Humans
- Health & Medicine
Memories clutter brain in amnesia
Complex patterns slow down object recognition in patients with disorder.
- Humans
Warning to bats: Cuddle not
Ecologist Kate Langwig of Boston University and her colleagues want Eastern bats to listen up: No more cuddling — at least during hibernation. Just keep those wings to yourselves.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
Apocalypse, not so fast
Guatemalan find suggests mention of a date far in the future served a Maya king’s immediate needs.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Some brains may be primed for pain
When people keep hurting long after an injury heals, a process similar to addiction may be at work.
- Health & Medicine
Body and Brain
Good touch, bad touch A leg caress can delight or feel totally skeevy, depending on who’s doing the caressing. A touch’s emotional baggage can be seen in the brain’s initial response to that touch, scientists report in the June 19 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Heterosexual men’s somatosensory cortices, brain regions that detect […]
- Animals
Mosquitoes Remade
Scientists reinvent agents of illness to become allies in fight against disease.
By Susan Milius - Archaeology
Oldest pottery comes from Chinese cave
New dates show that East Asian hunter-gatherers fired up cooking vessels 20,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower - Health & Medicine
Male contraceptive shows promise
Two hormones in gels applied to the skin effectively lower sperm counts, a study finds.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
Lead poisoning stymies condor recovery
California’s iconic comeback species may need human help as long as even a small percentage of the carcasses they eat contain lead shot.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Endocrine Society Annual Meeting
Highlights from the 94th annual meeting held June 23-26 in Houston.
By Nathan Seppa - Humans
What Silicon Valley can learn from Mother Russia
Imperial tax records from the last decades of the Empire offer clues to what makes a start-up succeed.
- Humans
Ozone: Heart of the matter
As reported this week, breathing elevated ozone levels can mess with the cardiovascular system, potentially putting vulnerable populations — such as the elderly and persons with diabetes or heart disease — at heightened risk of heart attack, stroke and sudden death from arrhythmias. Is this really new? Turns out it is.
By Janet Raloff