Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Israeli fossil finds reveal a new hominid group, Nesher Ramla Homo
Discoveries reveal a new Stone Age population that had close ties to Homo sapiens at least 120,000 years ago, complicating the human family tree.
- Health & Medicine
The benefits of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines outweigh the risk of rare heart inflammation
A CDC group says the benefits of the Pfizer and Moderna shots outweigh the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents and young adults.
- Health & Medicine
How relocating musicians can reduce COVID-19 risk at concerts
Based on simulations of how air flows across a stage, the Utah Symphony rearranged where its musicians sit and boosted ventilation.
- Health & Medicine
How COVID-19 created a perfect storm for a deadly fungal infection in India
Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers of rare but dangerous “black fungus” infections have skyrocketed in the country.
- Health & Medicine
Controlling nerve cells with light opened new ways to study the brain
A method called optogenetics offers insights into memory, perception and addiction.
- Health & Medicine
How one medical team is bringing COVID-19 vaccines to hard-to-reach Hispanic communities
Unidos Contra COVID’s Spanish-speaking volunteers go to where Philadelphia’s Hispanic people gather, giving shots and addressing concerns one-on-one.
- Science & Society
Moral judgments about an activity’s COVID-19 risk can lead people astray
People use values and beliefs as a shortcut to determine how risky an activity is during the pandemic. Those biases can lead people astray.
- Chemistry
Many cosmetics contain hidden, potentially dangerous ‘forever chemicals’
Scientists found signs of long-lasting PFAS compounds in about half of tested makeup products, especially waterproof mascaras and lipsticks.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s what you should know about COVID-19 vaccine booster shots
No one knows if coronavirus booster shots will be necessary. But researchers are working on figuring that out.
- Archaeology
New clues suggest people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago
Ancient rabbit bones from a Mexican rock-shelter point to humans arriving on the continent as much as 10,000 years earlier than often assumed.
- Health & Medicine
Solving mysteries of reproduction helped make parenthood possible for millions
Over the last 100 years, research has shed light on where we come from — how a single fertilized egg manages to develop into an organism that is unique, complex and most decidedly human — and technology has helped spur the process.
- Health & Medicine
FDA approved a new Alzheimer’s drug despite controversy over whether it works
A new Alzheimer's treatment slows progression of the disease, the drug’s developers say. But some researchers question its effectiveness.
