Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Neuroscience
Some people with half a brain have extra strong neural connections
Brain scans of six people who had half their brains removed as epileptic children show signs of compensation.
- Health & Medicine
Full intestines, more than full stomachs, may tell mice to stop eating
A new description of stretch-sensing nerve endings in mice’s intestines could lead to ways to treat obesity.
- Science & Society
A Dallas museum hosts rare hominid fossils from South Africa
Fossils of the South African hominids Australopithecus sediba and Homo naledi are on display at the Perot Museum of Science and History in Dallas.
- Health & Medicine
For people with HIV, undetectable virus means untransmittable disease
HIV outreach and care in Washington, D.C., reveals the struggles and successes of getting drugs into the hands of those who need them.
- Health & Medicine
Drug-resistant microbes kill about 35,000 people in the U.S. per year
The latest CDC report on drug-resistant microbes finds that these pathogens infect close to 3 million people in the United States each year.
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin E acetate is a culprit in the deadly vaping outbreak, the CDC says
Researchers detected vitamin E oil in all samples of lung fluid from 29 patients suffering from lung injuries tied to e-cigarettes.
- Health & Medicine
Mom’s immune system and microbiome may help predict premature birth
Analyzing patients’ immune systems, microbiomes and more, researchers find signals to pinpoint and halt premature labor.
- Humans
The medieval Catholic Church may have helped spark Western individualism
Early Catholic Church decrees transformed families and may help explain why Western societies today tend to be individualistic and nonconformist.
- Life
Self-destructing mitochondria may leave some brain cells vulnerable to ALS
Mitochondria that appear to dismantle themselves in certain brain cells may be a first step toward ALS, a mouse study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
A new dengue vaccine shows promise — at least for now
The latest vaccine against dengue shows promise in protecting children from the disease, but will need longer term study to ensure kids are safe from future infections.
- Health & Medicine
A human liver-on-a-chip may catch drug reactions that animal testing can’t
An artificial organ may better predict serious drug side effects than animal testing does.
- Humans
Fossils suggest tree-dwelling apes walked upright long before hominids did
A partial skeleton from an 11.6-million-year-old European ape still doesn’t answer how hominids adopted a two-legged gait.
