Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Inventing the Light Fantastic
The history of the laser: An idea that began with Albert Einstein inspired a race to create a special beam of light that has since infiltrated numerous aspects of everyday life.
- Health & Medicine
Data from many drug trials for stroke go unpublished
Important details from roughly one in five drug trials for the acute treatment of the most common type of stroke have never entered the public domain, a new study finds. The masked data come from 125 trials that tested effects of 89 different drugs.
- Psychology
Dream a little dream of recall
As the sleeping brain builds memories it generates dreams about recently learned material, a new study suggests.
- Humans
Wha’dja say?
Casual speakers drop syllables and even whole words, eavesdropping scientists report.
- Agriculture
Rural ozone can be fed by feed (as in silage)
Livestock operations take a lot of flak for polluting. Researchers are now linking ozone to livestock, at least in one of the nation's most agriculturally intense centers. And here the pollution source is not what comes out the back end of an animal but what’s destined to go in the front.
- Earth
Studies aim to resolve confusion over mercury risks from fish
Several new papers suggest strategies by which American diners can negotiate a mercury minefield to tap dietary benefits in fish.
- Health & Medicine
Marker protein may help breast cancer screening
High amounts of EGFR can show up in the blood as much as 17 months before disease is diagnosed, a study finds.
- Health & Medicine
IOM: Manufacturers should help Americans cut back on salt
Americans have developed an unhealthy love affair with this savory condiment. And 40 years of haranguing people about their overconsumption has “generally failed to make a dent in Americans’ intake,” according to the Institute of Medicine, a research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. A new report it releases April 21 will ask the Food and Drug Administration to set lower ceilings on how much salt can be added to processed foods.
- Anthropology
Lice hang ancient date on first clothes
Genetic analysis puts garment origin at 190,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Colorectal cancer risk linked to stomach bacterium, inflammation
Stomach infection and high levels of inflammatory proteins are more common in people with colon polyps or disease, two studies show.
- Chemistry
From movies you’ll love to drugs you’ll take
A new method picks out promising drug compounds by computer, in much the same way Netflix recommends DVDs to its customers.
- Anthropology
Hobbit debate goes out on some limbs
A new analysis of fossil hobbits’ limb bones links them to much earlier hominids, and immediately attracts criticism.
