Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
This week in Zika: Revised risk, new mosquito threat, U.S. on the brink
First potential cases of locally spread Zika crop up in the continental United States, estimates of infection risk, antibodies that can fight the virus and a new mosquito species that may be able to carry Zika.
- Animals
Readers ponder animal flight
Readers respond to the June 11, 2016, issue of Science News with questions on cormorants, butterflies, virus-sensing genes and more.
- Life
The nose knows how to fight staph
A bacterium isolated from the nose produces a new antibiotic active against resistant pathogens.
- Chemistry
Vaping’s toxic vapors come mainly from e-liquid solvents
New study homes in on a primary source of toxic vaping compounds: the thermal breakdown of solvents used to dissolve flavorings in e-liquids. And older, dirtier e-cigs generate more of these toxicants, study shows.
- Health & Medicine
U.S. lags in road safety
The U.S. tops the list of 19 high-income countries for deaths from motor vehicle crashes.
- Animals
Getting rid of snails is effective at stopping snail fever
For the tropical disease snail fever, managing host populations is more effective than drugs.
- Anthropology
Humans, birds communicate to collaborate
Bird species takes hunter-gatherers to honeybees’ nests when called on.
- Neuroscience
Antibiotics might fight Alzheimer’s plaques
A new study found that antibiotics hit Alzheimer’s plaques in the brains of mice.
- Health & Medicine
Nail-biting and thumb-sucking may not be all bad
Nail-biters and thumb-suckers may actually be warding off allergies by introducing germs to their mouths, a new study suggests.
- Neuroscience
New brain map most detailed yet
By combining different types of data, researchers have drawn a new detailed map of the human brain.
- Health & Medicine
Anesthesia steals consciousness in stages
Brains regions that are synchronized when awake stop communicating as monkeys drift off.
- Health & Medicine
IVF doesn’t up long-term breast cancer risk, study says
A Dutch study of more than 25,000 women over two decades suggests that IVF-treated women are no more likely to get breast cancer than other women.
