Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Hitting streaks in baseball may be contagious
Teammates of a batter on a streak hit better than their average, a review of baseball records finds.
- Humans
Man the martial artist
The human hand evolved partly as a tool for fighting, researchers argue.
- Health & Medicine
Twin towers dust tied to some cancers, not others
9/11 rescue and recovery workers have higher rates of prostate and thyroid cancers and multiple myeloma, a study shows.
- Tech
Antarctic test of novel ice drill poised to begin
Any day now, a team of 40 scientists and support personnel expects to begin using a warm, high pressure jet of water to bore a 30 centimeter hole through 83 meters of ice. Once it breaks through to the sea below, they’ll have a few days to quickly sample life from water before the hole begins freezing up again. It's just a test. But if all goes well, in a few weeks the team will move 700 miles and bore an even deeper hole to sample for freshwater life that may have been living for eons outside even indirect contact with Earth’s atmosphere.
- Health & Medicine
Zinc may help treat box jellyfish stings
A zinc compound seems to counteract the deadly venom delivered by the sting of the Australian box jellyfish.
- Humans
Bionic women (and men) get closer to reality
Prosthetics and new therapies restore abilities to move, see, walk.
- Humans
What goes wrong when talks break down
A nonlinear analysis explains how negotiations often turn on seemingly insignificant details.
- Humans
Pots bear oldest signs of cheese making
Some of Europe’s first farmers created perforated vessels to separate curds from whey.
- Health & Medicine
Brain stimulation alters depressive symptoms in mice
The findings may point the way toward more targeted treatments for depression in people.
- Humans
Lines in the sand may have been made for walking
The ancient Nazca culture’s celebrated desert drawings include a labyrinth meant to be strolled, not seen.
- Health & Medicine
Drug breaks up Alzheimer’s-like deposits in mice
Recent failed trials of a similar approach in humans fuel skepticism that patients will benefit.
- Humans
This snowbird is really going SOUTH
Many people of a certain age (like my folks) enjoy flying south to warmer climes when winter weather threatens. I’m also flying south this December — but not to warm up. As a guest of the National Science Foundation, I’ll be checking out summer in the really deep South: Antarctica. Temps expected at certain sites I’m scheduled to visit, such as the South Pole, threaten to surpass the worst that my hometown will encounter in the dead of winter.
