Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Blood Booster: Growth signal shifts cord stem cells into high gear
A protein called Delta-1 stimulates stem cells in umbilical cord blood to proliferate in a lab dish, attach well to bone marrow when implanted into mice, and even proceed to the animal's thymus to become T cells.
- Anthropology
Ancient Lure of the Lakes: Early Americans followed the water
Archaeological investigations in Chile indicate that beginning around 13,000 years ago, early American settlers lived at high altitudes during humid periods, when they could set up hunting camps on the shores of lakes.
- Health & Medicine
A different GI link to colon cancers
Diets rich in sweets and other quickly digested carbohydrates appear to increase an individual's risk of developing colon cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Berry promising anticancer prospects
Cranberry products can retard the growth and spread of breast cancer in rodents.
- Humans
From the October 22, 1932, issue
SUN, MOON AND STARS IN THE MOVIES Joshua, it is recorded, commanded the sun and the moon to stand still and they obeyed him. In this modern Yankee land and age of hustle, we are much less interested in making things stand still than in making them move faster. Present-day Joshuas would be more likely […]
- Health & Medicine
A Most Dreadful Pest
Yellow fever was a deadly scourge that had a devastating effect on lives and economies throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. This engrossing Web exhibit features historical documents from the Walter Reed Yellow Fever Collection at the University of Virginia. It focuses on the work of the Reed Commission, which proved that the Aedes aegypti […]
- Health & Medicine
Drug Eases Bone Cancer Pain in Mice
Pain caused by bone cancer in mice can be alleviated somewhat by osteoprotegerin, a drug being tested for osteoporosis, suggesting a possible new treatment for people with this cancer.
- Humans
From the May 3, 1930, issue
MOON’S SHADOW AT ECLIPSE PHOTOGRAPHED Clouds over the sun broke away at Camptonville, Yuba County, California, two minutes before the total phase of the solar eclipse of the sun. Only the lightest haze remained, and the observations planned by the various expeditions located there were carried through successfully. The Lick Observatory-Crocker expedition under the direction […]
- Humans
Nobel Chemistry: Laureates’ techniques enable researchers to probe large biomolecules
The 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the work of three scientists who created tools for analyzing proteins and other large biological molecules.
- Health & Medicine
Less Crying in the Kitchen: Tasty, tearfree onions on the horizon
The discovery of a new enzyme responsible for creating the tear-inducing chemicals found in onions may herald the arrival of genetically modified tearfree onions.
- Health & Medicine
West Nile Worries Are No Reason to Give Up Breast-feeding
West Nile virus infections are spreading like wildfire–and not just through bug bites. Although the vast majority of the nearly 2,800 U.S. cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) so far this year were picked up from mosquitoes, at least 3 people–and possibly 15–appear to have acquired the virus from infected […]
- Humans
From the October 15, 1932, issue
THE SABER-TOOTH STRIKES The artist has made a sketch of a dramatic scene involving a horselike hornless rhinoceros. It shows the poor animal attacked by a long-tailed saber-toothed tiger. The great cat is pictured as attacking much as a modern tiger or lion sometimes attacks: gripping a hard hold with its forelegs, slashing at its […]
