Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Letters from the September 18, 2004, issue of Science News
A Pauling oversight I was surprised to find no mention of Linus Pauling’s theory of anesthesia in “Comfortably Numb” (SN: 7/3/04, p. 8: Comfortably Numb). In 1961, Pauling provided detailed arguments that interactions between anesthetic agents and water, rather than lipids, form hydrate microcrystals in the brain that entrap side chains of proteins and interfere […]
- Anthropology
Human ancestor gets leg up on walking
A new analysis of a 6-million-year-old leg fossil from a member of the human evolutionary family indicates that this individual walked upright with nearly the same deftness as people today do.
- Health & Medicine
Liver transplants succeed in many hepatitis C patients
People who receive liver transplants for hepatitis C infections fare about as well as people getting such transplants for other diseases.
- Anthropology
In the Neandertal Mind
Neandertals possessed much the same mental capacity as ancient people did, but a genetically inspired memory boost toward the end of the Stone Age may have allowed Homo sapiens to prosper while Neandertals died out.
- Humans
From the September 8, 1934, issue
Ditches on the moon's surface, 12,000-year-old bones and dart points, and nature as waves of knowledge in the mind.
- Health & Medicine
An Exploitable Mutation: Defect might make some lung cancers treatable
Nonsmokers who develop lung cancer are more likely than their smoking counterparts to have a mutation in the gene encoding epidermal growth factor receptor.
- Humans
Letters from the September 11, 2004, issue of Science News
Say what? I don’t think anyone should be surprised that squirrels have figured out how to say “nyah, nyah” to rattlesnakes (“Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels,” SN: 7/3/04, p. 14: Ultrasound alarms by ground squirrels). After all, it’s what they’ve been saying to cats, dogs, and bird-feeder owning humans for years. R. Kelly WagnerAustin, Texas […]
- Health & Medicine
Should Foods Be Fortified Even More?
Nutrition scientists argue that mandatory enrichment of cereal-grain-based foods with calcium and vitamin D would pay rich, needed health dividends.
- Health & Medicine
Juice could ward off cancer in smokers
Drinking grapefruit juice every day could reduce the risk of developing cancer from smoking.
- Health & Medicine
Immune reaction to poison gas brings delayed effects
Researchers have a new understanding of why some survivors of carbon monoxide poisoning later develop concentration problems, personality changes, or sensory impairments.
- Health & Medicine
Figuring Out Fibroids
Researchers now have a better understanding of which women develop fibroids and what causes them.
- Humans
From the September 1, 1934, issue
A new German zeppelin under construction, fossils of giant pigs, and word recognition in dogs.
