Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Endocrine Society Annual Meeting
Highlights from the 94th annual meeting held June 23-26 in Houston.
- 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.
- Psychology
Thirtysomethings flex their number sense
A mental feel for estimating amounts maxes out later in life and may influence math achievement.
- Health & Medicine
Testosterone therapy takes off pounds
A five-year study shows that men getting the hormone consistently lose weight.
- Health & Medicine
Learn to play piano in your sleep
That’s still impossible, but an experiment suggests hearing a previously learned ditty while snoozing improves later performance of the piece.
- Humans
De-papering environmental summits
One token — but highly visible — gesture toward sustainability at the UN's 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio was a request for all attendees to shrink their paper footprints. Apparently, most complied.
- Humans
Ancient North Africans got milk
Pottery study unveils early dairy practices among Saharan cattle herders.
- Humans
What’s in your wallet? Another ‘estrogen’
A chemical cousin of bisphenol A, a hormone mimic, has turned up on banknotes from around the world in addition to tainting 14 other types of papery products. Owing to the near ubiquity of BPS in paper, human exposure is likely also “ubiquitous,” conclude the study's authors. Oh, and a second new study shows that BPS behaves like an estrogen.
- Health & Medicine
More adults put off kids’ vaccinations
Scientists say the practice has no proven value and poses risks of infection.
- Health & Medicine
Like a prion, Alzheimer’s protein seeds itself in the brain
Injecting amyloid-beta into mice may induce misfolding of native amyloid-beta molecules, leading to the buildup associated with the neuron-killing disease.
- Tech
The descent of music
Using an evolutionary process, researchers create pleasing tunes out of grating noise.
