Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Letters from the September 30, 2006, issue of Science News
Not a pretty picture “Deadly Disorder: Imagined-ugliness illness yields high suicide rate” (SN: 7/22/06, p. 52) raises some questions. What about people who are physically unattractive—those whom a majority of the society considers ugly? I suspect that many people treated for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are unattractive by that definition. The psychiatric profession tends to […]
- Humans
From the September 19, 1936, issue
A nebula photographed, thin films, and cancer as uncontrolled cell growth.
- Health & Medicine
UV Blocker: Lotion yields protective tan in fair-skinned mice
A lotion that stimulates production of the skin pigment melanin induces a deep tan in specially bred laboratory mice.
- Health & Medicine
Graveyard Shift: Prostate cancer linked to rotating work schedule
Men who alternate between daytime and nighttime shifts on their jobs have triple the normal rate of prostate cancer, according to a Japanese nationwide study.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s Child: Fossil puts youthful twist on Lucy’s kind
Researchers have announced the discovery of the oldest and most complete fossil child in our evolutionary family yet found.
- Health & Medicine
Shingles shot’s value is uncertain
The cost-effectiveness of a new vaccine against shingles remains uncertain, making it difficult to assess whether adults should routinely receive the shot.
- Health & Medicine
Progestin linked to hearing loss in older women
Elderly women who received progestin as part of hormone replacement therapy have poorer hearing than do women who didn't get progestin.
- Anthropology
Neandertal debate goes south
A controversial report concludes that Neandertals lived on southwestern Europe's Iberian coast until 24,000 years ago, sharing the area for several thousand years with modern humans before dying out.
- Health & Medicine
Calling Death’s Bluff
New methods of assessing a person's risk of sudden death due to a heart arrhythmia may enable doctors to better identify which patients need to receive an implanted defibrillator.
- Health & Medicine
Babies Motor Better with Breast Milk
Even a few months of breastfeeding appear to confer important motor-coordination benefits on an infant.
- Humans
Letters from the September 23, 2006, issue of Science News
Moo juiced? I live in Northern California, where forest-biomass power plants are common (“Radiation Redux: Forest fires remobilize fallout from bomb tests,” SN: 7/15/06, p. 38). One power plant takes the ashes that result and places them where cows forage. I’m wondering to what level of concentration this process will accumulate the cesium in organic […]
- Humans
From the September 12, 1936, issue
A babe on the moon, antiseptics from oat hulls, and spinning isotopes apart.
