Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
No heart risk from hormones taken near menopause
Contrary to some earlier indications, hormone replacement therapy might not impart heart risks to women who take it during their 50s.
- Anthropology
Children of Prehistory
Accumulating evidence suggests that children and teenagers produced much prehistoric cave art and perhaps left behind many fledgling attempts at stone-tool making as well.
- Humans
Letters from the April 28, 2007, issue of Science News
Long ago gas Finding CO2 levels that are 2,500 times higher in 5,000-year-old fulgurites than in modern samples, scientists have speculated that the extra CO2 resulted from vaporization of organic material by lightning (“Stroke of Good Fortune: A wealth of data from petrified lightning,” SN: 2/17/07, p. 101). Could some of this gas reflect elevated […]
- Humans
From the April 17, 1937, issue
Signs of spring, new elements in space, and the future of atomic energy.
- Health & Medicine
Tenacious STD: Drug-resistant gonorrhea is spreading
Responding to a surge in tough-to-treat gonorrhea, the CDC has stopped recommending Cipro-class antibiotics for the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Visual Clarity: People with MS maintain eyesight with drug
A drug for multiple sclerosis seems to prevent subtle vision loss in many patients.
- Health & Medicine
Diet for a Noisy Planet
Oral doses of a combination of certain antioxidants and magnesium can significantly limit the risk of noise-induced hearing loss, an animal study finds.
- Humans
Letters from the April 21, 2007, issue of Science News
How the West isn’t one The author of “Why So Dry? Ocean temperatures alone don’t explain droughts” (SN: 2/10/07, p. 84), seems to feel, like most other writers do, that “the western United States” properly covers all geographical bases. Believe me, the Pacific Northwest is anything but dry. One other point about geography: Weather phenomena, […]
- Health & Medicine
Cinnamon and Diabetes—Disease Type Appears to Matter
Cinnamon isn't the answer for teens with the autoimmune form of diabetes.
- Anthropology
Disinherited Ancestor: Lucy’s kind may occupy evolutionary side branch
A controversial analysis of a recently discovered jaw from a 3-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis puts Lucy's species on an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out.
- Health & Medicine
Agents of Metastasis: Four proteins conspire in breast cancer spread
Four proteins work together to assist cancer growth and metastasis, and drugs against them inhibit both processes, tests in mice suggest.
- Health & Medicine
Bug versus Bug: Insect virus makes a viable flu vaccine
A new influenza vaccine churned out by caterpillar cells infected with a genetically engineered virus effectively prevents the flu.
