Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Targeted Therapies
Tailoring prescriptions based on a person's genes may help reduce side effects and allow the development of more personalized medicine.
- Archaeology
Could the Anasazi have stayed?
New computer simulations of the changing environmental conditions around one of the Anasazi cultural centers in the first part of the last millennium suggest that drought wasn't the only factor behind a sudden collapse of the civilization.
- Health & Medicine
Protein flags colon, prostate cancers
A compound first identified as a possible culprit in Huntington's disease may be an indicator of cancers of the prostate gland and colon.
- Health & Medicine
Antibodies fight Ebola virus in mouse test
Specially designed antibodies can thwart Ebola virus in mice by binding to a glycoprotein on the surface of virus-infected cells, suggesting a potential treatment for the lethal disease.
- Health & Medicine
Fused cells hold promise of cancer vaccines
A vaccine composed of tumor cells fused to immune cells has helped several people survive advanced kidney cancer.
- Archaeology
Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line
Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.
- Health & Medicine
Arctic Sneeze: Greenlanders’ allergies are increasing
Allergies in Greenland nearly doubled from 1987 to 1998.
- Anthropology
Lost-and-Found Fossil Tot: Neandertal baby rises from French archive
The approximately 40,000-year-old skeleton of a Neandertal baby, filed and forgotten in a French museum for nearly 90 years, has been recovered by an anthropologist.
- Humans
From the September 3, 1932, issue
INSECT LARVAE MAKE MOSAIC JEWELRY Manufacturers of modern jewelry might well turn to the larvae of the caddis fly for effective models for small containers–tiny perfume bottles, say, or lipstick cases. These water-dwelling “worms” build mosaic coverings for the little cylindrical houses they spin for themselves, taking bits of sand and gravel from the streambed […]
- Health & Medicine
Stroke Stopper: New vaccine curbs blood vessel damage in lab animals
A vaccine that desensitizes the immune system to a protein inside blood vessels prevents some strokes in laboratory rats.
- Health & Medicine
Pet exposure may reduce allergies
Exposing children to cats or dogs at an early age may make them less prone to allergies later in life.
- Anthropology
Gene change hints at brain evolution
A genetic mutation found only in humans first appeared around 2.8 million years ago, perhaps setting the stage for brain enlargement in the Homo lineage.
