Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Poliovirus is spreading in New York. Here’s what you need to know
With signs of poliovirus spreading in a handful of counties in New York, unvaccinated people could be at risk of paralytic polio.
- Anthropology
Humans may have started tending animals almost 13,000 years ago
Remnants from an ancient fire pit in Syria suggest that hunter-gatherers were burning dung as fuel by the end of the Old Stone Age.
- Health & Medicine
How living in a pandemic distorts our sense of time
The pandemic has distorted people’s perception of time. That could have implications for collective well-being.
- Genetics
Can’t comb your kid’s hair? This gene may be to blame
Scientists linked variants of one hair shaft gene to most of the uncombable hair syndrome cases they tested.
- Health & Medicine
How the COVID-19 pandemic may leave a long-term imprint on our health
As much as we want to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, the coronavirus’s impact will remain a feature of many tomorrows.
- Anthropology
The oldest known surgical amputation occurred 31,000 years ago
A young adult on the island of Borneo survived a lower left leg removal thanks to medically savvy rainforest surgeons.
- Anthropology
How mythology could help demystify dog domestication
The path that dog myths took around the world closely parallels that of dog domestication, a new study finds.
- Archaeology
Indigenous Americans ruled democratically long before the U.S. did
Oklahoma’s Muscogee people, among others, promoted rule by the people long before the U.S. Constitution was written.
- Health & Medicine
What you need to know about the new omicron booster shots
With approval of omicron booster shots, COVID-19 vaccine approval and dosing guidance is moving closer to the way flu shots are handled.
- Health & Medicine
Who has the highest risk of long COVID? It’s complicated
Long COVID can look different for different people, making it difficult to pinpoint the risk factors behind it.
- Health & Medicine
The curious case of the 471-day coronavirus infection
One patient couldn’t get rid of their coronavirus infection. The case gave scientists an unprecedented look at viral evolution.
- Anthropology
7-million-year-old limb fossils may be from the earliest known hominid
An earlier report on one of the bones of a 7-million-year-old creature that may have walked upright has triggered scientific misconduct charges.
