Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Fungus produces cancer drug
Several varieties of fungi that attack hazelnuts produce high quantities of the popular cancer drug paclitaxel.
- Health & Medicine
How antipsychotic drugs can cause weight gain
A study of mice has identified a biological mechanism by which medications called atypical antipsychotics cause people to gain weight.
- Anthropology
New age for ancient Americans
New radiocarbon dates indicate that the Clovis people, long considered the first well-documented settlers of the New World, inhabited North America considerably later and for a much shorter time than previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Fixes for Fatty Liver
A slate of experimental treatments, including three established diabetes drugs, could become medicines for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, an obesity-related cause of cirrhosis.
-
- Health & Medicine
Of Bamboo and French Fries
A bamboo extract can limit the formation of a carcinogen in baked and fried foods.
- Health & Medicine
Virus Stopper: Herpes drug dampens HIV infection
An antiviral drug commonly taken for genital herpes seems to suppress HIV in people harboring both pathogens.
- Health & Medicine
Hurt-Knees Rx: Surgical method promotes ligament regeneration
A new artificial knee ligament that sparks regeneration of natural tissue could eventually make recovering from knee-repair surgery less painful and debilitating.
- Health & Medicine
Inside job dissolves blood clot pronto
An experimental procedure that delivers a clot-busting drug directly to the brain can bring on a remarkable turnaround in some stroke patients.
- Health & Medicine
Aspirin resistance carries real risks
Some people are resistant to the blood-thinning effects of aspirin, making them more vulnerable to stroke or heart problems.
- Health & Medicine
Aneurysm risk may get passed down
A heightened risk of having a brain aneurysm seems to be passed down in some families, and the life-threatening rupture of an aneurysm appears to strike earlier in a succeeding generation.
- Health & Medicine
Brains carry odd load after strokes
People who die from a stroke have accumulations of a protein called amyloid beta in the thalamus, a part of the brain involved in motor control and sensory processing.
