Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Social friction tied to inflammation
Negative interactions with others or stressful competition for another’s attention seem to have risky biological effects on an individual.
- Health & Medicine
Turn off, tune in, drop out
Magic mushrooms reduce blood flow to parts of the brain responsible for sense of self.
- Humans
Election night numbers can signal fraud
Wealth of high-turnout blowouts in Russia’s 2011 parliamentary contest strongly suggests ballot stuffing, an analysis concludes.
- Humans
Junk food in schools gets weighty reprieve
Disputed data suggest that non-nutritious eats sold on-site don’t fatten kids.
- Health & Medicine
Mineral quashes deadly bacterial poisons
Manganese supplement might someday help counter a virulent form of E. coli.
- Health & Medicine
Proteins may warn of diabetic kidney disease risk
Patients who have high levels of compounds called TNF receptors in their blood have a heightened risk of developing renal failure, two studies suggest.
- Humans
Seaweed study fuels bioenergy enthusiasm
Munched by a manipulated microbe, ocean algae readily yield ethanol.
- Health & Medicine
Sleep solidifies bad feelings
A night of slumber reinforces not just traumatic memories but the negative emotions that go with them, one study finds.
- Psychology
Babies lip-read before talking
Tots acquire the gift of gab by matching adults’ mouth movements to spoken words.
- Psychology
Big score for the hot hand
Hot hands exist in professional volleyball and influence game strategy.
- Humans
Bush meat can be a viral feast
Monkeys and apes are considered edible game in many parts of Africa. As Africans have emigrated to other parts of the world, some have retained their love of this so-called bushmeat. A new study now finds that even when smoked, meat from nonhuman primates — from chimps to monkeys — can host potentially dangerous viruses. Smuggled imports confiscated at U.S. airports provided the samples tested in this investigation.
- Tech
Twitter kept up with Haiti cholera outbreak
Epidemiologists find that social media can be used to track disease outbreaks as they happen, even in countries with little infrastructure.
