Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Our big fat cancer statistics
A new analysis of data from a 2002 report shows that obesity is the second-largest cause of cancer in the United States.
- Health & Medicine
Wearing your food
A broccoli extract, applied to the skin, has been found to reduce the incidence of skin tumors in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Dairy fats cut colon cancer risk
High-fat dairy foods appear to confer protection against colon cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Monthly cycle changes women’s brains
Activity in a brain region that regulates emotions fluctuates over the course of a woman's menstrual cycle.
- Humans
Katrina’s Fallout
Scientists whose laboratories were devastated by Hurricane Katrina have found help, and sometimes safe havens for their studies, from colleagues around the nation.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D Boosts Calcium Potency
Women whose diets are rich in vitamin D appear to need less calcium to preserve their bones' health.
- Humans
From the November 9, 1935, issue
Beauty in a machine shop, a cloud of island universes, and moon-made earthquakes.
- Archaeology
From prison yard to holy ground
Archaeological excavations at a prison near Megiddo, Israel, have unearthed the remains of what may be one of the region's oldest Christian churches.
- Health & Medicine
Statins for Algernon: Cholesterol-lowering drug fights learning disability
A study in mice suggests that a drug prescribed for high cholesterol may reverse learning deficits caused by a common genetic disease.
- Health & Medicine
Protective Progeny: Peptide treats and prevents breast cancer
A synthetic version of a protein present in a woman's body during pregnancy is as effective against breast cancer as the current drug tamoxifen is, according to a study in rodents.
- Anthropology
Gone with the Flow: Ancient Andes canals irrigated farmland
Excavations in the Andes mountains have unearthed the earliest known irrigation canals in South America.
- Humans
Letters from the November 12, 2005, issue of Science News
Big leap The pendular running gait described in “Stepping Lightly: New view of how human gaits conserve energy” (SN: 9/17/05, p. 182) as one of the most efficient bipedal gaits looks remarkably like the way eyewitnesses claim Bigfoot creatures move. In a Bigfoot hoax, one might use a gait that is unhuman but energy efficient, […]
