Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
When the stomach gets low on acid
A study in mice shows that a shortage of stomach acid can lead to cancer, apparently as a result of bacterial overgrowth and inflammation.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Licorice ingredient ferrets out herpes
A compound in licorice homes in on lab-grown cells infected with a herpes virus and induces them to self-destruct.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Season Affects Cancer-Surgery Survival
Ample vitamin D at the time of lung-cancer surgery dramatically increases the odds that a patient will be alive and cancerfree 5 years later.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
Letters from the April 23, 2005, issue of Science News
The shark as red herring I’m sure you published “A Fishy Therapy,” (SN: 3/5/05, p. 154) in good faith, but I believe that claims for shark cartilage are not made seriously by anyone who studies the role of natural substances in cancer prevention. It was proved ineffective long ago. I think your article does a […]
By Science News - Humans
From the April 20, 1935, issue
Workings of human body portrayed in new exhibit, tapping brain waves to study epilepsy, and the discovery of a new amino acid.
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Fast Start: Sex readily spreads HIV in infection’s first weeks
People with HIV are many times more infectious to their sexual partners in the weeks or months just after they acquire the virus than they are later on, a study in Uganda demonstrates conclusively.
By Ben Harder - Anthropology
These spines were made for walking
A new analysis of fossil backbones indicates that human ancestors living around 3 million years ago were able to walk much as people today do.
By Bruce Bower - Anthropology
Noses didn’t need cold to evolve
Neandertals evolved big, broad noses not in response to a cold climate, as has often been argued, but in conjunction with the expansion of their upper jaws.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Step up to denser bones
Step aerobics proved better than resistance exercises for building bone density.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Company pulls pain drug from market
The Food and Drug Administration has asked Pfizer to stop selling its prescription pain medication valdecoxib (Bextra).
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Is Chromium in Your Mineral Supplement?
As a new study on chromium illustrates, the value of a mineral supplement can depend greatly on which chemical form of the mineral a manufacturer uses.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
From the April 13, 1935, issue
A giant meteorite discovered in Kansas, gasoline made from coal in Germany, and elastic rock layers deep in the earth.
By Science News