Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Ape Aid: Chimps share altruistic capacity with people
Chimpanzees, as well as 18-month-old children, will assist strangers even when getting no personal reward, suggesting that human altruism has deep evolutionary roots.
- Health & Medicine
Immune Abuse: Methamphetamine is linked to cardiac damage
The illicit drug methamphetamine alters immune proteins unleashed in the body, possibly explaining why some longtime methamphetamine abusers suffer heart problems.
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol Answer? Drinks lower glucose to protect heart
Moderate consumption of beer, wine, or gin lowers blood glucose, perhaps helping to stave off type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
- Health & Medicine
Nerves are key to longevity effect
The life-extending effect that some animals get from calorie-restricted diets may depend on signals from the brain.
- Humans
Summer Reading
The staff of Science News presents wide-ranging recommendations of books for readers to pack for their summer vacations.
- Humans
Letters from the June 30, 2007, issue of Science News
Hot and cold on the topic No mention was made in “In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life” (SN: 4/28/07, p. 259) of the possibility that, being so close to its star and having a 13-day orbital period, the planet would keep the same surface to the star. Having one side baked […]
- Humans
From the June 19, 1937, issue
Raindrop disruption as the cause of lightning, phonograph recordings of the language of wild gibbons, and a possible connection between jaundice and arthritis.
- Health & Medicine
Warning Sign: River blindness parasite shows resistance
The parasitic worm that causes river blindness seems to be developing resistance to the only drug that controls it.
- Health & Medicine
Fluorine highlights early tumors
Microscopic, fluorine-packed particles can make small, cancerous growths easier to detect.
- Archaeology
Ancient beads found in northern Africa
Perforated shells found in a Moroccan cave indicate that northern Africans made symbolic body ornaments 82,000 years ago, long before Europeans did.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes drug might hike heart risk
People who take rosiglitazone, a popular diabetes drug marketed as Avandia, may face an increased risk of heart attack.
- Health & Medicine
Stents Stumble
After a meteoric rise, stents coated with drugs to prevent renarrowing of clogged arteries have begun to fall from favor among cardiologists.
