Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
An alternate approach to Parkinson’s
While levodopa is the treatment of choice for Parkinson's disease, drugs called dopamine agonists, which mimic the neurotransmitter dopamine, may work as well early in the disease, cause fewer side effects, and preserve levodopa's effectiveness.
- Health & Medicine
Bypass surgery in elderly works fine
Coronary bypass surgery works as well in people over age 75 as it does in people 15 years younger.
- Humans
From the December 10, 1932, issue
CALVES RETAIN PART OF WILD THINGS’ CHARM Cows are prosaic. Like all the rest of us who have grown into maturity and (alas!) responsibility, they have their workaday jobs in a workaday world, seeing to it that we get butter and, eventually, beefsteaks. But calves still have something reminiscent of the long-lost wild freedom of […]
- Health & Medicine
Home Cooking on the Wane
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Passover are among the few holidays on which home-cooked meals remain the norm. On most other days of the year, a large and growing share of U.S. diners happily leave the cooking of at least one meal to professionals. Eating in. Eating out. Home cooking used to signify meals with a healthy […]
- Health & Medicine
Cluster Bombs: Metabolic syndrome tied to heart disease deaths
Men with a certain cluster of metabolic characteristics are about three times as likely to die of heart disease as men without the traits are.
- Health & Medicine
Jarring Result: Extreme biking can hurt men’s fertility
Men who maintain grueling mountain-bicycling programs are apt to have lower sperm counts than nonbikers are.
- Anthropology
Script Delivery: New World writing takes disputed turn
Researchers announced, to considerable controversy, that inscriptions found on artifacts at an Olmec site in southeastern Mexico represented the earliest known writing system in the Americas.
- Health & Medicine
Keeping the beat
Muscle cells taken from embryonic rats and put into an adult rat's heart can transmit the electric signals that govern the heartbeat.
- Health & Medicine
Enzyme Shortage May Lead to Lupus
Without the enzyme DNase I, mice are vulnerable to symptoms of lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease.
- Health & Medicine
Cycling and surgery have similar effect
Among people with chest pain because of clogged heart arteries, regular exercise on a stationary bike reduced symptoms better than surgery did.
- Health & Medicine
A hot new therapy?
Spending time in a sauna improves heart function in people with chronic heart failure.
- Health & Medicine
Protein may signal heart problems
A protein already linked to inflammation is also a strong predictor of heart problems.
