Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Dolphins may offer clues to treating diabetes
Insulin-resistance switch helps maintain glucose levels in dolphin brains, suggesting possible clues to treating diabetes in people.
- Health & Medicine
Tumor tracking gets personal
A new method has the potential to use genome science to improve cancer care.
- Health & Medicine
Lunch time for stem cells
Kristen Brennand is trying to tease out how the cells in brains of healthy people differ from those in schizophrenic patients. The problem: No one wants to give up a chunk of brain for her to study. So she’s fashioning her own clumps of brain cells from tissue people willingly part with – skin.
- Humans
Decoding diversity in Bushmen
Decoding the genetic makeup of tribal leaders and Archbishop Desmond Tutu uncovers rich genetic diversity in southern Africans.
- Psychology
Cell phone distraction while driving is a two-way street
When operating a car, drivers lose a grip on messages they hear.
- Health & Medicine
Mutations may underlie some stuttering
Defects in three genes governing basic cell metabolism are found in a portion of cases, researchers find.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA points to additional New World migration
Scientists have extracted a nearly complete genome from the hairs of a 4,000-year-old man, suggesting a new scenario for Asian migrations into the New World.
- Health & Medicine
Inflammatory bowel disease hikes blood clots
Study finds people with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis have greatest risk during painful episodes.
- Life
Sperm’s pore propulsion
Scientists identify a key proton channel that helps explain the dash to fertilization.
- Health & Medicine
Protein clumps like a prion, but proves crucial for long-term memory
Study in slugs hints that some molecular 'misbehavior' in neurons may help solidify learning.
- Agriculture
EPA reviews hints of weed killer’s fetal risks
The Environmental Protection Agency will be convening meetings of its Scientific Advisory Panel on pesticides throughout 2010 to probe concerns about the safety of atrazine, a weed killer on which most American corn growers rely. The first meeting of these outside experts started Tuesday. And although a large number of studies have indicated that atrazine can perturb hormones in animals and human cells — and might even pose a possible risk of cancer amongst heavily exposed people, these outcomes were not the focus of EPA’s review Tuesday. Risks to babies were.
- Health & Medicine
Journal retracts flawed study linking MMR vaccine and autism
Deleted Scenes Blog: Biomedical reporter Nathan Seppa describes latest chapter in controversy created by now debunked research.
