Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Neandertals may have grown up quickly
A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that Neandertals grew to maturity at a faster pace than people do.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
From the May 5, 1934, issue
Steel pipes of the Boulder Canyon project, diphtheria and the blood-brain barrier, and weather effects of volcanic eruptions.
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Cord Blood to the Rescue: Infusions help babies with Hurler’s syndrome
Umbilical cord blood transplants boost overall health and survival in patients with the rare hereditary condition called Hurler's syndrome.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
A National Science Museum
If you can’t make it to Washington, D.C., to visit the recently opened Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, check out the museum’s online exhibits. Explore how DNA analysis can catch criminals and stop epidemics, witness the potential effects of global warming, and glimpse the frontiers of scientific research. Go to: […]
By Science News - Humans
Letters from the May 8, 2004, issue of Science News
Listen carefully Perhaps Stefan Koelsch’s study should have been limited to trained musicians, rather than exclude them (“Song Sung Blue: In brain, music and language overlap,” SN: 2/28/04, p. 133: Song Sung Blue: In brain, music and language overlap). Word and visual associations in music are vigorously reinforced in movie soundtracks, cartoons, and elsewhere. But […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Ironing Out Some Mental Limitations
Iron deficiency can subtly compromise how well a person performs multiple challenging tasks simultaneously.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Humidity may affect LASIK surgery
High humidity can boost the chances of needing follow-up surgery after LASIK surgery for nearsightedness.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Delaying Dementia
The limited success of attempts to treat Alzheimer's disease with several compounds that appear able to prevent the disorder suggests that the window for derailing the development of the illness may close years before cognitive decline becomes evident.
By Ben Harder - Humans
Mouse Mourned: Yoda dies at age 4
An age-defying laboratory mouse known as Yoda died peacefully in his cage in Ann Arbor, Mich., on April 22, at the age of 4 years and 12 days.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Unsettling Association: Dental X rays linked to low-birth-weight babies
Getting dental X rays while pregnant might increase a woman's risk of giving birth to a low-birth-weight baby.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
Tea Yields Prostate Benefits
Tea drinking appears to seed the body with compounds that retard the growth of prostate cancer.
By Janet Raloff - Archaeology
Stone Age Combustion: Fire use proposed at ancient Israeli site
A Stone Age site in Israel contains the oldest evidence of controlled fire use in Asia or Europe, from around 750,000 years ago, a research team reports.
By Bruce Bower