Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Army takes gun acoustics beyond ‘bang’
Dissecting the sound of weapon fire may give soldiers an edge.
- Materials Science
Infection, kill thyself
Scientists devise wound dressings that trick bacteria into suicide.
- Health & Medicine
Chili pepper holds hot prospects for painfree dieting
A cousin of the chemical that packs the heat in chilis not only can rev up the body’s metabolism but actually encourage it to preferentially burn fat, according to a new trial in obese men and women. And the kicker: The molecule is itself so fat that it can’t fit into the receptors that would ordinarily register pain.
- Humans
Vision gets better with the right mind-set
Volunteers’ eyesight improved when they believed that they could see particularly well.
- Health & Medicine
This off-white rice may be heart healthy
The outer coating of a semi-polished rice – a layer which manufacturers ordinarily polish off of brown rice in the process of making it white – offers cardiovascular benefits, new data indicate.
- Ecosystems
Forests on the wane
Early last decade, the world’s tree coverage dropped by more than 3 percent.
- Health & Medicine
Baby’s calcium might play defining role in adult bone health
Calcium makes bones strong. But a new animal study suggests that to do this, ample calcium may need to be available from birth. Too little in the early weeks of life may reprogram certain stem cells – those in the marrow – in ways that permanently compromise bone structure. Perhaps even fostering osteoporosis.
- Health & Medicine
Body makes its own morphine
A study in mice suggests other mammals, including humans, can produce the painkiller in their bodies.
- Health & Medicine
Women of childbearing age still aren’t getting enough folic acid
To head off a risk of neural tube defects, a class of potentially devastating birth defects, women of childbearing age are supposed to get at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily. A government study now finds that the vast majority of these women fall short. It finds that the national average for women in this age group is some 40 percent below the recommended minimum.
- Physics
Inventing the Light Fantastic
The history of the laser: An idea that began with Albert Einstein inspired a race to create a special beam of light that has since infiltrated numerous aspects of everyday life.
- Health & Medicine
Data from many drug trials for stroke go unpublished
Important details from roughly one in five drug trials for the acute treatment of the most common type of stroke have never entered the public domain, a new study finds. The masked data come from 125 trials that tested effects of 89 different drugs.
- Psychology
Dream a little dream of recall
As the sleeping brain builds memories it generates dreams about recently learned material, a new study suggests.
