Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
By Ben Harder - 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 […]
By Ben Harder - 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.
By Ben Harder - 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.
By Nathan Seppa - 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.
By Ben Harder - 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 […]
By Science News - Humans
Small World After All: Short e-mail chains reach targets worldwide
A large-scale study of e-mail users has borne out the notion that one person on the planet can reach any other person through a chain of about six social ties.
- Health & Medicine
Brawny Brains: Creatine pills may aid memory and cognition
The popular muscle-building supplement creatine can boost performance on mental tests.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Switching Off Pain: Modeling relief on the action of marijuana
A new drug, tested in rats, blocks pain caused when the nervous system goes awry without producing unwanted side effects.
- Humans
In Search of a Scientific Revolution
A year after self-publishing a best-selling book in which he proposes a new framework for doing science, Stephen Wolfram is taking new steps to transform science.
By Peter Weiss - Health & Medicine
Blood Sugar Fix
A new class of experimental drugs that mimic the actions of the hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 shows benefits against type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes.
By Nathan Seppa