Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Humans

    Sense of Smell

    Get in touch with your sense of smell. This invitation comes from the Sense of Smell Institute, which aims to spotlight the importance of smell in human psychology, behavior, and quality of life. The institute’s Web site offers a report addressing what would happen if you were to lose your sense of smell. The site […]

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  2. Health & Medicine

    SARS vaccine tests well in mouse model

    Scientists have developed a DNA vaccine that stops the SARS infection in mice.

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  3. Anthropology

    Gene implicated in apes’ brain growth

    A gene with poorly understood functions began to accumulate favorable mutations around 8 million years ago and probably contributed to brain expansion in ancient apes.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Papillomavirus infections spike in sunny months

    Getting sun could increase vulnerability to a sexually transmitted virus that may lead to cervical cancer.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Exercise after breast cancer extends life

    After a woman survives an initial bout with breast cancer, being physically active improves her odds of beating the disease over the long term.

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  6. Humans

    From the March 31, 1934, issue

    A desert earthquake, producing bromine from seawater, and nerve damage from alcohol consumption.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    A Virus Crosses Over to Wild-Animal Hunters

    A potentially dangerous virus is moving from nonhuman primates to Africans who hunt and eat wild animals, a new study suggests.

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  8. Anthropology

    Monkey Business

    They're pugnacious and clever, and they have complex social lives—but do capuchin monkeys actually exhibit cultural behaviors?

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Better-Off Circumcised? Foreskin may permit HIV entry, infection

    Circumcision seems to offer partial protection against HIV infection, but not other sexually transmitted diseases.

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  10. Archaeology

    Laser scanners map rock art

    Researchers have developed a way to use laser-based surveying equipment to quickly and easily create detailed images of ancient rock art.

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  11. Humans

    Medieval cure-all may actually have spread disease

    Powdered mummies, one of medieval Europe's most popular concoctions for treating disease, might instead have been an agent of widespread germ transmission, new research suggests.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Phthalate exposure from drugs?

    Use of an ingestible prescription drug may explain the highest blood concentration of a chemical plasticizer ever observed.

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