Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Anti-HIV mutation poses hepatitis risk
A genetic mutation that protects people from AIDS may also make them susceptible to hepatitis C.
- Health & Medicine
Active lung gene signals cancer spread
The newly discovered LUNX gene, active only in lungs and in lung tumors that have spread outside that organ, may help in determining which lung cancer patients are likely to suffer a recurrence.
- Health & Medicine
Color array reveals breast cancer types
A suite of genes lights up when researchers probe for cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Sometimes an antibiotic is much more
By reining in destructive enzymes in the body, tetracyclines can thwart various diseases, including periodontal bone loss and cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Calcium supplements for chocolate
Using soap chemistry, scientists prevented some of chocolate's saturated fat--and calories--from being absorbed.
- Health & Medicine
Can childhood diets lead to diabetes?
Prolonged consumption of foods that break down quickly into simple sugars appears to foster obesity and vulnerability to diabetes, an animal study shows.
- Archaeology
Maize domestication grows older in Mexico
Maize cultivation existed in southern Mexico at least 6,300 years ago, according to a recent radiocarbon analysis of two maize cobs unearthed in a cave nearly 40 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Common additive thwarts malaria parasite
Triclosan--a drug used as an antimicrobial agent in toothpaste, deodorant, and other products--kills rodent malaria parasites in mice and human malaria parasites in test-tube studies.
- Health & Medicine
Path to heart health is one with a peel
Citrus fruits may deserve a more prominent role in the diet. A research team in Canada has just shown that drinking several glasses of orange juice daily can pump up blood concentrations of the so-called good cholesterol. Boosting this high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol can slow the buildup of artery-clogging plaque (SN: 9/9/89, p. 171). In their […]
- Health & Medicine
Teeth grinding linked to sleep apnea
Rhythmic grinding of teeth during sleep occurs at least once a week in as many as 8.2 percent of people.
- Health & Medicine
Lyme vaccine works in a curious way
Antibodies formed in response to the vaccine against Lyme disease kill the bacteria that cause it while they are still in the deer tick that spreads it.
- Health & Medicine
It pays to keep those islet cells
A patient who has inflammation of the pancreas and needs to have the organ removed can avoid getting diabetes if islet cells are salvaged from the pancreas and reimplanted into the liver.
