Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Comb over Chemicals: Tool may rid heads of pesticideproof lice
Used systematically, special combs may be more effective than insecticidal shampoos at ridding a child's scalp of head lice.
- Anthropology
Reservoirs of Evolution: Rainy periods linked to human origins in Africa
Three phases of heavy rainfall in eastern Africa between 2.7 million and 900,000 years ago created deep lakes and might have played a critical role in the evolution of human ancestors.
- Health & Medicine
Outwitting TB: Enhanced vaccine protects mice in lab tests
An enhanced vaccine appears to offer better protection against tuberculosis than the current version does, a study in mice suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Tracking busy genes to get at cancer
By identifying which genes are overactive in certain breast tumors, researchers have discovered a genetic signature that could help doctors predict if and when a woman's cancer might spread to her lungs.
- Health & Medicine
Potent Medicine
Drugs now used to treat erectile dysfunction might soon assume multiple roles in managing heart disease and other conditions, including some that affect women and infants.
- Humans
From the August 10, 1935, issue
A silencer for artificial lightning, a trigger for epilepsy, and light that keeps plants from growing.
- Archaeology
The Iceman Cometh
A Web site maintained by Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology offers an illustrated look at scientific efforts to understand the life and death of Oetzi the Iceman, who perished in Europe’s Alps more than 5,000 years ago only to be discovered in mummified form by hikers in 1991. Explore Oetzi’s clothing, equipment, and tattoos, […]
- Health & Medicine
Can Chocolate Fight Diabetes, Too?
Consuming flavonoid-rich dark chocolate could not only lower blood pressure and cholesterol but also improve the body's processing of sugar.
- Health & Medicine
New Carrier: Common tick implicated in spread of fever
The brown dog tick is capable of spreading the bacterium that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
- Health & Medicine
Sun Struck: Data suggest skin cancer epidemic looms
The incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers in young adults is mushrooming, possibly heralding an epidemic in follow-up cancers during the coming decades.
- Humans
Letters from the August 13, 2005, issue of Science News
Bay listen It was interesting to read of processing mundane noise to produce an ultrasound image of the geology of Los Angeles (“Seismic noise can yield maps of Earth’s crust,” SN: 6/11/05, p. 382). A big question in the state is the deep structure of San Francisco Bay. Clearly, the bay and the valleys extending […]
- Health & Medicine
After terror, moms’ stress affects kids
Infants born to women who developed posttraumatic stress disorder during pregnancy have unusually low concentrations of the hormone cortisol.
