Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Fighting cancer from the cabbage patch

    Extracts of foods belonging to the cabbage family can block the action of estrogen, a hormone that fuels many cancers.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Nerves in heart show damage in Parkinson’s

    Some patients with Parkinson's disease also have destruction of nerve terminals in the heart that affects blood pressure.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Cells profilerate in magnetic fields

    Magnetic fields such as those found within a few feet of outdoor electric-power lines could make cells that are vulnerable to cancer behave like tumors.

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  4. Humans

    Remembering Linus Pauling

    Linus Pauling won the 1962 Nobel prize in chemistry for his research into the nature of chemical bonding and later won the Nobel peace prize and promoted the health benefits of vitamin C. This National Library of Medicine Web site highlights Pauling’s achievements and offers access to parts of a large collection of his personal […]

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  5. Humans

    From the August 26, 1933, issue

    AN APE FOR A BABY SISTER If it is not possible or desirable to bring up the young human removed from human surroundings–why not test the effects of civilization in the reverse matter? Why not bring up an ape infant in a human home–place him in a human babys bed, dress him in infants clothes, […]

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Prenatal Cares: Popular painkillers linked to miscarriage

    A new study finds that pregnant women taking nonprescription painkillers such as ibuprofen and aspirin have a higher risk of miscarriage.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Guggul extract fails its cholesterol test

    Guggul extract, long used in parts of Asia and gaining popularity in Western countries as a weapon against high cholesterol, does not appear to work.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Tuesday Can Be Fat, but Weekends Are More Fattening

    Unsuccessful weight watchers are well aware that the winter holiday season can bestow, besides gifts, a few extra pounds. But according to Barry M. Popkin of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, people seem to approach every weekend as a holiday: They eat and drink too much. For the average adult in the […]

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Viruses, but not bacteria, tied to mental decline

    Past infection by multiple common viruses may contribute to cognitive decline in some elderly people.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Drug reduces risks for dialysis patients

    Kidney-dialysis patients getting the vitamin D drug paricalcitol survive longer than those getting a similar medication called calcitriol.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Predicting Prostate Cancer’s Moves

    To guide treatment decisions in individual cases of prostate cancer, medical researchers are using gene-expression profiling and other novel techniques to develop better predictive markers of how a given tumor will behave.

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  12. Humans

    From the August 19, 1933, issue

    CONSTRUCTION BEGUN ON 80-INCH TEXAS TELESCOPE The giant 80-inch reflecting telescope that will spy upon the stars from McDonald Observatory, to be erected on a peak of Davis Mountains, Texas, is now under construction. A contract for the telescope has been approved by the University of Texas board of regents, and Warner and Swasey Company […]

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