Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Animal source of Ebola outbreak eludes scientists
Researchers are trying to determine whether bats or bush meat transmitted the Ebola virus to people in West Africa.
- Life
Grizzly bears master healthy obesity
Tuned insulin signals explain how grizzly bears can fatten up for hibernation in the winter without developing diabetes.
- Health & Medicine
Survey catalogs what is stressing out Americans
Along with work and other responsibilities, health problems are prominent causes of stress.
- Neuroscience
Music soothes the aging brain in film ‘Alive Inside’
A social worker highlighted in a new documentary goes on a quest to bring tunes to nursing homes.
- Health & Medicine
Rat moms’ behavior reflected in their babies’ brains
Grooming, nursing and other maternal behaviors cause brain signal changes in offspring, a study in rats finds.
-
- Psychology
Bilingual homes may give babies a learning lift
Hearing two languages during the first six months of life linked to an early mental advantage.
- Health & Medicine
New tests screen for lethal prion disease
Urine and nasal swabs can detect small amounts of the abnormal prions that cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
- Life
Airborne transmission of Ebola unlikely, monkey study shows
No evidence found of macaque monkeys passing deadly virus to each other.
- Health & Medicine
Two American Ebola patients given experimental therapy
The two American missionaries who contracted Ebola in Liberia have been treated with an experimental therapy that consists of antibodies to fragments of the deadly virus.
- Psychology
Addiction showcases the brain’s flexibility
People with substance abuse disorders are not just chasing a high. Their brains are adapting to the presence of drug, evidence of humans’ impressive neural plasticity.
- Anthropology
‘Hobbit’ may have been human with Down syndrome
A reanalysis of a skull scientists used to argue for the hobbit species Homo floresiensis suggests the woman was a modern human with features of Down syndrome.
