Humans

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  1. Archaeology

    These South American cave paintings reveal a surprisingly old tradition

    Radiocarbon dates point to an artistic design practice that began in Patagonia almost 8,200 years ago, several millennia earlier than previously recorded.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    U.S. opioid deaths are out of control. Can safe injection sites help?

    A new NIH study will evalute the only two officially sanctioned sites, in New York City, and a future site in Providence, R.I.

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  3. Anthropology

    50 years ago, evidence showed that an extinct human ancestor walked upright

    Fossil finds have since pushed back the ability of hominids to walk on two legs by millions of years.

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  4. Archaeology

    This Stone Age wall may have led Eurasian reindeer to their doom

    Hunter-gatherers living 10,000 years ago in what is now Germany probably used the wall to trap reindeer in a nearby lake.

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  5. Neuroscience

    A new device let a man sense temperature with his prosthetic hand

    A device that can be integrated into prosthetic hands capitalizes on phantom sensations to enable users to sense hot and cold.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    A 25-year-effort uncovers clues to unexplained deaths in children

    When Laura Gould’s daughter died in 1997, there was almost no research in unexpected deaths in children older than one. Gould helped change that.

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  7. Archaeology

    A four-holed piece of ivory provides a glimpse into ancient rope-making

    The tool, unearthed in Central Europe, suggests that locals made devices for stringing together sturdy cords over 35,000 years ago, researchers say.

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  8. Microbes

    Bird flu viruses may pack tools that help them infect human cells

    Bringing along their own ANP32 proteins may give avian flu viruses a jump-start on copying themselves to adapt to and infect humans and other animals.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Under very rare conditions, Alzheimer’s disease may be transmitted

    Alzheimer’s isn’t contagious. But contaminated growth hormone injections caused early-onset Alzheimer’s in some recipients, a new study suggests.

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  10. Humans

    Here’s why COVID-19 isn’t seasonal so far

    Human immunity and behavior may be more important than weather for driving seasonality when it comes to COVID-19.

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  11. Climate

    Cold, dry snaps accompanied three plagues that struck the Roman Empire

    New climate data for ancient Italy point to temperature and rainfall influences on past infectious disease outbreaks.

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  12. Animals

    What parrots can teach us about human intelligence

    By studying the brains and behaviors of parrots, scientists hope to learn more about how humanlike intelligence evolves.

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