Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Drug combination unexpectedly flops
A combination of therapies that researchers anticipated would work well against HIV failed to stop the virus from replicating in more than half the volunteers who received it.
- Health & Medicine
Resistant staph spreads in communities
Antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus—once a problem limited mainly to health care settings—has become a menace in communities around the world.
- Health & Medicine
Amid bleak outlook, antibiotic shines
Encouraging research on a novel antibiotic offers a rare shot of optimism at a time when existing microbe-killing compounds are losing effectiveness and efforts to develop replacements are flagging.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists retract ecstasy drug finding
Scientists have recanted a controversial report on the dangers of the drug commonly called ecstasy.
- Health & Medicine
Broken arms way up
Broken arms among adolescents have risen sharply from 30 years ago, possibly because of the popularity of high-risk sports such as skateboarding and a combination of less milk intake and more soft drink consumption.
- Archaeology
Ancient tunnel keeps biblical date
Radiocarbon dating of material from an ancient tunnel in Jerusalem indicates that the passage was built around 700 B.C., supporting a biblical account of the tunnel's construction.
- Humans
From the September 30, 1933, issue
FIRST GLIMPSES OF A NEW WORLD Dr. George Roemmerts “Microvivarium,” which projects enormously enlarged images of living microscopic plants and animals on a screen, is a prime attraction of the Hall of Science at the Century of Progress. It has given thousands who have never looked through a microscope their first view of the amazing […]
- Humans
Flight Notes
Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine on Dec. 17, 1903. Now, the Library of Congress has prepared a display of items from its extensive collection of the Wright Brothers’ papers. The online exhibit includes photographs, a timeline, numerous documents, and much more. Go to: […]
- Health & Medicine
Checkmate for a Child-Killer?
If a new generation of vaccines pans out, the days of rotavirus, which kills at least 450,000 infants and children every year by causing severe diarrhea, may be numbered.
- Archaeology
Origins of Smelting: Lake yields core of pre-Inca silver making
Metal concentrations in soil extracted from a Bolivian lake indicate that silver production in the region began 1,000 years ago, 4 centuries before well-known silver-making efforts by the Incas.
- Health & Medicine
The Risks in Sweet Solutions to Young Thirsts
Babies seem to be born with a sweet tooth–one that many adults retain. However, parents and caregivers who indulge a child’s appetite for sugary drinks may be fostering cavities in their children’s teeth, a new study finds. Sugary beverages, especially soda pop, caused more cavities than juice or juice-containing drinks did. That idea may seem […]
- Humans
From the September 23, 1933, issue
LEAFY SUCCULENTS SOLVE PROBLEM SET BY DESERT Desert plants have a particularly hard problem to solve, set by that old Sphinx, the desert itself, and if they fail to solve it, the penalty is the same as that exacted in the old Greek myth–they must die. They must spread a sufficient chlorophyll surface to the […]
