News in Brief
- Life
Genes indicate Stone Age link between India and Australia
Genetic evidence suggests some people migrated from India to Australia roughly 4,300 years ago.
- Humans
Cold spells were dark times in Eastern Europe
Cooler periods coincided with conflicts and disease outbreaks, a tree-ring study spanning the last millennium finds.
- Earth
Glaciers carve path for future buildup
Previously sculpted landscapes accumulate ice more quickly than steep valleys.
- Life
Reprieve for reprogrammed stem cells
A study published in 2011 in Nature found that stem cells produced by reprogramming mouse skin cells get attacked when transplanted back into mice.
- Humans
Wrist bones said to distinguish hobbits
New fossils enter the debate over tiny humanlike species that lived in Indonesia.
- Health & Medicine
Drug restores lost hearing
Loud noises can damage sensitive inner ear cells called hair cells, which in mammals don’t grow back.
- Life
Corals beat heat by being prepared
Warming waters have little effect on reef-building organisms that activate adaptive genes before the temperature starts to rise.
- Humans
International Conference on Complex Sciences
Researchers at the meeting, held December 5-7 in Santa Fe, N.M., offer insight into spam blocking and sick leave.
- Life
Genes & Cells
Healing broken hearts, tracing Romani migration using genes, and how insulin irregularities may be linked to obesity.
-
- Psychology
Highlights from the Psychonomic Society annual meeting
Summaries from the conference held November 15-18 in Minneapolis.
- Anthropology
Highlights from the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting
Iceman’s origins, DNA fingerprinting, microRNAs and cancer risk, and growth genes and obesity risk.
