Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Walking Away from Dementia: Moderate exercise protects aging minds
Two fresh studies strengthen the case that physical activity, including walking at a moderate pace, protects the aging brain from cognitive decline and dementia.
- Health & Medicine
Sleep on It: Fitful slumber tied to diabetes risk
Disturbed slumber, or sleep apnea, appears to make people more susceptible to certain conditions that lead to diabetes.
- Humans
Letters from the September 25, 2004, issue of Science News
More of less is more The counterintuitive finding that atrazine is more likely to kill tadpoles when it is highly diluted (“Just a Tad Is Too Much: Less is worse for tadpoles exposed to chemicals,” SN: 7/10/04, p. 20: Just a Tad Is Too Much: Less is worse for tadpoles exposed to chemicals) reminds me […]
- Humans
Rembrandt’s eye saw no depth
The 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt lacked stereoscopic vision, an optical analysis of his self-portraits suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B vaccine linked to MS
People who develop multiple sclerosis are more likely than others to have received a hepatitis B vaccination in recent years.
- Humans
From the September 15, 1934, issue
Magnificent Mt. Rainier, high-altitude rockets, and how motion pictures change children's attitudes.
- Health & Medicine
Motor Ways: Gene mutation impairs muscle coordination
Scientists have identified a gene mutation that appears to cause the motor impairment that occurs in a rare disorder called Joubert syndrome.
- Health & Medicine
Tapping an Unlikely Source: Scientists use mouth membrane to construct corneal-surface transplants
Using membranes taken from the inside of the mouth, researchers have fashioned transplants that act as replacement outer layers for corneas in people with damaged vision.
- 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.
