Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
President reverses federal ban on stem cell funding
President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting a ban on federal funding for research that uses embryonic stem cells.
- Health & Medicine
Dangers of biomedical plagiarism
The bogus data present in plagiarized biomedical papers is not just an ethical lapse, but also a threat to effective medicine.
- Health & Medicine
Study finds plenty of apparent plagiarism
Featured blog: A data-mining program looks for and finds plagiarism among scientific papers. The researchers survey the papers' writers and editors.
- Archaeology
Horse domestication traced to ancient central Asian culture
New lines of evidence indicate that horses were domesticated for riding and milking more than 5,000 years ago by members of a hunter-gatherer culture in northern Kazakhstan.
- Health & Medicine
Chemotherapy drug may in fact strengthen some cancer cells
Research shows a standard drug for treating brain cancer can actually make some cells more aggressive.
- Health & Medicine
New drug shows benefits against nasty asthma
An experimental drug called mepolizumab prevents some emergency asthma attacks in people who no longer benefit from normal doses of steroids.
- Health & Medicine
Popular acid blockers, anticlotting drug don’t mix
Acid-blocking drugs commonly prescribed to cardiac patients upon hospital discharge seem to interfere with an anticlotting drug.
- Health & Medicine
One protein mediates damage from high-fructose diet
A study in mice suggests that a liver protein mediates the harmful effects of consuming too much fructose, an increasingly common aspect of Western diets.
- Health & Medicine
Out-of-sync days throw heart and metabolism out of whack
When people sleep may be just as important as how much they sleep. Altered sleep patterns can lead to heart disease and diabetes, a new study suggests.
- Life
Gene links autism, bellyaches
Researchers have uncovered a genetic link between autism and gastrointestinal disorders in some families.
- Health & Medicine
Where choices happen
Different types of decisions are made in different areas of the brain’s frontal lobes, scientists say.
- Humans
Playing for real in a virtual world
Preteen boys and girls interacting in a virtual world display the same contrasting play styles that have been observed in real-world settings.
