Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Less morphine may be more
In mice, very low doses of morphine combined with even lower doses of a drug that usually blocks morphine's effect can give greater pain relief than higher doses of morphine alone.
- Anthropology
Yanomami inquiry moves forward
The American Anthropological Association has launched a formal inquiry into the highly publicized allegations of scientific misconduct by anthropologists and others working in South America among the Yanomami Indians.
- Anthropology
Chimps grasp at social identities
Researchers contend that neighboring communities of wild chimpanzees develop distinctive styles of mutual grooming to identify fellow group members and foster social solidarity.
- Health & Medicine
Two genes tied to common birth defect
Researchers report that defects in either of two specific genes may be responsible for DiGeorge syndrome, the second most common cause of congenital heart defects in newborns.
- Health & Medicine
Sedentary Off-hours Link to Alzheimer’s
People who have Alzheimer's disease in old age were generally less active physically and intellectually between the ages of 20 and 60 than were people who don't have the disease.
- Health & Medicine
Stress-prone? Altering the diet may help
Some people undertake seemingly impossible tasks without frustration, while others become anxious or depressed. A Dutch study now finds that the latter individuals might cope with pressure better if they tailored their diet to fuel the brain with more tryptophan. The brain uses this essential amino acid, a building block of many proteins, to fashion […]
- Health & Medicine
Surveying the Swiss: The eyes have it
Magnetic resonance imaging can help determine the health of a wheel of cheese.
- Health & Medicine
The Good Trans Fat
One arcane family of fats may be tapped to treat or prevent a host of diseases.
- Health & Medicine
Mice reveal new, severe form of allergy
Researchers studying an induced condition in mice akin to multiple sclerosis have stumbled across a situation in which mice suffered a severe allergic reaction to injected protein fragments that mimic one their own proteins.
- Health & Medicine
Fat harbors cells that could aid joints
Researchers have found a way to trick fat into generating cartilage.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine may prevent some cervical cancers
A new vaccine spurs people to produce a strong immune response against human papillomavirus, a virus that can infect both men and women and causes cervical cancer in women.
- Health & Medicine
Fighting cancer from the cabbage patch
Sauerkraut a health food? Not yet. But midwestern scientists have found evidence that something in this pickled cabbage and related foods blocks the action of estrogen, a hormone that can fuel the growth of breast cancer and other reproductive-tract malignancies. Nutritionist William G. Helferich of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his colleagues were […]
