Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Fossil Skull Diversifies Family Tree
A 3.5-million-year-old skull found in Kenya represents a group of species in the human evolutionary family that evolved separately from australopithecines such as Lucy's kind in Ethiopia.
- Health & Medicine
Fatty plaques are unstable in vessels
Fatty plaques that form on the inside of blood vessels are less stable and hence more prone to rupture than are hard, calcified plaques.
- Health & Medicine
Parkinson’s implants survive in brain
Human embryonic stem cells transplanted into the brains of people with Parkinson's disease survive and grow better in patients under 60 years of age than in older patients.
- Health & Medicine
Soy slashes cancer-fostering hormones (with recipe)
Asian women tend to have much lower breast-cancer rates than their Western counterparts–unless they move to Europe or North America. Then the cancers incidence in these women begins to match local norms. United Soybean Board This observation has suggested that something about the Western way of life, probably diet, promotes cancer–or that something about Eastern […]
- Humans
Where’s the Book?
Innovative curricula are moving science education away from a reliance on textbooks.
- Health & Medicine
Drug helps against certain breast cancers
In some patients, the drug trastuzumab, also called Herceptin, slows breast cancer that has spread to other organs.
- Health & Medicine
Narcoleptic dogs still have their day
Evidence from studies with dachshunds and poodles is suggesting that these small breeds may serve as better models than larger dogs, such as Labrador retrievers, for the more genetically complex narcolepsy in people.
- Humans
Science Talent Search winners shine bright
Science Service and Intel announced the winners of the 2001 Science Talent Search.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer cells have a ticket to ride
Cancer cells may spread using the same system that immune system cells use to move through the body.
- Health & Medicine
Gene links eyelids and early menopause
A gene that orchestrates ovary and eyelid development may be the key to early-onset menopause.
- Humans
Errant Texts
New studies lambaste popular middle-school science texts for being uninspiring, superficial, and error-ridden.
- Health & Medicine
Berry promising anticancer prospects
Twelve years ago, scientists uncovered a mechanism to explain why the folk remedy of eating cranberries fights urinary tract infections. It now appears that the medicinal powers of the pucker-inducing berries might extend to breast cancer as well. Cranberry Marketing Committee For years, Najla Guthrie and her colleagues at the University of Western Ontario in […]
