Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
The next wave of bird flu could be worse than ever
Deadly bird flu can pass between ferrets through the air.
- Health & Medicine
Animal study reveals how a fever early in pregnancy can cause birth defects
Using chicken embryos, study shows that heat itself, not an infectious agent, is the driving factor behind certain heart and facial birth defects.
- Health & Medicine
Moms tweak the timbre of their voice when talking to their babies
Mothers shift the timbre, or quality, of their voice when talking to their babies, a change that happens in many different languages.
- Tech
This stretchy implant could help kids avoid repeated open-heart surgeries
A new type of surgical implant grows along with its recipient.
- Health & Medicine
A universal flu shot may be nearing reality
Scientists are developing a universal vaccine against flu, making annual shots a thing of the past.
- Life
Gut fungi might be linked to obesity and inflammatory bowel disorders
Fungi are overlooked contributors to health and disease.
- Chemistry
A potential drug found in a sea creature can now be made efficiently in the lab
Cooking bryostatin 1 up in a lab lets researchers explore its potential as a drug.
- Health & Medicine
In many places around the world, obesity in kids is on the rise
The last 40 years saw a big leap in obesity among children, totaling an estimated 124 million boys and girls in 2016.
- Genetics
We’re more Neandertal than we thought
Neandertals contributed more to human traits than previously thought.
- Science & Society
Economics Nobel nudges behavioral economist into the limelight
Behavioral economist Richard Thaler started influential investigations of behavioral economics, which earned him the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- Archaeology
Europe’s Stone Age fishers used beeswax to make a point
Late Stone Age Europeans made spears with beeswax adhesive.
- Neuroscience
New book offers a peek into the mind of Oliver Sacks
The wide-ranging essays in Oliver Sacks’ ‘The River of Consciousness’ contemplate evolution, memory and more.
