Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Concerns over Genistein, Part II—Beyond the heart
Mice eating a diet laced with an estrogen-like constituent of soy display a puzzling variety of changes, some apparently good, some potentially bad.
- Health & Medicine
Spermicide Flip Side: Compound may promote papillomavirus infection
The widely used spermicide nonoxynol-9 may boost the infectiousness of human papillomavirus, mouse tests show.
- Health & Medicine
Bad News for Cats: Cat allergen hits all allergic people
People allergic to dust mites, mold, grass, and other common irritants—but not to cats—still have greater breathing difficulties when they live around the animals.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma
Infants who get several courses of antibiotics before their first birthdays are more likely to develop asthma later.
- Health & Medicine
Linking stress and senility
A gene that's active in the brain may help explain why emotional stress seems to increase a person's likelihood of getting Alzheimer's disease.
- Humans
Letters from the July 7, 2007, issue of Science News
Hex sine? The NASA researchers baffled by the hexagonal shape in Saturn’s soupy atmosphere at its northern pole (“A hexagon on the ringed planet,” SN: 4/28/07, p. 269) should read “As waters part, polygons appear” (SN: 6/3/06, p. 348). It is worth investigating whether there is a similar phenomenon—I still suspect some sort of standing […]
- Health & Medicine
Restoring Scents
Experimental treatments may activate the sense of smell in people who can detect few or no odors.
- Health & Medicine
Infectious Foie Gras?
Foie gras contains misfolded proteins that, when given to mice, trigger disease.
- Humans
Bad Science
Ben Goldacre, M.D., a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, looks at science and medicine through a skeptical lens in this popular blog. Go to: http://www.badscience.net
- Humans
From the June 26, 1937, issue
Fur fashions from Ethiopian monkeys, the Big Bang as the source of cosmic rays, and ensuring airline pilots get enough oxygen.
- 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.
