Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Experimental blood pressure drug takes natural approach
Dual-action compound tests well in large group of people with mild to moderate hypertension
- Health & Medicine
Vitamin D is a flu fighter
Japanese researchers offer tangible support for that idea that vitamin D deficiency might render people vulnerable to infections. Supplementing school children with the vitamin, they showed, dramatically cut their incidence of seasonal flu.
- Life
To catch a thief, follow his filthy hands
Bacteria from a person’s hands may provide a new type of fingerprint.
- 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.
