Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
A stray molar is the oldest known fossil from an ancient gibbon
A newly described tooth puts ancestors of these small-bodied apes in India roughly 13 million years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Steroids reduce deaths of critically ill COVID-19 patients, WHO confirms
The finding strengthens evidence that clinicians should give the drugs to people who are severely sick from the coronavirus.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists were trying to develop a low-emission car
Electric cars have surged in popularity, but the vehicles still contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Archaeology
Stonehenge enhanced sounds like voices or music for people inside the monument
Scientists created a scale model one-twelfth the size of the ancient stone circle to study its acoustics.
- Health & Medicine
New coronavirus tests promise to be faster, cheaper and easier
Researchers are developing a smorgasbord of tests to detect RNA and proteins from the virus that causes COVID-19.
- Health & Medicine
How four summer camps in Maine prevented COVID-19 outbreaks
More than 1,000 kids and staff members from all over the country attended the camps, but only three people ended up testing positive for the virus.
- Humans
Puberty can repair the brain’s stress responses after hardship early in life
Puberty may erase the shadow of trauma for children who had a difficult start.
- Health & Medicine
In a first, a person’s immune system fought HIV — and won
Some rare people may purge most HIV from their bodies, leaving only broken copies of the virus or copies locked in molecular prisons, from which there is no escape.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 plasma treatments may be safe, but we don’t know if they work
Blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors can be used to treat hospitalized patients, FDA says, but researchers question how well it works.
- Health & Medicine
What we can learn from how a doctor’s race can affect Black newborns’ survival
When Black physicians attended Black newborns after a hospital birth, it reduced the mortality gap between Black and white babies.
- Health & Medicine
A man in Hong Kong is the first confirmed case of coronavirus reinfection
During a 33-year-old man’s first round with the virus, he had symptoms, but not the second time — a hint his immune system protected him from disease.
- Health & Medicine
New treatments aim to treat COVID-19 early, before it gets serious
Some new drugs that may stop the coronavirus from getting into cells, or from reproducing itself, may treat the illness as soon as it’s diagnosed.
