Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
Stone Age folk in Asia adapted to extremes
Preliminary evidence indicates that people occupied the harsh, high-altitude environment of Asia's Tibetan Plateau in the late Stone Age, between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago.
- Humans
Physicist steps up to be science adviser
President Bush has announced that he intends to nominate John Marburger, the head of Brookhaven National Laboratory, as his science advisor.
- Health & Medicine
Nicotine spurs vessel growth, maybe cancer
Test-tube and mouse experiments show that nicotine induces angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels.
- Health & Medicine
Have a heart: Turn on just a single gene
One gene appears to act as the master switch in embryonic heart formation.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin E benefits cattle, too
Vitamin E aids immune system function and prevents growth declines in cattle, offering an alternative to potentially dangerous use of low-dose antibiotics.
- Health & Medicine
Insight into preemies’ blindness
Lack of a growth factor called IGF-1 has been implicated as a trigger for a disease that can cause vision problems, including blindness, in premature babies.
- Health & Medicine
Alzheimer’s damage might start off early
Copper and free radicals may initiate the brain damage of Alzheimer's disease long before its hallmark protein plaques have formed.
- Health & Medicine
Seemingly safer steroid mimics
A glucocorticoid mimic may offer the autoinflammatory effects of steroids with fewer side effects.
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- Health & Medicine
Saving fertility for cancer survivors?
A compound called sphingosine-1-phosphate preserves fertility in female mice given radiation treatment.
- Health & Medicine
Glucose control spares arteries in diabetes
Very strict control of blood glucose concentrations helps limit atherosclerosis formation in people with type I, or juvenile-onset, diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Critical Care: Sugar Limit Saves Lives
Strictly controlling blood-sugar concentrations in critically ill patients can reduce deaths by a third.
