Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Hallucinated voices’ attitudes vary with culture
Culture puts good or bad spin on voices heard by people with schizophrenia.
- Life
Imprisoning parasites can deter malaria’s spread
Disabling a protein traps malaria-causing parasites within red blood cells and prevents the organisms from reproducing.
- Genetics
New type of stem cells, fuzzy and flexible
A new way to make stem cells produces fuzzy cells that appear as flexible as other types of stem cells, but are easier to grow in the lab and avoid ethical issues.
- Health & Medicine
Cells in groups may promote cancer’s spread
Cellular gangs, not individuals, form distant tumors from breast malignancies, a new study finds.
- Life
Softer surroundings stifle some chemotherapy drugs
Some anticancer drugs such as Gleevec are less effective when attacking cancer cells grown in soft surroundings.
- Health & Medicine
Fatty coat on cancer drugs protects the heart
Cancer drugs encased in a layer of fat reduce but don’t eliminate heart damage.
- Genetics
Male smokers more likely to lose Y chromosomes
Male smokers are more likely to lose Y chromosomes in their blood cells than men who have never smoked or those who have kicked the habit.
- Health & Medicine
A look back at 2013’s disasters
The Philippines, India and China each lost more than 1,000 lives in 2013 in mass calamities.
- Planetary Science
Preparing for disaster, celebrating success
Science cannot prevent all disasters or solve all the problems they spawn, but it can point to the best ways to prepare, making disasters less damaging than they might otherwise be
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- Health & Medicine
Old drug reduces herpes symptoms, spread in animal tests
The antidepressant tranylcypromine might also work as antiviral against herpes, animal studies suggest.
- Archaeology
Human ancestors engraved abstract patterns
Indonesian Homo erectus carved zigzags on a shell at least 430,000 years ago.
