Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    One of H1N1’s mysteries explained

    The current H1N1 influenza shares many similarities with the 1918 pandemic influenza.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Existing antibiotic might help keep wraps on AIDS virus

    The acne drug minocycline inhibits HIV activation in infected immune cells, lab tests show.

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  3. Chemistry

    The skinny on indoor ozone

    Indoor concentrations of ozone tend to be far lower than those outside, largely because much gets destroyed as molecules of the respiratory irritant collide with surfaces and undergo transformative chemical reactions. New research identifies a hitherto ignored surface that apparently plays a major role in quashing indoor ozone: It’s human skin. And while removing ozone from indoor air should be good, what takes its place may not be, data indicate.

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  4. Humans

    Ancient DNA suggests new hominid line

    Genetic data unveil a previously unknown Stone Age ancestor in central Asia.

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  5. Chemistry

    BPA found beached and at sea

    Food chemists have been showing for years that bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking building block of polycarbonate plastics and food-can coatings, can leach into food and drinks. But other materials contain BPA – and leach it – such as certain resins used in nautical paint. And Katsuhiko Saido suspects those paints explain the high concentrations of BPA that he’s just found in beach sand and coastal seawater around the world.

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  6. Chemistry

    Better sleuthing through chemistry

    New fingerprinting method can pinpoint where, when or how a chemical warfare agent came to be.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    UV radiation, not vitamin D, might limit multiple sclerosis symptoms

    The rarity of MS in the tropics may be due to higher ultraviolet light exposure, not necessarily increased vitamin production, new research suggests.

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  8. Ecosystems

    Athlete’s foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus

    Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.

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  9. Anthropology

    Ancient footprints yield oldest signs of upright gait

    Human ancestors may have been walking with an efficient, extended-leg technique by 3.6 million years ago.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Ingredient of dark roasted coffees may make them easier on the tummy

    A compound generated in the roasting process appears to reduce acid production in the stomach.

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  11. Chemistry

    Cool roof coating: Mechanism kept under wraps

    The American Chemical Society held a news briefing March 21 to feature a new energy-saving technology. It’s an ostensibly “smart” coating for roofing materials that knows when to reflect heat, like in summer time, and when to instead let the sun’s rays help heat a structure.

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  12. Plants

    Bees face ‘unprecedented’ pesticide exposures at home and afield

    Honey bees are being hammered by some mysterious environmental plaque that has a name — colony collapse disorder – but no established cause. A two-year study now provides evidence indicting one likely group of suspects: pesticides. It found “unprecedented levels” of mite-killing chemicals and crop pesticides in hives across the United States and parts of Canada.

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