Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Ticking toward Trouble: Long-term rise in heart rate portends death
Men whose hearts beat faster over time are likely to die earlier than those whose hearts keep an unchanging cadence year after year, according to a 20-year study.
- Health & Medicine
Kidney Progress: Drug slows cyst growth
The trial drug roscovitine has been shown to reverse polycystic kidney disease in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Birds Don’t Have to Be So Hot
The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised downward, by 15°F, the internal temperature that a cooked turkey must reach in order to be safe to eat. Whether consumers find the meat palatable or rubbery at 165°F is another issue.
- Health & Medicine
Bug be gone
An experimental device that combines a special comb with a forceful air blower kills head lice and their nits.
- Humans
Letters from the November 25, 2006, issue of Science News
Wasted youth The experiments with mice infected with the 1918 influenza virus are important but not surprising (“The Bad Fight: Immune systems harmed 1918 flu patients,” SN: 9/30/06, p. 211). John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (2004, Viking) explains that many, perhaps most, of the victims were […]
- Health & Medicine
Bone Health
The Web site of the International Osteoporosis Foundation offers information for health professionals and the public about osteoporosis, a disease that reduces the density and quality of a person’s bones. It includes a 1-minute osteoporosis risk test, patient stories, facts and statistics on the disease, articles, and more. Go to: http://www.iofbonehealth.org/
- Humans
From the November 14, 1936, issue
Counting dust particles, fighting viral diseases, and aging whiskey.
- Health & Medicine
More Evidence of Protection: Circumcision reduces STD risk in men
Circumcised men are less likely to get sexually transmitted diseases than uncircumcised men are.
- Anthropology
Ancient Gene Yield: New methods retrieve Neandertals’ DNA
Researchers have retrieved and analyzed a huge chunk of Neandertal DNA.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s Mystery Woman
A heated debate has broken out among anthropologists over whether a highly publicized partial skeleton initially attributed to a new, tiny species of human cousins actually comes from a pygmy Homo sapiens with a developmental disorder.
- Humans
Letters from the November 18, 2006, issue of Science News
Sunny side heads up “Rare Uranian eclipse” (SN: 9/9/06, p. 166) tells us, “Because the moons of Uranus orbit at the planet’s equator, the sun seldom illuminates them directly.” I think what you mean is that the moons seldom pass directly between Uranus and the sun. But surely the sun still illuminates them, even when […]
- Health & Medicine
Iron Deficiency, Poverty, and Cognitive Troubles
Children with iron deficiency and low socioeconomic status can slip even lower in mental ability, compared with their better-nourished peers.
