Humans
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Health & Medicine
Vitamin D is a flu fighter
Japanese researchers offer tangible support for that idea that vitamin D deficiency might render people vulnerable to infections. Supplementing school children with the vitamin, they showed, dramatically cut their incidence of seasonal flu.
By Janet Raloff -
Life
To catch a thief, follow his filthy hands
Bacteria from a person’s hands may provide a new type of fingerprint.
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Psychology
Soothing start to childhood weight problems
Pacifying infants with food may raise likelihood of later obesity.
By Bruce Bower -
Humans
Babies see human hand behind ordered events
Experiments find that infants attribute actions to people.
By Bruce Bower -
Plants
Chemists pin down poppy’s tricks for making morphine
Scientists have figured out two of the final key steps in the chain of chemical reactions that the opium poppy uses to synthesize morphine, suggesting possible signaling strategies for new ways of making the drug and its cousin painkillers.
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Science & Society
Don’t know much about…
A measure of U.S. science literacy has increased - to 28%
By Janet Raloff -
Humans
One key to teaching toddlers with TV: trickery
Kids under 3 can learn from educational videos if they believe what they’re seeing is real.
By Bruce Bower -
Humans
Young science scholars to be recognized
Finalists in the Science Talent Search are in Washington, D.C., to present their research; winners are to be announced March 16.
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Psychology
Researchers find early autism signs in some kids
A long-term investigation raises the possibility of identifying 14-month-olds who will develop autism spectrum disorder almost two years later.
By Bruce Bower -
Health & Medicine
Cats attracted to ADHD drug, a feline poison
Since 2004, drugs designed for use by people have been the leading source of poisonings among companion animals, according to the national Animal Poison Control Center in Urbana, Ill. And among cats, Adderall – a combination of mixed amphetamine salts used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – has quickly risen to become one of the most common and dangerous of these pharmaceutical threats.
By Janet Raloff -
Health & Medicine
For a lucky few, ‘dioxins’ might be heart healthy
Dioxins and their kin are notorious poisons. They work by turning on what many biologists had long assumed was a vestigial receptor with no natural beneficial role. But it now appears that in a small proportion of people, this receptor may confer heart benefits.
By Janet Raloff