Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Hobbit foot, hippo skulls deepen ancestral mystery
Hobbit fossils pose puzzling evolutionary questions for scientists in two new studies, one of hobbit foot bones and another of brain size in extinct pygmy hippos.
- Earth
U.S. radiation dose has doubled
New analysis finds radiation-based medical procedures have skyrocketed.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping artery plaques under control
Toning down a gene called CHOP may offer a way to reduce the risk of arterial plaque ruptures, which can cause heart attacks and strokes, a study in mice shows.
- Earth
Report of earlier, longer puberty in girls
A Danish study finds young girls are entering puberty notably earlier than 15 years ago — for reasons that remain unknown.
- Health & Medicine
Narcolepsy linked to immune system
Genome association study finds a second connection between the sleep disorder and the body's disease-fighting apparatus
- Health & Medicine
Swine flu genetics suggest a vaccine is possible
So far, strain's contagion appears on par with that of a seasonal flu outbreak. Vaccine would be at least months away.
- Health & Medicine
Science budgets look rosy, AAAS finds
The president and Congress have collaborated in targeting substantial increases for federal investments in R&D this year.
- Humans
The boffo science budget won’t last
Enjoy the largesse that Uncle Sam is doling out for research, a budget analyst warns, because it may disappear very soon.
- Climate
On federal science — and science spending
Things you might have gleaned at the AAAS Forum on Science and Technology Policy.
- Astronomy
They’re calling Obama the ‘science guy’
Speakers at a science forum offered support for the thesis that researchers have found a big ally in the new president.
- Life
Expansive genetic diversity in Africa revealed
Largest genetic study of African populations yields clues about the origin of modern humans and the ancestry of African-Americans
- Health & Medicine
World Health Organization raises swine flu alert level
The World Health Organization announced April 29 that is has raised the alert level for swine flu from Phase 4 to Phase 5, which suggests that a pandemic is imminent.
