Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Protecting the brain from infection may start with a gut reaction
In mice, immune cells in the meninges are trained to battle infections in the gut before migrating to the brain.
- Health & Medicine
Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing. Here’s what it will take to gain control
Basic public health measures can still curb COVID-19, if everyone does their part.
- Health & Medicine
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, preliminary trial data show
An analysis of 94 COVID-19 cases shows that the mRNA-based vaccine can protect people from getting sick, though the trial is ongoing.
- Genetics
Penicillin allergies may be linked to one immune system gene
Researchers have located a shared hot spot — on the HLA-B gene — in the immune system in people who say they have penicillin allergies.
- Neuroscience
FDA advisory panel declines to support a controversial Alzheimer’s treatment
The fate of an Alzheimer’s drug, developed by pharmaceutical company Biogen, remains up in the air.
- Anthropology
Female big-game hunters may have been surprisingly common in the ancient Americas
A Peruvian burial that indicates that women speared large prey as early as 9,000 years ago sheds new light on gender roles of ancient hunter-gatherers.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19’s death rate in the U.S. could spike as new cases soar
Effective treatments are one possible reason the mortality rate from COVID-19 fell over the summer. Rising cases could reverse the trend.
- Health & Medicine
How COVID-19 may trigger dangerous blood clots
Clots may stem from net-casting immune cells that, instead of fighting a coronavirus infection, capture red blood cells and platelets.
- Psychology
‘Deaths of despair’ are rising. It’s time to define despair
A sense of defeat, not mental ailments, may be derailing the lives of less-educated people in the United States.
- Health & Medicine
How two immune system chemicals may trigger COVID-19’s deadly cytokine storms
A study in mice hints at drugs that could be helpful in treating severe coronavirus infections.
- Anthropology
These human nerve cell tendrils turned to glass nearly 2,000 years ago
Part of a young man’s brain was preserved in A.D. 79 by hot ash from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption.
- Anthropology
The first Denisovan DNA outside Siberia unveils a long stint on the roof of the world
Genetic evidence puts Denisovans, humankind’s now-extinct cousins, on the Tibetan Plateau from 100,000 to at least 60,000 years ago.
