Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
High-fat diets slim down learning
High-fat diets decrease the ability of male rats to learn and remember.
- Health & Medicine
Drug abuse could be an occupational hazard
Breathing minuscule amounts of painkillers administered to patients in surgery may increase an anesthesiologist's risk of abusing prescription drugs.
- Health & Medicine
Acne drug affects brain function
The antiacne drug Accutane may decrease activity in a part of the brain that regulates mood.
- Health & Medicine
Malaria vaccine shows promise in Mozambique
An experimental malaria vaccine tested on children in Mozambique provides some protection against the potentially life-threatening disease.
- Humans
Letters from the October 30, 2004, issue of Science News
It isn’t academic Speaking as someone with a Ph.D. in math who has spent most of his 30-year professional life unemployed and who can probably look forward to spending the rest of it unemployable, I was disappointed that “Where Ph.D.s pay off” in (SN: 8/7/04, p. 94: Where Ph.D.s pay off) made no apparent effort […]
- Humans
From the October 27, 1934, issue
A large telescope lens made in Russia, artificial gamma rays from sodium, and acetylcholine revealed as message carrier for nerve cells.
- Health & Medicine
Prescription for Trouble: Antidepressants might rewire young brains
Young mice exposed to a common type of antidepressant, known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), showed symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood.
- Health & Medicine
Affairs of the Heartburn: Drugs for stomach acid may hike pneumonia risk
Acid-blocking drugs seem to boost a person's chances of getting pneumonia.
- Health & Medicine
Double Credit: Iron-fortified salt cuts anemia
A form of table salt manufactured to contain iron can fight off anemia among children living in rural North Africa and could expand the role of salt fortification around the world.
- Health & Medicine
Drug aids destruction of lymphoma cells
The drug rituximab, when added to chemotherapy, boosts survival rates in people with diffuse B-cell lymphoma, a kind of cancer.
- Anthropology
Evolutionary Shrinkage: Stone Age Homo find offers small surprise
Scientists announced the discovery of the partial skeleton of a small-bodied Homo species that inhabited an eastern Indonesian island from at least 38,000 years ago until about 18,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
COX-2 inhibitor pulled off market
Merck's recall of rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor drug for arthritis, raises the question of whether similar drugs might also increase the risk of heart attack.
