Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Tai chi helps Parkinson’s patients balance
The controlled movement of the Chinese martial art can improve patients' coordination and limit falls, a study finds.
- Humans
Numbers warn of looming collapses
Mathematical tools help researchers predict when systems are about to change dramatically.
- Humans
Faulty comparisons
Is anyone else disturbed by the following description: Scientists are reporting development of a new form of buckypaper, which eliminates a major drawback of these sheets of carbon nanotubes — 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, 10 times lighter than steel, but up to 250 times stronger . . .
- Health & Medicine
Addicts and siblings share brain features
The finding suggests that diminished self-control and other behaviors may have a genetic component.
- Chemistry
Muscle massage may speed healing
Rubbing sore, overworked areas trips anti-inflammatory switches in the tissue that might speed healing and ease pain.
- Humans
Arsenic-based life finding fails follow-up
Tests see no evidence to confirm a bold 2010 claim that some microbes can incorporate the normally toxic element into their cellular machinery.
- Health & Medicine
Bird flu leaves tracks in brain
H5N1 infection might make survivors vulnerable to Parkinson’s or other neurological disorders, a study in mice indicates.
- Humans
Predatory pythons shift Everglades ecology
As invasive snakes expand territory, some mammal populations drop by more than 90 percent within a decade.
- Psychology
Fighting willpower’s catch-22
Avoiding daily temptations works better than using willpower, which has oddly unintended effects.
- Humans
Catching a mood on Facebook
Happiness and other feelings filter among online friends through their brief posts.
- Health & Medicine
Prions more mobile than thought
Scientists coax pathogens from cow and goat to infect engineered mice, suggesting disease agents can readily jump from one species to another.
- Humans
Intel Science Talent Search names top 40 finalists
More than 1,800 high school students entered the 2012 competition.
