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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Calcium’s possible role in Alzheimer’s

    A new study in mice finds that plaques associated with Alzheimer’s wreak havoc on calcium’s role in cell signaling.

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  2. Earth

    EPA Gagged

    Federal officials have been told not to talk freely to the press or others who might ask questions EPA doesn't want to answer.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    To catch a cheat

    Drug test cheaters find quick fixes on the Web, but toxicologists aren’t so easily fooled.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    This trans fat is vindicated

    Featured blog: FDA accords some trans fats a "generally regarded as safe" designation.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Statins versus dementia

    Statins, developed to fight cholesterol, may also prevent some dementia, a study of older Hispanics finds.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    A chink in flu’s armor

    Finding the shape of a protein that enables the flu virus to replicate points to ways to combat the disease.

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  7. Psychology

    Core calculations

    Number words may serve as mental tools for expanding on basic, nonverbal numerical knowledge rather than as determinants of such knowledge.

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  8. Chemistry

    Oil magnets

    Featured blog: Nanomagnets and wires point to a potentially better mousetrap — or crude trap — for dealing with oil spills.

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  9. Humans

    Toddlers triumphant

    In new studies, toddlers display dramatic advances in object recognition that may underlie verbal and symbolic achievements.

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  10. Ecosystems

    Fish Houses

    Tanked half-way houses allow people and fish to get acquainted on their own terms — and exhibit their individual personalities.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Protein links metabolism and circadian rhythms

    Scientists have known for ages that metabolism is tied to the body’s daily rhythms. Two new studies suggest how.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    New HIV inhibitor

    A new HIV drug can, when combined with other therapies, suppress even the most drug-resistant strains of the virus that causes AIDS, scientists report in two papers in the July 24 New England Journal of Medicine.

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