Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer drugs may help the liver recover from common painkiller overdoses
Experimental anticancer drugs may help the liver recover after acetaminophen poisoning.
- Tech
Children may be especially vulnerable to peer pressure from robots
Elementary school children often endorsed unanimous but inaccurate judgments made by small groups of robots.
- Health & Medicine
A resurrected gene may protect elephants from cancer
Researchers have found another gene that may play a role in explaining elephants’ cancer resistance.
- Neuroscience
Strange brains offer a glimpse into the mind
A close look at unusual brains offers a way to understand how the human mind is constructed, two new books argue.
- Health & Medicine
The first gene-silencing drug wins FDA approval
The FDA just approved the first drug that works via RNA interference.
- Health & Medicine
Pregnant women’s use of opioids is on the rise
The rate of opioid use during pregnancy more than quadrupled in 28 U.S. states, prompting physicians to call for increased screening.
- Health & Medicine
A newly approved drug could be a boon for treating malaria
Tafenoquine could help prevent the recurring form of malaria, but the drug may also be dangerous for people who have a certain genetic mutation.
- Archaeology
The debate over people’s pathway into the Americas heats up
Defenders of an ice-free inland passage for early Americans make their case.
- Health & Medicine
Zika may harm nearly 1 in 7 babies exposed to the virus in the womb
A new CDC report tallies neurological and developmental problems, in addition to birth defects, possibly due to Zika in U.S. territory–born babies.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists successfully transplant lab-grown lungs into pigs
Pigs implanted with lab-grown lungs recovered from surgery with no breathing problems.
- Health & Medicine
Rat lungworm disease is popping up in the mainland United States
A disease caused by a parasite endemic to Asia sickened at least 12 people in eight states in the continental United States from 2011 to 2017.
- Genetics
The ‘language gene’ didn’t give humans a big leg up in evolution
Scientists have long debated the role of a gene called FOXP2 in recent human evolution.
