Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. 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. […]

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  2. 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 […]

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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, […]

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  7. 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.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Protein protects rat brains from strokes

    Neuroglobin, a protein related to hemoglobin, may protect the brain during strokes.

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  9. 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 […]

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  10. Humans

    When Biologists Get Bombed

    Or shot at by soldiers. This isn't textbook conservation science.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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 […]

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