Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Leaden blood hikes granny’s heart risks
Featured blog: Even low concentrations of lead circulating in blood may pose lethal heart risks, a new study finds.
- Animals
Chimps ambidextrous when digging wells
A survey of water-collection holes dug on the banks of an African river by wild chimpanzees indicates that, unlike people, these apes don’t have a preference for using either the right or left hand on manual tasks.
- Anthropology
Hobbit brain small, but organized for complex intelligence
Evolution may have endowed a controversial species with small but humanlike brains equipped to support advanced thinking
- Health & Medicine
Sleep may clear the decks for next day’s learning
Two separate studies suggest that sleep reduces connections between neurons in fruit flies’ brains.
- Life
Cells renew in the human heart
Carbon 14 from Cold War–era nuclear bomb tests allowed researchers to track cell birth.
- Health & Medicine
HPV screen beats Pap smear
A test for human papillomavirus outperforms the standard Pap smear in catching precancerous cervical lesions, a study of women age 30 and over shows.
- Health & Medicine
Scary data about bum medical diagnoses
Doctors' misdiagnoses are frequently misdiagnosed — at least before it's too late.
- Health & Medicine
Parasites hinder immunity against cholera
Harboring intestinal parasites seems to limit a person’s ability to fend off cholera, a new study conducted in Bangladesh shows.
- Ecosystems
Exxon Valdez: Tidal waters still troubled
From birds and clams to herring, many species continue to show persistent impacts of an oil spill that occurred two decades ago.
- Health & Medicine
Autism immerses 2-year-olds in a synchronized world
By age 2, kids with autism focus on synchronized physical events, such as a person’s moving lips accompanied by sounds, rather than on eye movements and other social cues, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
How herpes re-rears its ugly head
Researchers identify a key player in the reactivation of herpes simplex virus type 1.
- Health & Medicine
Gestures speak volumes in the brain
A new brain-imaging study suggests that an understanding of spoken language relies on changing sets of brain networks that exploit acoustic and visual cues.
