Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
More troubling news about BPA
Animal studies link bisphenol A — a building block of hard, clear plastics that taints many foods — with new adverse health effects.
- Health & Medicine
Tuberculosis bacterium subverts basic cell functions
The tuberculosis microbe makes compounds that alter basic systems inside key immune cells, facilitating the bacterium’s survival in the body, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Hospitals’ drug problem
Hospitals often don't know pharmaceutical-waste rules, and even those that do often release huge quantities of drugs into the environment.
- Earth
The Maine way to get rid of drugs
Maine residents can soon send away old and unwanted drugs for free, "green" disposal.
- Humans
Children get social with virtual peers
Life-size 3-D versions of children can draw kids with autism into social encounters and more news from the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society in Park City, Utah, June 4-6.
- Humans
Autism care takes biological toll on mothers
Caring for teens and young adults with autism not only creates intense psychological pressure on mothers but may promote sharply decreased production of a crucial stress hormone, a long-term study suggests.
- Life
Huntington’s protein may have a crony
The mutant protein implicated in Huntington’s may rely on a second protein. The finding could help explain why only some neurons are vulnerable to the disease.
- Agriculture
Pesticide may seed American infant formulas with melamine
An insecticide may underlie traces of melamine, a toxic constituent of plastics and other materials, now being found in infant formulas.
- Health & Medicine
Nicotine’s role in SIDS
New study in rats explains how smoke exposure may increase risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
- Humans
Women faring well in academic research
Women appear to almost be reaching parity with men in academic research.
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- Animals
Extensive toolkits give chimps a taste of honey
Chimps living in central Africa’s dense forests make and use complex sets of tools to gather honey from beehives, further narrowing the gap between the way humans and chimps use tools.
