Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Body & Brain
Coffee may help protect against prostate cancer, plus protecting organ transplants and limiting HIV transmission in this week’s news.
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- Health & Medicine
Healthy Aging in a Pill
To extend life span, scientists envision a drug that mimics the benefits of a near-starvation diet.
- Health & Medicine
Don’t share that clarinet
Bacteria can linger on woodwind instruments, particularly those with reeds, for days, a new study finds.
- Life
Your gut microbes are what you eat
A mammal's diet strongly influences what kinds of microorganisms live in its intestines.
- Psychology
Eyes take gossip to heart
Reading negative gossip about someone makes that person’s face easier to perceive.
- Humans
It’s time to put a price on carbon, NRC says
“It is imprudent to delay actions that at least begin the process of substantially reducing emissions [of greenhouse gases],” according to a May 12 report by the National Research Council. It didn’t get a lot of press play in the past week, perhaps because its 144 pages don’t say anything readers might not have expected this august body to have proclaimed years ago. But that shouldn’t diminish the significance of this report, its authors contend.
- Humans
Geographic profiling fights disease
Widely used to snare serial criminals, a forensic method finds application in epidemiology.
- Health & Medicine
No pain, healthier brain
When chronic back problems are treated, benefits extend above the neck.
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- Life
Body attacks lab-made stem cells
In mice, the immune system targets and destroys reprogrammed adult skin cells, raising questions about their medical potential.
- Health & Medicine
Gravely damaged brains have ‘bottleneck’
A failure in electrical signaling may distinguish patients in vegetative states.
