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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Do cold-water plunges really speed post-workout muscle recovery?

    A new study is among the first to look at whether cold or hot soaks help women’s muscles rebound from extreme exercise.

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  2. Archaeology

    Neandertals invented bone-tipped spears all on their own

    An 80,000-year-old bone point found in Eastern Europe challenges the idea that migrating Homo sapiens gave the technology to Neandertals.

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  3. Archaeology

    British tin might have fueled the rise of some Bronze Age civilizations

    Chemical evidence of tin from coastal British sites reaching Bronze Age Mediterranean societies highlights a supply chain dispute.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Lining medical stents with hairlike fuzz could fend off infections

    Implanted tubes that transport bodily fluids can get gross. A lab prototype suggests a new vibration-based way to keep them clean and prevent infection.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    A man let snakes bite him 202 times. His blood helped create a new antivenom

    A new antivenom relies on antibodies from the blood of Tim Friede, who immunized himself against snakebites by injecting increasing doses of venom into his body.

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  6. Psychology

    Playing this Minecraft game hints at how we learn in real life

    A tailor-made version of Minecraft let researchers look at the success of learning individually or taking cues from others while foraging for fruit.

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  7. Psychology

    Chess players rely on familiar moves even when the game changes

    In chess as in life, people use memory as a shortcut for decision-making. That strategy can backfire when the present doesn’t resemblance the past.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Ozempic and Wegovy ingredient may reverse signs of liver disease

    The diabetes and weight loss drug semaglutide reversed liver scarring and inflammation. It’s among several drugs in the works for the condition MASH.

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  9. Archaeology

    A Pueblo tribe recruited scientists to reclaim its ancient American history

    DNA supports modern Picuris Pueblo accounts of ancestry going back more than 1,000 years to Chaco Canyon society.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Two cities stopped adding fluoride to water. Science reveals what happened

    As calls to end fluoride in water get louder, changes to the dental health of children in Calgary, Canada, and Juneau, Alaska, may provide a cautionary tale.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Bird flu in cows shows no signs of adapting to humans — yet

    Easy replication in cattle mammary glands means H5N1 bird flu is under no evolutionary pressure to adapt to spread easily in humans.

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  12. Anthropology

    A lion’s bite marks a fatal fight with a possible Roman-era gladiator

    The first skeletal evidence of a gladiator show or execution involving an exotic animal comes from a Roman British man with bite marks from a lion.

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