Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Hormone treats autoimmune disease
A medication combining the drug prasterone and hormone dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, stabilizes or improves symptoms of lupus.
- Humans
From the February 25, 1933, issue
ADAM AND EVE IN THE OLDEST CITY In the oldest city that archaeologists have ever explored they have dug up “Adam and Eve” and the serpent. There they are, the figures of a man and a woman, which have been stamped on clay with a seal. They are a dejected human pair, bent, and stumbling […]
- Health & Medicine
Full Pipeline: Success of experimental AIDS drugs offers promise of future therapies
Three experimental drugs—a monoclonal antibody, a protease inhibitor, and a fusion inhibitor—performed well in early tests on AIDS patients.
- Anthropology
Evolution’s DNA Fusion: Hybrid gene forms clue to human, ape origins
A gene of mixed evolutionary pedigree may have transformed mammalian reproduction, leading to the evolution of apes and humans.
- Health & Medicine
Hold the Phone? Radiation from cell phones hurts rats’ brains
A single 2-hour exposure to the microwaves emitted by some cell phones kills brain cells in rats.
- Health & Medicine
Tipsy Times
Literally hundreds of studies over the past decade have reported evidence that regular, moderate drinking–downing one to three drinks a day–can offer people significant health benefits by cutting their risks of heart disease and probably diabetes. What such studies usually fail to emphasize is that benefits from a little alcohol show up almost exclusively in […]
- Health & Medicine
Cultured cells reverse some eye damage
Transplants using bioengineered corneal stem cells grown on an amniotic membrane can vastly improve vision in people who are nearly blind because of damaged corneas.
- Humans
From the February 18, 1933, issue
OUTWITTING VAMPIRES AND VIPERS When a vampire is a supernatural creature, science laughs at it. But when it is a disease-bearing bat, science sets its disease-fighters to work seeking a way to conquer it. Down in Panama, the disease-fighters of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, in addition to carrying on their regular job of fighting malaria, […]
- Health & Medicine
Cancer Quest
Developed at Emory University, the CancerQuest Web site offers insights into the biology of cancer. The site provides clear, concise information about how the disease works, accompanied by interactive graphics and a handy glossary. Topics range from cell structure and genetic change to tumor biology and cancer treatment. Go to: http://www.cancerquest.org/
- Health & Medicine
Carbon monoxide may limit vascular damage
Carbon monoxide given in small doses to rats can prevent injury to blood vessels caused by surgery.
- Archaeology
Farming sprouted in ancient Ecuador
Analyses of microscopic plant remains from two archaeological sites indicate that people began to grow squash in Ecuador's lowlands between 10,000 and 9,000 years ago, when agriculture was also taking root in Mexico.
- Humans
From the July 12, 1930, issue
FISH’S-EYE VIEW A poet once wished for the gift to see ourselves as others see us. An artist has achieved it. Wilfrid Swancourt Bronson, of New York, has cultivated the ability to see things from the fish’s point of view, taking into account the squeezed perspective one gets through the little “window” in the water […]
