Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Anthropology
Mummified llamas yield new insights into Inca ritual sacrifices
Bound and decorated llamas, found at an Inca site in southern Peru, may have been buried alive as part of events in annexed territories.
