Humans
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Health & Medicine
No Hiding Most Trans Fats
The current federal food-labeling law requires that manufacturers identify the major nutrients in processed foods, including total fat. Moreover, the law mandates that the “Nutrition Facts” section of each label separately list nutrients that can pose significant health risks, such as saturated fats. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration announced that beginning in 2006, […]
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
Viral protein could help liver therapy
Researchers have developed a method of delivering gene therapies to targeted cells that makes use of viral proteins rather than whole virus particles.
By Ben Harder -
Anthropology
Lucy’s kind takes humanlike turn
A new analysis of fossils from a more than 3-million-year-old species in the human evolutionary family reveals that the males were only moderately larger than the females, a finding that has implications for ancient social behavior.
By Bruce Bower -
Humans
From the July 15, 1933, issue
LIVELY YOUNG MARMOSETS SURVIVE IN CAPTIVITY Two lively, chattering young marmosets are growing up in San Francisco without the slightest notion of what “rare specimens” they are. They have a very great distinction of surviving birth in captivity. Naturalists say that this type of New World monkey is often born in captivity but usually the […]
By Science News -
Health & Medicine
DNA Differences Add Risk: Altered genes show up in Lou Gehrig’s disease
People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are more likely than healthy people to have certain variations in the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene, suggesting variant VEGF contributes to the disease.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Cholesterol Medicine for Eggs?
Five years ago, a small natural-products company made waves when it marketed Cholestin, a cholesterol-lowering herbal product. The capsules contained a material made from rice fermented by a certain type of yeast. Though new to U.S. consumers, this dried version of so-called red-yeast rice has for centuries been a Chinese food coloring and herbal remedy […]
By Janet Raloff -
Humans
From the July 8, 1933, issue
THE NYMPHS’ FLOWER Serene, cool, immaculate, the water lily floats beneath the summer sun, where the big flat drops of water shine like silver coins on the round, flat leaves. The water lily has been the delight of poets of all ages and peoples. Of moralists, too, who like to reflect that all that superb […]
By Science News -
Humans
Udder Beauty
Sophisticated screening of livestock championship winners may become as common as urine tests of Olympic athletes.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
Epilepsy drug eases diabetes woes
The epilepsy drug topiramate relieves pain, seems to initiate nerve repair, aids weight loss, and may have other benefits for persons with diabetes.
By Nathan Seppa -
Health & Medicine
Strict regimen pays off years later
Diabetes patients who adhered to a strict program of blood sugar control over nearly 7 years starting in the 1980s are still showing heart benefits.
By Nathan Seppa -
Humans
Tobacco treaty penned
Just one day after the World Health Organization drafted a tobacco-control treaty, more than 28 nations signed on.
By Janet Raloff -
Anthropology
The Ultimate Colonists
Human ancestors managed to adjust to life in a variety of ecosystems during the Stone Age, indicating that their social lives were more complex than they've often been given credit for.
By Bruce Bower