Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Fist bumps spread fewer bacteria than handshakes
Fist bumping spreads far fewer bacteria than a handshake or a high five, a new study shows.
- Health & Medicine
Resistance to key malaria drug spreads
Parasites that are less susceptible to artemisinin now affect several Asian countries.
- Psychology
Goalkeepers deceive themselves when facing penalty kicks
Soccer’s goalies fall victim to a logical fallacy during the sport’s most high-pressure situation, seeing trends where none exists.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis E widespread among English blood donors
Screening of 225,000 blood donations reveals a high prevalence of the hepatitis E virus.
- Tech
Small lies in social networks may keep society running
Lying in social networks could have adverse, as well as beneficial, effects depending on the severity of the deception.
- Health & Medicine
Boot camp bug
Adenoviruses, which cause respiratory illnesses including some colds, plague boot camps.
- Genetics
Gene activity change can produce cancer
Scientists have long thought that epigenetic changes, which alter gene activity, can cause cancer. Now they have demonstrated it in a mouse experiment.
- Health & Medicine
Long-term Parkinson’s treatment sheds bad rep
Prolonged used of levodopa doesn’t increase the severity of side effects from the Parkinson’s drug, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Tests hint at trouble with pairing cystic fibrosis drugs
Combining two types of cystic fibrosis drugs may cancel out the benefits of one of the medications.
- Psychology
Schadenfreude starts young
Children as young as 2 years old feel joy at another’s misfortune, new research suggests, showing jealousy’s deep roots.
- Health & Medicine
Babies’ brains practice words long before they can speak
When listening to speech, babies’ brains are active in motor areas required for moving the mouth and tongue in ways that produce words.
- Genetics
Airborne MERS virus found in Saudi Arabian camel barn
The air in a Saudi Arabian camel barn holds genetic fragments of MERS, a new study shows.
