Humans

  1. Psychology

    How to walk in circles without really trying

    People walk in circles when landmarks and other directional cues are not available.

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  2. Humans

    Nostril rivalry

    Like the eyes and ears, each nostril vies for the brain’s attention, a new study suggests.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Docs writing fewer scripts

    The number of antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory infections has declined since the mid-1990s, a new study shows.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Better BBQ through chemistry

    Food chemists reveal their secrets to juicier, tastier barbecue.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Using estrogen to combat persistent breast cancer

    Estrogen therapy stymies breast cancer in some patients who have exhausted their other options, a new study finds.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Worm-inspired superglue

    Researchers create a material that may one day be used to paste together bones in the body.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Feds won’t cover PET scans during isotope crisis

    One alternative procedure for scouting bone cancers is theoretically available, but currently may be an option only for people with deep pockets.

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  8. Tech

    How medicine is ‘barely managing’ the isotope crisis

    Medicine is managing a prolonged and record shortfall in the principal diagnostic-imaging isotope by triaging the most urgent patients, substituting less effective procedures and working longer hours.

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  9. Chemistry

    Drugged money

    U.S. greenbacks are especially effective at pocketing tiny traces of cocaine.

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  10. Tech

    Isotope crisis threatens medical care

    Global production of the feedstock for the leading medical-imaging isotope is low and erratic, putting health care in jeopardy.

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  11. Archaeology

    Fire engineers of the Stone Age

    New evidence indicates that people used fires to heat stones in preparation for making cutting instruments at least 72,000 years ago in southern Africa.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Brain doesn’t sort by visual cues alone

    Blind and sighted people’s brains sort the living from the nonliving in the same way, suggesting this ability may be hard-wired.

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