Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Building America
The “Building America” online exhibition by the National Building Museum provides a vividly illustrated overview of U.S. achievements in architecture, engineering, construction, planning, design, and landscaping. Timelines chronicle the evolution of buildings, from houses to skyscrapers, and environments, from historic New England towns to contemporary suburbs. Essays delve into the forces that affected U.S. architecture […]
- Humans
Official Concern: U.N. weighs in on acrylamide toxicity
A United Nations panel concluded that, in fried, grilled, and baked foods, the formation of acrylamide, a carcinogen and nerve poison in rodents, constitutes "a serious problem."
- Health & Medicine
His-and-Her Hunger Pangs: Gender affects the brain’s response to food
Men's and women's brains react differently to hunger, as well as to satiation.
- Health & Medicine
Sex, smell and appetite
A study of sexual dysfunction in mutated mice may help explain the connection between smell and appetite.
- Health & Medicine
Hunger hormone gone awry?
People with an inherited form of obesity caused by constant hunger pangs have higher-than-normal blood concentrations of ghrelin, a hormone believed to boost appetite.
- Health & Medicine
Appetite-suppressing drug burns fat, too
An experimental drug seems to assail obesity through dual biological actions.
- Health & Medicine
Diabetes problems aren’t just old news
Children who developed a type of diabetes that normally occurs only in adults suffer kidney failure, miscarriages, and death in their 20s.
- Health & Medicine
Autopsies suggest insulin is underused
Autopsy studies indicate that the insulin-producing cells of people with type II diabetes are damaged.
- Health & Medicine
Cell-Phone Buzz: Contradictory studies heat up radiation question
A new long-term animal study of cell-phone radiation suggests that emissions don't cause cancer, but studies by a second team hint that cell phones may cause damage in other ways.
- Health & Medicine
Kill or Be Killed: Tumor protein offs patrolling immune cells
Many human cancers may evade surveillance by exploiting a protein normally found on certain immune cells.
- Health & Medicine
Rewiring Job: Drug spurs nerve growth in stroke-damaged brains
The natural compound inosine spurs nerve reconnection in rats that have suffered the loss of blood to parts of the brain, suggesting inosine might help people recover from a stroke.
- Health & Medicine
Survivors’ Benefit?
Smallpox outbreaks throughout history may have endowed some people with genetic mutations that make them resistant to the AIDS virus.
