Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Pig heartbeats adjusted with gene therapy
A biological pacemaker created with gene therapy could may one day help people who cannot have implanted electrical pacemakers.
- Health & Medicine
First case of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus, acquired in U.S.
The case represents the first time that mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland have passed the virus to a person.
- Anthropology
Romanian cave holds some of the oldest human footprints
A group of Homo sapiens left footprints about 36,500 years ago, not 15,000 as scientists had thought.
- Psychology
To do your best, find a rival
There are rivals in every walk of life. A new study shows that for runners, a rival might help them do their best.
- Life
Pregnancy disorder shares aspects with Alzheimer’s
Misfolded proteins, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s and mad cow diseases, are found in urine of women with preeclampsia.
- Neuroscience
Obese women struggle to learn food associations
In a lab experiment, women fail to connect color signal with tasty reward, a deficit that may contribute to obesity.
- Neuroscience
Electrode turns consciousness on and off
Woman lost awareness, though appeared awake, when her brain was stimulated near an area called the claustrum.
- Anthropology
Clovis people may have hunted elephant-like prey, not just mammoths
The ancient American Clovis culture started out hunting elephant-like animals well south of New World entry points, finds in Mexico suggest.
- Neuroscience
Heavy marijuana use may affect dopamine response
People who regularly smoke five joints a day had dampened reactions to the chemical messenger dopamine.
- Health & Medicine
HIV reemerges in ‘cured’ child
The discovery spotlights limits in detecting the clandestine germ and raises questions about whether HIV can ever truly be cured.
- Health & Medicine
Giving kids a spoonful of medicine: not what the doctor ordered
It’s frustratingly easy to give your kid the wrong dose of medicine.
- Anthropology
‘Kidding Ourselves’ shows the rational side of self-deception
Author Joseph T. Hallinan explains why people believe the darnedest things.
