Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Humans
Ancient DNA suggests new hominid line
Genetic data unveil a previously unknown Stone Age ancestor in central Asia.
- Chemistry
BPA found beached and at sea
Food chemists have been showing for years that bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking building block of polycarbonate plastics and food-can coatings, can leach into food and drinks. But other materials contain BPA – and leach it – such as certain resins used in nautical paint. And Katsuhiko Saido suspects those paints explain the high concentrations of BPA that he’s just found in beach sand and coastal seawater around the world.
- Chemistry
Better sleuthing through chemistry
New fingerprinting method can pinpoint where, when or how a chemical warfare agent came to be.
- Health & Medicine
UV radiation, not vitamin D, might limit multiple sclerosis symptoms
The rarity of MS in the tropics may be due to higher ultraviolet light exposure, not necessarily increased vitamin production, new research suggests.
- Ecosystems
Athlete’s foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus
Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
- Anthropology
Ancient footprints yield oldest signs of upright gait
Human ancestors may have been walking with an efficient, extended-leg technique by 3.6 million years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Ingredient of dark roasted coffees may make them easier on the tummy
A compound generated in the roasting process appears to reduce acid production in the stomach.
- Chemistry
Cool roof coating: Mechanism kept under wraps
The American Chemical Society held a news briefing March 21 to feature a new energy-saving technology. It’s an ostensibly “smart” coating for roofing materials that knows when to reflect heat, like in summer time, and when to instead let the sun’s rays help heat a structure.
- Plants
Bees face ‘unprecedented’ pesticide exposures at home and afield
Honey bees are being hammered by some mysterious environmental plaque that has a name — colony collapse disorder – but no established cause. A two-year study now provides evidence indicting one likely group of suspects: pesticides. It found “unprecedented levels” of mite-killing chemicals and crop pesticides in hives across the United States and parts of Canada.
- Anthropology
Farming’s rise cultivated fair deals
A cross-cultural study suggests that the spread of farming unleashed a revolution in concepts of fairness and punishment.
- Physics
Next on CSI: Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
The modification of a powerful chemical analysis technique could make it the gold standard in detecting trace substances.
- Math
Big or small, financial bubbles burst alike
New data from the Frankfurt stock exchange show that fleeting financial bubbles behave according to the same mathematical rules as history-making ones.
