Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Ear piercings cause illness, disfigurement

    Piercing the upper-ear cartilage under nonsterile conditions can leave a person vulnerable to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, as happened in Oregon in 2000.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Heart patients gain from steep cholesterol drop

    Heart patients can lessen their risk of a heart attack and increase their odds of survival by aggressively reducing harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in their blood.

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  3. Anthropology

    Grannies give gift of longer lives

    Data from two 18th- and 19th-century farming communities supports the theory that child care assistance from grandmothers has contributed to the evolution of extended human longevity.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Drug for migraines helps some patients

    An experimental drug that slows blood flow in the brain knocks out migraine headaches in some people.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Immune response in brain sparks nausea

    Ailments ranging from the common cold to many types of cancer can make people nauseous, an effect that may occur because signals from the brain suppress the muscle contractions required for digestion.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Cell therapy not just for Parkinson’s

    Transplanted nerve cells can survive in the brains of people who have suffered strokes and may alleviate some brain damage.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Making scents of Alzheimer’s

    Among people with mild symptoms of memory loss, a limited ability to recognize smells—along with an inability to detect the disability—has been linked to the future development of Alzheimer's.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Know Your Enemy

    Scientists mine the tuberculosis genome.

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  9. Archaeology

    Stone Age statuettes don disputed apparel

    A report describing woven caps, skirts, belts, and other apparel on Venus figurines from the Stone Age draws some critical responses.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    AIDS Vaccine Tests Well in Monkeys

    An experimental AIDS vaccine bolstered with two immune proteins protects rhesus monkeys from the disease even when they are exposed to a combination of simian and human immunodeficiency virus.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Formula for Failure

    A bacterium that has been known to cause rare, yet fatal infections in infants appears to be more widespread than scientists have realized.

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  12. Humans

    Letters from the March 13, 2004, issue of Science News

    Dry hole? “Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 46: Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen) seems to be delivering good news for the environment: “Clean” hydrogen can be produced from water using solar energy. This seems to me, however, to be even more horrifying than the burning of […]

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