Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D: What’s Enough?
Most researchers studying vitamin D agree that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin, but they haven't yet decided just how much.
- Humans
From the October 6, 1934, issue
Glass models of rotifers, anthrax as a threat among agricultural workers, and cosmic-ray studies in the stratosphere.
- Humans
Scrubbing Down: Free soap, hygiene tips cut kids’ illnesses
In urban slums, enhancing family hygiene can prevent about half of childhood diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, including pneumonia, even among infants too young to wash themselves.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s Buggy Ride: Lice leap boldly into human-origins fray
A controversial genetic analysis of lice raises the possibility that some type of physical contact occurred between ancient humans and Homo erectus, probably in eastern Asia between 50,000 and 25,000 years ago.
- Humans
Nobel prizes: The sweet smell of success
Nobel prizes in the sciences went to research on olfactory genes, subatomic particles, and the molecular kiss of death.
- Health & Medicine
Carotid Overhaul: Stents and surgery go neck and neck
Mesh cylinders called stents work as well as or slightly better than surgery in opening blocked carotid arteries in high-risk patients.
- Health & Medicine
Turmeric component kills cancer cells
Curcumin, the component of turmeric that makes the spice yellow, shows anticancer effects in lab-dish tests and in experiments on mice.
- Health & Medicine
Honey, Let’s Shrink the Kids
A new Institute of Medicine report calls for fundamental changes throughout U.S. society to make pediatric-obesity prevention a major national priority, comparable to the campaign against youthful smoking.
- Health & Medicine
Fighting cholesterol with saturated fat?
Marrying a saturated fat to the plant-derived ingredient in certain health-promoting margarines creates an especially potent cholesterol-lowering food additive.
- Health & Medicine
Adopted protein might be MS culprit
A protein called syncytin might play a role in causing degradation of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates nerves, damage that leads to multiple sclerosis.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin Boost
Vitamin D is being linked to a host of health benefits that go well beyond stronger bones, extending to muscle preservation and some protection against cancer, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.
- Health & Medicine
A Guggul Prescription for Drug Interactions
Herbal supplements made from myrrh compounds trigger biochemical reactions that can diminish the efficacy of many other prescription drugs an individual might be taking.
