Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes precursor may be checked by omega-3 fatty acids
Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet might fend off diabetes in children prone to the disease.
- Humans
It’s About Time
What’s a year? Why do we measure it in days and weeks? How do calendars differ? What’s the earliest known date? (Hint: It’s the year Egyptians invented the calendar.) Learn answers to these and other timely questions at Calendars from the Sky, a site developed in part with support from the National Institute for Standards […]
- Humans
Letters from the October 13, 2007, issue of Science News
Another idea blown . . . Conservation by America is not going to decrease global warming (“Asian Forecast: Hazy, Warmer—Clouds of pollution heat lower atmosphere,” SN: 8/4/07, p. 68). We need to imitate known global-cooling events, such as the Krakatoa volcano explosion, which spread sunlight-reflecting dust into the stratosphere in 1883. A hydrogen bomb exploded […]
- Humans
From the October 2, 1937, issue
The mystery and magnificence of volcanoes, how bees dance to tell their hive-mates which flowers to visit, and the year's polio cases begin to decline.
- Health & Medicine
Yummy Bugs
Do you enjoy chocolate? You can make it more nutritious by bugging it—with crickets, for example. Or how about ant-fortified tacos? This site introduces Westerners to the idea that many commonly encountered insects are edible. Indeed, most are lower in fat—and higher in protein—than beef, lamb, pork, or chicken. The site’s author argues that “insects […]
- Health & Medicine
Diminishing Obesity’s Risks
Mouse data suggest that, properly managed, obesity can be benign.
- Health & Medicine
Shields Down: A cancer-fighting gene declines in old age
Decline of an important anti-cancer gene could contribute to increased cancer risk among the elderly.
- Health & Medicine
Fueling a Flu Debate: Do vaccinations save lives among the elderly?
Flu shots seem to prevent some deaths and limit hospitalizations for pneumonia in elderly people.
- Archaeology
Lake-Bottom Bounty: Some Arctic sediments didn’t erode during recent ice ages
Sediments in a few lakes in northeastern Canada were not scoured away during recent ice ages, a surprising find that could prove a boon to climate researchers.
- Humans
Letters from the October 6, 2007, issue of Science News
Cat scam? Oscar the cat possibly does identify dying patients (“Grim Reap Purr: Nursing home feline senses the end,” SN: 7/28/07, p. 53), but the story you printed presents anecdotal rather than scientific evidence and does not belong in a science magazine. Julie EnevoldsenSeattle, Wash. Correlation is not causation. Could it not be that, somehow, […]
- Health & Medicine
Lonely white cells
In chronically lonely people, white blood cells show abnormal gene activity that may affect health through immune responses.
- Humans
From the September 25, 1937, issue
Insulin's molecular structure revealed, a new supernova observed less than a fortnight after an earlier one, and a hypothesis for how X rays kill cancer cells.
