are now investigating a germ-warfare strategy to treat such vulnerable infants.
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- Health & Medicine
Brain has emotional sense
Scientists have found regions that may be involved in storing the sights, smells, and sounds of emotional memories.
- Humans
World of proteincraft
Players compete to solve scientific puzzles in an online computer game.
- Health & Medicine
Violent dreams may predict illness in advance
A sleep disorder can precede neurodegenerative disease by decades.
- Chemistry
Receipts a large — and largely ignored — source of BPA
A host of small studies raises a big alarm about exposure to a hormone-mimicking chemical.
- Health & Medicine
Gut bacteria reflect dietary differences
A comparison of African and European children concludes that high-fiber, low-fat diets cultivate healthier intestinal microflora.
