Humans

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Climate

    Climate might be right for a deal

    The upcoming Copenhagen negotiations will take steps toward an international, climate-stabilizing treaty.

    By
  2. Health & Medicine

    Malaria shows signs of resisting best drug used to fight it

    The frontline malaria medicine artemisinin shows gaps in effectiveness in Southeast Asia.

    By
  3. Humans

    Obese people can misjudge body size

    Survey finds that many overweight individuals consider their body size normal and healthy despite having health problems

    By
  4. Health & Medicine

    Marathoners’ hearts stressed, but not necessarily by heart attacks

    Detailed imaging of runners’ hearts before and after races doesn’t find signatures of heart attacks

    By
  5. Health & Medicine

    Mummies reveal heart disease plagued ancient Egyptians

    CT scans of preserved individuals show hardening of arteries similar to that seen in people today.

    By
  6. Health & Medicine

    PCBs hike blood pressure

    No one would choose to eat polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs — yet we unwittingly do. And a new study finds that the cost of their pervasive contamination of our food supply can be elevated blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease.

    By
  7. Health & Medicine

    Heart attack patients get high radiation dose

    Medical imaging can add up to exposure similar to what nuclear power plant workers experience.

    By
  8. Earth

    Plastics ingredients could make a boy’s play less masculine

    Study links boys' fetal phthalate exposure to tendency toward gender-neutral play later on.

    By
  9. Health & Medicine

    B vitamin outperforms another drug in keeping arteries clear

    The findings led to an early halt of a small study comparing Niaspan and Zetia, two compounds commonly used along with statins to reduce heart attack risk.

    By
  10. Health & Medicine

    Changing the paradigm around Alzheimer’s disease

    Prevention could begin with lifestyle in younger years, one researcher says during the American Public Health Association meeting.

    By
  11. Health & Medicine

    Chill-out device may protect brain during heart attacks

    A portable method to quickly lower body temperature passes safety tests

    By
  12. Anthropology

    For Hadza, build and brawn don’t matter for choosing mates

    Study of hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania shows that, across human groups, mating criteria vary.

    By