Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Trial drug improves heart failure patients’ chance of survival
Novartis’ experimental therapy LCZ696 lowers blood pressure and increases survival rates when compared with a standard drug.
- Health & Medicine
A hungry brain slurps up a kid’s energy
Compared with other animals, human children take their time growing up. A new study suggests that’s because kids’ brains burn a lot of energy, perhaps diverting resources from their growing bodies.
- Health & Medicine
Removing both breasts may not boost cancer survival
Women diagnosed with cancer in one breast who choose to have both breasts removed may not have better survival rates than women who opt for breast-conserving surgery and radiation.
- Health & Medicine
Rabies races up nerve cells
By hijacking a transporter protein and hitting the gas, the disease-causing rabies virus races up long nerve cells that stretch through the body, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
Tiny mites are probably crawling all over your face
Two skin mites, relatives of spiders, might populate the faces of all adult humans, according to a DNA survey.
- Life
ZMapp drug fully protects monkeys against Ebola virus
In a test, 18 monkeys injected with the Ebola virus and treated with an experimental drug called ZMapp survived.
- Health & Medicine
Babies may be good at remembering, and forgetting
Studies in kids suggest that young children can form memories but can’t recall them later, offering new clues to how memory-storing systems form in young brains.
- Genetics
Ebola genome clarifies origins of West African outbreak
Genetic analyses suggest that a single infected person sparked the ongoing Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
- Anthropology
Siberians came to North American Arctic in two waves
Siberian ancestors of the modern-day Inuit replaced a 4,000-year-old North American Arctic culture, a DNA study reveals.
- Health & Medicine
Human tests of experimental Ebola vaccine set to start
NIH and NIAID have announced that human tests of an experimental vaccine against Ebola virus will begin in early September.
- Health & Medicine
To grow new knee cartilage, look to the nose
Cartilage-making cells from the nose grew into patches that successfully replaced damaged or missing cartilage in the knees of goats and of humans.
- Psychology
Walking in sync makes enemies seem less scary
Men who walk in sync may begin to think of their enemies as weaker and smaller, a new study suggests.
