Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Archaeology
Ancient Asian Tools Crossed the Line
Excavations in China yield surprising finds of 800,000-year-old stone hand axes.
- Health & Medicine
Hear, Hear
A 14-year study of twin babies shows definitively for the first time that there's a link between middle ear infections and heredity.
- Health & Medicine
Marrow Can Hide Breast Cancer Cells
Breast cancer patients who have stray cancer cells in bone marrow are more likely to die of cancer or have a recurrence of cancer elsewhere in the body than are breast cancer patients not harboring such cells.
- Archaeology
Vase shows that ancients dug fossils, too
A painting on an ancient Corinthian vase may be the first record of a fossil find.
- Health & Medicine
Pancreatic enzymes may play role in shock
Pancreatic enzymes used for digestion may cause shock when they leach out of the small intestine and form a substance that activates white blood cells.
- Humans
R&D budget should ease biomed envy
President Clinton's science budget for 2001 proposes to narrow a gap that's yawned in recent years between lusher funding for biomedicine and leaner support for the physical sciences.
- Health & Medicine
Researchers Probe Cell-Phone Effects
Scientists are trying to find out whether biological changes associated with cell-phone use represent health risks.
- Health & Medicine
AIDS drugs may cause bone loss
Using X rays to measure bone density in HIV-infected men, researchers find a possible link between bone loss and long-term use of protease inhibitors.
- Health & Medicine
HIV may date back to the 1930s
Genetic analysis of the AIDS virus suggests it first infected humans in the first third of the 20th century.
- Health & Medicine
One more reason to worry
A single dose of the AIDS drug nevirapine, given to mothers to help prevent them from infecting their children during birth, may be enough to prod the virus to develop drug resistance.
- Humans
Treaty Nears on Gene-Altered Exports
In an effort to help preserve biodiversity, negotiators from 130 nations crafted rules of conduct for international trade in living, genetically engineered organisms.
- Anthropology
Drowned land holds clue to first Americans
A map of a now-flooded region charts the path that Asians may have taken to first reach the Americas.
