Humans

  1. Health & Medicine

    Trained dogs sniff out COVID-19 as well as lab tests do

    Dogs can be trained to sniff out COVID-19 cases. They’re overall as reliable as PCR tests and even better at IDing asymptomatic cases, a study suggests.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Missing COVID-19 data leave us in the dark about the current surge

    Yankee Candle reviews and wastewater testing offer indirect hints, but we’re “flying blind,” says data expert Beth Blauer of Johns Hopkins University.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    4 answers to key questions about the monkeypox outbreak

    Monkeypox has cropped up around the world, but it doesn’t spread easily like the coronavirus and most people probably don’t need to be concerned.

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  4. Archaeology

    Lasers reveal ancient urban sprawl hidden in the Amazon

    South America’s Casarabe culture built a network of large and small settlements in what’s now Bolivia centuries before the Spanish arrived.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Unexplained hepatitis cases in kids offer more questions than answers

    There is a lot that is unclear about the hepatitis that’s impacting several hundred children worldwide, but parents shouldn’t panic.

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  6. Science & Society

    COVID-19 has killed a million Americans. Our minds can’t comprehend that number

    We intuitively compare large, approximate quantities but cannot grasp such a big, abstract number as a million U.S. COVID-19 deaths.

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  7. Anthropology

    A Denisovan girl’s fossil tooth may have been unearthed in Laos

    A molar adds to suspicions that mysterious hominids called Denisovans inhabited Southeast Asia's tropical forests.

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  8. Science & Society

    Pressure to conform to social norms may explain risky COVID-19 decisions

    As a science reporter covering COVID-19, I knew I should mask up at Disney World. Instead, I conformed, bared my face and got COVID-19.

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  9. Archaeology

    A special brew may have calmed Inca children headed for sacrifice

    The mummified remains contained a substance that may reduce anxiety and is found in ayahuasca, a psychedelic ceremonial liquid still drunk today.

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  10. Humans

    Prehistoric people may have used light from fires to create dynamic art

    When brought near flickering flames, prehistoric stone engravings of animals seem to move, experiments with replicas and virtual reality show.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Here’s the latest good and bad news about COVID-19 drugs

    After coronavirus vaccines, antivirals and a monoclonal antibody are the next line of defense, but the treatments may be hard for some people to find.

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  12. Humans

    Eating meat is the Western norm. But norms can change

    A meat-heavy diet, with its high climate costs, is the norm in the West. So social scientists are working to upend normal.

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