Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Another Way Saturated Fats Can Hike Heart Risks
Physicians and health columnists have been exhorting the public for years to pare saturated fats from the diet. Numerous studies have linked heavy consumption of these fats to elevated cholesterol, a major risk factor for heart disease. Now, Johns Hopkins University researchers tie high-saturated-fat diets to a second risk factor for cardiovascular disease: abdominal fat. […]
By Janet Raloff - Humans
From the April 1, 1933, issue
BEER AND BREAD HAVE BEEN COMPANIONS SINCE PHARAOHS Beer and bread have been companions on man’s tables since the remotest days of antiquity. The pharaohs of Egypt drank beer with their meals, and the kings of the Babylonian city-states maintained great brewing establishments in their palaces and temples, for the pay of their servants and […]
By Science News - Health & Medicine
Passive smoking may foster kids’ cavities
Young children exposed to tobacco smoke face a greatly elevated risk of developing cavities in their baby teeth.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Prenatal marijuana exposure may pose health risks
Rats that were exposed to a marijuana-related chemical while in the womb show more memory lapses and hyperactivity than unexposed rats do.
By Nathan Seppa - Health & Medicine
The Vaccinia Dilemma
To inform the current debate on who should be vaccinated for smallpox given the possibility of—or in the event of—a bioterrorism attack, researchers are using mathematical models and data from vaccination campaigns and past smallpox outbreaks.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Cranberry Juice—A Cocktail for the Heart
Chemist Joe Vinson has a passion for foods and the potentially beneficial antioxidants they bring to the dinner table. Cranberry-juice cocktail contains just 27 percent berry juice but still is the second-most potent source of antioxidants among popular fruit juices. Cranberry Institute Three years ago, for instance, he reported data showing that molecule for molecule, […]
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Morbid Mystery Tour: Epidemic from China is encircling globe
An outbreak of deadly pneumonia that apparently began in southern China spread in March to at least two other continents, including North America.
By Ben Harder - Health & Medicine
Protein protects rat brains from strokes
Neuroglobin, a protein related to hemoglobin, may protect the brain during strokes.
By John Travis - Humans
From the October 18, 1930, issue
alt=”Click to view larger image”> ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND PATIENT PERUVIAN SURGEONS LOST One of the most interesting of the many ancient skulls that have been brought out of Peru bears what is probably the earliest known gauze compress–certainly the earliest surgical dressing of the kind that has been discovered on this continent. The bold cranial surgery […]
By Science News - Humans
When Biologists Get Bombed
Or shot at by soldiers. This isn't textbook conservation science.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Molecule may protect against kidney damage
People with a gene for the protein called apoE-IV are less likely to have the dangerous complication of kidney failure after a heart-bypass operation than are people who make other versions of the protein.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
From the March 25, 1933, issue
BLOND SIBERIANS WITH PAINTED MASKS UNEARTHED Graves of mysterious blond and chestnut-haired people, who had a strange custom of making painted plaster masks for the dead, have been found by Russian scientists in Siberia, in the Minusinsk region. Word of the discovery was brought to the University of Pennsylvania Museum by Eugene Golomshtok. Burial pits […]
By Science News