Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
‘Java Man’ takes age to extremes
New dating of Indonesian strata has produced unexpected results.
- Health & Medicine
Why a rotten tooth is hard to find
The brain can’t distinguish some kinds of pain coming from top versus bottom teeth.
- Space
Not your grandfather’s space program
President Obama offers a new plan that would send humans to orbit Mars during the mid-2030s.
- Health & Medicine
Embryo transfer technique could prevent maternally inherited diseases
A new technique transplants healthy nuclear DNA of cells carrying mutated mitochondria.
- Health & Medicine
Insulin pump and computer mated to regulate blood sugar
A test in type 1 diabetes patients suggests that technology exists to create wearable, self-controlled “artificial pancreas.”
- Life
Mutation effects often depend on genetic milieu
Genetic background is at least as important as environment, fruit fly research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Intentional weight loss in old age not detrimental, study finds
Among obese group, those who shed pounds as part of diet study were less likely to die during follow-up years.
- Math
Hiding patients in plain sight
A new technique could help make medical records available to researchers without compromising privacy.
- Health & Medicine
Breast implants may mask early cancer
Breast augmentation is the leading cosmetic surgery in North America, with roughly 400,000 procedures a year in the United States alone. A study now finds some evidence that breast implants may hinder early detection of breast malignancies. The good news: This didn’t affect survival.
- Health & Medicine
Mapping the fruit fly brain
A new digital atlas could reveal how 100,000 neurons work together.
- Health & Medicine
Gulf War Syndrome real, Institute of Medicine concludes
U.S. veterans who claim to suffer from Gulf War Syndrome just received powerful new ammunition against arguments that their symptoms are trivial, if not altogether fictional. On April 9, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences issued a report that concludes military service in the Persian Gulf War has not only been a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder in some veterans but also is "associated with multisymptom illness” – as in Gulf War Syndrome.
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