Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Instead of starving a cancer, researchers go after its defenses
There may be ways to block tumors from adapting and outrunning the body’s defenses.
- Anthropology
Power may have passed via women in ancient Chaco Canyon society
DNA points to a 330-year-long reign of a maternal dynasty centered in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon.
- Anthropology
Low-status chimps revealed as trendsetters
Outranked chimpanzees trigger spread of useful new behaviors among their comrades.
- Health & Medicine
Common fungus may raise asthma risk
The presence of a fungus in the infant gut can signal development of asthma by age 5.
- Health & Medicine
For Ebola patients, a few signs mean treatment’s needed — stat
A few criteria may help identify Ebola patients who need the most care.
- Health & Medicine
Gastric bypass controls diabetes long term better than other methods
Bariatric surgery outperforms other weight-loss measures in the longest-term study yet of diabetes outcomes.
- Health & Medicine
Birth may not be a major microbe delivery event for babies
A study of mother-baby duos suggests that birth itself may not be the main event for getting microbes in and on babies.
- Health & Medicine
See how long Zika lasts in semen and other bodily fluids
For most men infected with Zika, traces of the virus disappear from semen 81 days after symptoms begin. In other bodily fluids, Zika RNA is typically cleared even faster.
- Psychology
Physically abused kids learn to fail at social rules for success
What physically abused kids learn about rewards at home can lead to misbehavior elsewhere.
- Health & Medicine
Ricin poisoning may one day be treatable with new antidote
Mice treated with a blend of antibodies survived even when treated days after exposure to ricin.
- Health & Medicine
Cold plasma puts the chill on norovirus
A new device uses cold plasma to kill foodborne pathogens.
- Health & Medicine
Readers respond to antibiotics, carbon bonds and more
Allergic overreactions, the possibility of silicon-based life and more in reader feedback.
