Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Climate
Climate science: Credibility at risk, scientists say
Publication of hacked emails exchanged by climate scientists. News accounts of problems in vetting data used in climate-assessment reports. Charges by critics that scientists won’t release their raw data so that others might independently vet published analyses of climate trends. Taken together, these events have marred the reputations of climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and perhaps science generally. Or so concluded a distinguished panel of science luminaries.
- Humans
Finding coolable hot spots for crime
Some high-risk areas are easier to manage than others, a new model suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Healthy teeth, healthy people
Talk leaves journalists flossing for details on oral health.
- Health & Medicine
Brain at the breaking point
New research, showing how stresses can snap tiny tracks inside brain connections, may improve understanding of traumatic brain injury.
- Tech
Leasing car batteries to the power company
Most people, on average, drive their cars only an hour or two a day. The rest of the time, those pricey vehicles sit parked on the street or in some garage. But if those cars had a big bank of batteries – typical of today’s gasoline hybrids or soon-to-hit-the-road plug-in hybrids – they could be earning their owners money while sitting parked. Maybe $5 to $10 a day, just by serving as a back-up energy-storage system for the electric-utility grid.
- Health & Medicine
Dolphins may offer clues to treating diabetes
Insulin-resistance switch helps maintain glucose levels in dolphin brains, suggesting possible clues to treating diabetes in people.
- Health & Medicine
Tumor tracking gets personal
A new method has the potential to use genome science to improve cancer care.
- Health & Medicine
Lunch time for stem cells
Kristen Brennand is trying to tease out how the cells in brains of healthy people differ from those in schizophrenic patients. The problem: No one wants to give up a chunk of brain for her to study. So she’s fashioning her own clumps of brain cells from tissue people willingly part with – skin.
- Humans
Decoding diversity in Bushmen
Decoding the genetic makeup of tribal leaders and Archbishop Desmond Tutu uncovers rich genetic diversity in southern Africans.
- Psychology
Cell phone distraction while driving is a two-way street
When operating a car, drivers lose a grip on messages they hear.
- Health & Medicine
Mutations may underlie some stuttering
Defects in three genes governing basic cell metabolism are found in a portion of cases, researchers find.
- Anthropology
Ancient DNA points to additional New World migration
Scientists have extracted a nearly complete genome from the hairs of a 4,000-year-old man, suggesting a new scenario for Asian migrations into the New World.
