Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
A second version of bird flu is infecting cows. What does that mean?
While the risk to humans of exposure from cows or milk remains low, this new flu spillover from birds into cows raises the need for continued surveillance.
- Health & Medicine
Sleeping pills may have unexpected effects on the snoozing brain
As scientists unravel how sleep benefits the body, a study in mice is highlighting the potential pitfalls of using Ambien and other sleep aids.
- Artificial Intelligence
Are AI chatbot ‘personalities’ in the eye of the beholder?
Defining AI chatbot personality could be based on how a bot “feels” about itself or on how a person feels about the bot they’re interacting with.
- Health & Medicine
Toxic dangers lurk in LA, even in homes that didn’t burn
Urban wildfires like LA’s make harmful chemicals from burning plastics and electronics that can make indoor air dangerous for months.
- Health & Medicine
Plastic shards permeate human brains
A study of microplastics and nanoplastics in brains shows an astonishing increase over time.
- Health & Medicine
Welcome to The Deep End, a new podcast about brain implants and depression
This new six-part podcast follows the lives of people with severe depression who volunteered for deep brain stimulation.
- Anthropology
An African strontium map sheds light on the origins of enslaved people
While genetic tests can reveal the ancestry of enslaved individuals, strontium analysis can now home in on where they actually grew up.
- Health & Medicine
A new kind of non-opioid painkiller gets FDA approval
The new drug, called Journavx, is a non-opioid for treating short-term moderate to severe pain.
- Neuroscience
Scratching an itch is so good, and so bad
The motion kicks off inflammation but may also combat harmful bacteria
- Health & Medicine
Better male birth control is on the horizon
Men have two birth control options: condoms and vasectomies. Why has it taken so long to develop more contraceptives?
- Archaeology
Here’s how ancient Amazonians became master maize farmers
Casarabe people grew the nutritious crop year-round on savannas thanks to networks of drainage canals and ponds.
- Health & Medicine
Can you actually die of a broken heart?
Death by heartbreak doesn't just happen in stories. In real life, severe stress can cause the sometimes-fatal takotsubo syndrome.
