Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Psychology
Soothing start to childhood weight problems
Pacifying infants with food may raise likelihood of later obesity.
- Humans
Babies see human hand behind ordered events
Experiments find that infants attribute actions to people.
- 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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- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Health & Medicine
Temporary hearing impairment leads to ‘lazy ear’
A rodent study shows that even after ear infections clear up, brain rewiring may cause long-term hearing problems.
- Health & Medicine
First complete look at families’ genes
Comparing the complete genetic material of family members pinpoints genes involved in three rare inherited diseases.
