Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Stone Age Role Revolution: Modern humans may have divided labor to conquer
A new analysis of Stone Age sites indicates that a division of labor first emerged in modern-human groups living in the African tropics around 40,000 years ago, providing our ancestors with a social advantage over Neandertals.
- Health & Medicine
A Toast to Healthy Hearts: Wine compounds benefit blood vessels
Researchers have identified a class of compounds in red wine that might be responsible for much of the beverage's cardiovascular benefit.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer Link: Gene regulates progesterone effect on breast cells
The BRCA1 protein regulates the effect of pro-growth progesterone, which could explain why having a mutated BRCA1 gene predisposes a woman to breast cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Test identifies people at cardiac risk
Measurement of an electrical abnormality in the heart aids doctors in determining who is most at risk for cardiac arrest.
- Health & Medicine
Belated angioplasty saves no lives
A common heart procedure called angioplasty doesn't save lives if it is performed more than a couple of days after a heart attack.
- Humans
Letters from the December 2, 2006, issue of Science News
Concerns vented “Venting Concerns: Exploring and protecting deep-sea communities” (SN: 10/7/06, p. 232) barely scratches the surface of the problem. What is stopping someone from gene splicing the disease of choice onto heat-loving bacterium? Something that can live near the 600°F of melting lead will certainly survive the standard hospital-sterilization process. D.J. KavaBeaumont, Texas The […]
- Humans
From the November 21, 1936, issue
Wild turkeys, a life-extending diet, and seeing through fog.
- 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 […]
