Humans

Life

Eating seaweed may have conferred special digestive powers

Gut microbes in Japanese people may have borrowed genes for breaking down nori from marine bacteria.

Health & Medicine

U.S. health system not adequately prepared for the aging sick

Is the U.S. healthcare system prepared to deal with aging patients who have at least two chronic medical conditions — ones that will each require at least a year of ongoing treatment? “Current indications suggest that it is not,” two physicians at the Department of Health and Human Services conclude.

Life

Gene variants linked to Crohn disease have little effect, study finds

A genetic variant linked to Crohn disease does not raise the average person’s risk of developing the condition, a new study finds.

Chemistry

Study reports hints of phthalate threat to boys’ IQs

You may have a hard time spelling phthalates, but there’s no avoiding them. They’re in the air you breathe, water you drink and foods you eat. And this ubiquity may carry a price, particularly for young boys, emerging data suggest. Including a drop in their IQ.

Health & Medicine

Languages use different parts of brain

Different areas are active depending how the grammar of a sentence conveys meaning.

Life

Insulin-producing cells can regenerate in diabetic mice

Animal study finds that the pancreas can spontaneously regenerate beta cells.

Chemistry

Skin as a source of drug pollution

Traces of over-the-counter and prescription meds taint the environment. The presumption Ì and it's a good one Ì has been that most of these residues come from the urine and solid wastes excreted by treated patients. But in some instances, a leading source of a drug may be skin Ì either because the medicine was applied there or because people sweat it out.

Anthropology

Inca cemetery holds brutal glimpses of Spanish violence

Bones from a 500-year-old cemetery have yielded the first direct evidence of Inca death at Spaniards’ hands.

Health & Medicine

Bees forage with their guts

Researchers show that a gene helps honeybees choose between nectar and pollen.

Humans

For a rare few, driving and cell phones go well together

Some people do well at combining driving with cell phone use, raising questions about the nature of attention.

Health & Medicine

Putting African sleeping sickness to bed

Experiments in mice find a protein that could lead to a safer and more effective treatment for parasitic disease.

Health & Medicine

Junk food junkies, round two

Laura Sanders follows up on a story first reported from the Society for Neuroscience’s 2009 meeting.