Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Humans

    From the August 2, 1930, issue

    SHOOTING STARS, THE STORY-TELLERS OF THE UNIVERSE Of fortunate rarity are celestial visitors like the huge meteoric mass that dug the famous Meteor Crater in Arizona about 2,000 years ago. This scar on the face of the earth near Winslow, Ariz., is four-fifths of a mile across and 450 feet deep. It is shown on […]

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  2. Humans

    From the July 26, 1930, issue

    DID THE MOUNDBUILDERS COME FROM MEXICO? Were the Indians who built the mysterious mounds of the great interior valley of our country kinsmen to the Mayas of Yucatan and the other highly cultured peoples of the Mexican plateau? Are the decidedly Maya- and Aztec-like sculptures taken from mounds in the Southeast really witnesses to an […]

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  3. Humans

    Medieval Medicine

    For a glimpse of medicine in medieval times, check out the National Library of Medicine’s illustrated catalog of Islamic medical manuscripts. Visitors to the Web site can also get a brief introduction to the history of Islamic medicine and its role in European history, find biographies of important Islamic physicians, surgeons, and scholars, and browse […]

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  4. Anthropology

    Hand and Brain

    Get a handle on primate handedness research and its bearing on brain function at a Web site run by anthropologist M.K. Holder. Participate in ongoing research and listen to various primates sound off, from a screaming chimpanzee to a belching mountain gorilla. Go to: http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/index.html

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  5. Humans

    From the March 11, 1933, issue

    GREAT LION OF LA BREA Bigger by a fourth than the proudest lion that walks the veldt today were the tallest of the great lions of California a hundred thousand years ago. Rivaled in size only by the short-faced bears whose bones have been found with theirs in the La Brea tar-pits, they could confidently […]

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Gene mutation for color blindness found

    Scientists have identified the gene that is mutated in people who have color blindness on the Pacific island of Pingelap, perhaps paving the way for genetic screening.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Enzyme needed to degrade acetaldehyde

    A shortage of the enzyme ALDH-2, which is needed to break down alcohol in the body, causes a buildup of the cancer-linked chemical acetaldehyde, perhaps explaining why alcoholics lacking ALDH-2 have high rates of mouth and throat cancers.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Scarce-Banana Scare—But don’t kiss that banana good-bye yet

    Headlines have been blaring that the banana will be extinct within 10 years but crop specialists say that’s not likely. The furor has called attention, however, to a problem of worldwide banana supply and to the possibility that we’ll be peeling things a little different in 2013. The fuss started with the Jan. 18 New […]

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Blood sugar processing tied to brain problems

    Elderly people with slightly elevated blood sugar are more likely to have short-term memory problems than those with normal blood sugar.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Ulcer Clue? Molecule could be key to stomach ailment

    A protein called Ptprz binds with a bacterial toxin to produce ulcers in mice, possibly revealing a mechanism for the disorder.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Light could be therapy against blindness

    Beaming red light at rats soon after they've drunk methanol partially protects their eyes against that chemical's blinding effects.

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  12. Humans

    Doctoral seesaw

    Throughout most of the 1990s, the number of doctoral degrees that U.S. universities awarded in science and engineering climbed steadily, to 27,300 in 1998, but by 2001, the number had dropped to 25,500, the lowest number since 1993.

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