Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Giant rats detect tuberculosis
Animals can be trained to sniff out TB in sputum samples, adding to accuracy of microscope test, a study from Tanzania shows.
- Health & Medicine
Childhood epilepsy that lasts into adulthood triples mortality
The added risk occurs in patients whose seizures persist, a 40-year study in Finland shows.
- Life
Neandertal relative bred with humans
Known only through DNA extracted from a scrap of bone, a Siberian hominid group suggests a much more complicated prehistory for Homo sapiens.
- Humans
Periodic table gets some flex
IUPAC committee replaces fuzzy atomic weights with more accurate ranges
- Humans
Google project launches new field of culture study
An analysis of digitized books probes language change, collective memory and other cultural developments from 1800 to 2000.
- Health & Medicine
No fear
A woman who lacks a basic brain structure, the amygdala, couldn’t be frightened no matter how hard researchers tried. And they tried.
- Health & Medicine
Gene linked to some smokers’ lung cancer
FGFR1 is amped up in a subset of cancers; inhibiting its proteins can shrink tumors in mice.
- Health & Medicine
Salvia says high
Laboratory researchers show that the psychoactive substance in a popular, largely legal recreational drug causes a short but intense period of hallucination.
- Humans
Apartments share tobacco smoke
Children in nonsmoking families have higher levels of secondhand exposure if they live in multifamily dwellings.
- Life
Cells reprogrammed to treat diabetes
The testes may be an alternate source of insulin production.
- Life
Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants
Researchers argue for a type of vegetative group decision making usually associated with humans and social animals, and go out on a limb by also proposing that information may be transmitted electrically.
- Psychology
Face memory peaks late, after age 30
Striking an unanticipated blow for mature thinkers, 30- to 34-year-olds have the best face memory.
