Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Diabetes drug helps shed pounds

    The diabetes drug pramlintide facilitates year-long weight loss in obese volunteers, a new study shows.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    This is the brain on age

    The activity of genes in men's brains begins to change sooner than it does in women's brains, a new study shows.

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  3. Humans

    Stone Age seafood fans

    Excavations in two Gibraltar caves suggest that Neandertals, like modern humans, regularly visited the Mediterranean shore to complement a land-based diet with seafood

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Lo-Cal bones hold up

    One study of many recent investigations of how calorie restriction affects people shows that bone density does not necessarily suffer when a person loses weight quickly.

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  5. Climate

    (Political) party animals

    Featured blog: When it comes to attitudes about climate change, the chasm between Democrats and Republicans is wide. Political-polling analysts speculate that a McCain win in November might do more than an Obama victory to win over the minds of climate-change skeptics.

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  6. Physics

    Apollo or Manhattan Project: Which Paradigm Fits Energy Better?

    A new petition developed to lobby the presidential candidates argues that increased federal investments in basic energy research are essential.

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  7. Chemistry

    A better fate for plastic bottles

    Using microbes to convert PET into a high-value plastic could encourage more recycling.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    The Candidates’ Shadow Health Advisers

    Here are a few names from the teams of advisers counseling the presidential candidates.

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  9. Climate

    Energy: Apollo-like Program Needed

    Big action and big bucks are needed to deal with the United States' energy problems, research leaders argued today.

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  10. Humans

    Pain relief to believe in

    Religious believers shown pictures that evoke spiritual responses display brain activity that may contribute to feeling relief from physical pain, a new study finds.

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  11. Humans

    The presidential candidates on science

    The Science Debate 2008 team sent science and technology questions to Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama. Find out how they answered.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Plastics chemical linked to heart disease, diabetes

    Study is based on data collected from human adults and matches urine concentrations of bisphenol A with type 2 diabetes, heart disease and liver enzyme problems

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