Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Chemistry
Nicotine’s new appeal
Mimicking the addictive compound’s action in the brain could lead to new drugs for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.
- Earth
The Case for Very Hot Water
Turning down the thermostat on a home's water heater could foster the growth of toxic bacteria in home plumbing.
- Health & Medicine
Drug may offer MS turnaround
A drug used against leukemia can ease disability in early-stage multiple sclerosis patients over a three-year span.
- Earth
Big Water Losses
America's ailing water-delivery infrastructure is literally throwing clean water away -- and dirtying some of what it moves toward our taps.
- Health & Medicine
Closest look yet at lung cancer genes
A large study offers clues to the genetics behind lung cancer.
- Humans
Middle schoolers earn top prizes in science competition
Five winners awarded top prizes in the Society for Science & the Public’s national science competition for middle school students.
- Humans
Midlife suicides are on the rise
Data gleaned from death certificates indicate that, from 1999 to 2005, middle-aged whites accounted for much of the overall increase in the U.S. suicide rate.
- Humans
Elephants’ struggle with poaching lingers on
Even as African elephants struggle to recover from decades-old poaching, the animals face new and renewed threats today.
- Tech
Coal Country’s New Foresters
New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.
- Tech
Trading Forests for Coal
Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.
- Archaeology
Really Cool History
Tales of the black band: Clues to a 4,200-year-old mystery lie frozen in icy records stored atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.
- Climate
Eggs, Tea and Mr. IPCC
Even jet-lagged, the world's lead climate negotiator took time out to brief a few reporters.
