Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Psychology
Many unhappy returns for wandering minds
A cell phone–based survey finds that people frequently feel worse when their minds wander than when they focus on the moment.
- Health & Medicine
Fructose poses gout risks even in women
Soft drinks are an even more potent source of the fat-generating sugar than had been thought, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Laptops and infertility: It matters how you sit
Men who keep their legs together while using the computers generate more sperm-endangering scrotal heat than those who splay them, a study finds.
- Life
Soil search suggests broad roots for antibiotic resistance
Drug-defeating genes are everywhere, but don’t blame dirt-dwelling bacteria for resistance seen in the clinic.
- Tech
Seeing red: Next installment in BPA-paper saga
Consumers now have a way to identify cash register tape that is free of endocrine-disrupting chemical.
- Humans
Climate researcher speaks out
BLOG: Michael Mann says scientists have lost control of the public message about climate change, Alexandra Witze reports from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing meeting.
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- Psychology
Aboriginal time runs east to west
Some indigenous Australians envision time moving westward, suggesting that culture shapes how people think about this basic concept.
- Humans
Building a better bomb sniffer
A new handheld device detects TATP, an explosive that is easy to make but hard to detect.
- Life
Genome may be mostly junk after all
A cross-species comparison suggests that more than 90 percent of the DNA in the human genome has no known function.
- Health & Medicine
Immune gene variants help stop HIV
Research on HIV-infected people who rarely develop AIDS might lead to better drugs or a vaccine.
- Tech
Election projections for science investments
The November 2, mid-term election results are in (mostly) and pundits are billing it as a historic turnabout. With a divided Congress, passing legislation — never an easy task — risks becoming harder still. And with fiscal austerity having been a leading campaign issue for the newbies, R&D is unlikely to see a major boost in federal funding during the next two years.
