Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Growth in diabetes diagnoses starting to slow in U.S.
The percentage of the population diagnosed with diabetes and the rate of new cases per year rose sharply between 1990 and 2008 but haven't grown quite as quickly between 2008 and 2012.
- Health & Medicine
Statins may improve odds of surviving a bleeding stroke
Common cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins may help people who have suffered a stroke caused by ruptured blood vessels.
- Neuroscience
Dyslexic brain may solve some math problems in a roundabout way
Children with dyslexia rely heavily on right brain to do addition problems.
- Science & Society
‘Fantastic Lab’ recounts battle against typhus, Nazis
Arthur Allen explores how two European scientists produced typhus vaccines during World War II.
- Life
Thoughtful approach to antibiotic resistance
Changing how people think about antibiotics is already showing promise in reducing antibiotic use and costs. It’s doubtful, however, that any single strategy will be enough.
- Planetary Science
Feedback
Readers discuss sources of stress in everyday life and tell us what they think about NASA's plan to nab an asteroid.
- Health & Medicine
Doctors enlisted to turn the tide on antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic stewardship requires education, diligence, and changes in prescribing. At some hospitals, it’s beginning to halt a dangerous trend.
- Health & Medicine
Not all the ‘baby friendly’ rules are rooted in science
The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative has a noble goal of encouraging breastfeeding, but some of its recommendations may be based on shaky science.
- Health & Medicine
Obama takes aim at antibiotic resistance
The White House offers an incentive for better diagnostics and calls for new meds and more stewardship programs against antibiotic resistance.
- Genetics
Genetic data rewrite the prehistory of Europe
The genomes of nine ancient and 2,345 living humans have changed the story of modern Europeans' origins.
- Earth
Shrinking ancient sea may have spawned Sahara Desert
The Saharan Desert probably formed 7 million years ago as the ancient Tethys Sea, the forerunner of the Mediterranean Sea, shrank.
- Anthropology
Strategy, not habitat loss, leads chimps to kill rivals
Human impacts on chimpanzees have not increased their violence.
