Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
Ketamine’s antidepressant effect explained
A potential fast-acting treatment boosts the brain chemical BDNF, which may be lacking in depression.
- Humans
Human mutation rate slower than thought
First direct measurements show that the number of genetic typos inherited from each parent can be highly skewed toward either mom or dad.
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- Health & Medicine
Body & Brain
Fat joins suite of tastes, plus crossword vision, metastasis clues and more in this week’s news.
- Tech
Social Networks
Power networks in Congress, Twitter’s crystal ball and iPhone contagion in news from an MIT workshop on information in social media.
- Humans
Traditional Chinese medicine: Big questions
Just because traditional Chinese medicines have been used for a long time is no guarantee they’re efficacious or safe. How would we know? It turns out this question is hard to answer — even for the Chinese.
- Life
Genetics offers more hints about autism
Three studies illustrate why a single cause for autism spectrum disorders has been so difficult to pin down.
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- Health & Medicine
Drug prevents some breast cancers
A hormone-blocking compound can waylay some malignancies in healthy women who are deemed at risk.
- Humans
Site hints at Asian roots for human genus
An early Homo species inhabited the Caucasus region 1.85 million years ago, casting doubt on its proposed African origin.
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- Tech
Information flow can reveal dirty deeds
An analysis of Enron e-mails reveals that corrupt networks have a distinctive shape.
