Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Genomes of dangerous bacteria exposed
Researchers unveiled the genomes of bacteria that cause severe food poisoning, typhoid fever, and the plague that devastated the Middle Ages.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer drugs may thwart Huntington’s
Drugs developed to fight cancer could also be effective against Huntington's disease and several related neurodegenerative conditions.
- Health & Medicine
Decaf May Not Always Be Best
Each morning, across America, women rev up their engines by downing a cup of caffeine-rich coffee. A few buck the trend, preparing instead a cup of tea. And some of the more health conscious choose a decaf brew. But for the vast majority, no morning beverage offers the appeal of a strong cup of regular […]
- Health & Medicine
Heart pump extends patients’ survival
Patients who have an implanted device to help the heart pump blood have a higher survival rate than patients getting only heart medication.
- Archaeology
Farmers took fast track in settling Europe
A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Cholesterol enables nerve cells to connect
Neurons form connections with each other using cholesterol supplied by other brain cells called glia.
- Health & Medicine
The Science of Secretin
The discovery that a gut hormone also exists in the brain may shed light on the origins of autism.
- Health & Medicine
Reducing blood pressure in the lungs
A new drug seems to help reduce abnormally high blood pressure in the lungs, a condition that can trigger heart failure.
- Health & Medicine
Seizures and reproductive ills linked
Abnormal electrical signaling in the brains of women with epilepsy may alter sex hormone cycling and explain why epileptic women seem to have a higher rate of reproductive disorders than do other women.
- Health & Medicine
Brain may forge some memories in waves
The waxing and waning of synchronized electrical bursts by cells in two key brain areas may promote at least one type of memory formation.
- Health & Medicine
Protein may key lupus’ attack on neurons
A protein on the surface of brain cells enables rogue antibodies to attach to and kill these neurons, suggesting an explanation for neurological problems found in some lupus patients.
- Health & Medicine
Human sweat packs a germ-killing punch
Sweat glands secrete a microbe-killing protein.
