Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Health & Medicine
Repairing muscle from the cell up
Skeletal muscle stem cells can fix weakling muscles in mice and could eventually lead to treatments for muscular dystrophy.
- Health & Medicine
Location matters
Scientists find the role of dopamine varies from one end of a brain region to another.
- Health & Medicine
Risk profile for diabetes
People who harbor excess amounts of the compound fetuin-A face a heightened risk of developing diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer and college
Highly educated people have reaped the benefits of cancer prevention and treatment. Death rates in this group have fallen, but people with less education have missed out on these gains.
- Health & Medicine
Animal rights and wrongs
Featured blog: Some animal-rights activists are taking a page out of the anti-abortionists' playbook and now bully animal researchers at home.
- Anthropology
Loud and clear
Skulls of Neandertal ancestors show the prehistoric humans had a hearing capacity similar to present-day people, suggesting human speech could have originated much earlier than previously thought.
- Humans
Data Recycling and Other No-No’s
At least one editor argues that maintaining the ethical behavior of journal authors requires constant policing.
- Health & Medicine
Shared recipes for longer life
Being female and eating a calorie-restricted diet contribute to long lifespan in animals, and the two traits may share molecular mechanisms.
- Math
Strategy to stop a pandemic
A limited supply of vaccine shots, if targeted well, could stop the spread of disease.
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- Health & Medicine
Sick and down
To fight off an infection or illness, the body shifts into a slow-down mode that mirrors some symptoms of depression. In fact, scientists now think the immune response itself may even cause the mood disorder.
