Humans
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Stopping rotavirus before it hits
A vaccine against rotavirus shows potent protection against the diarrhea-causing pathogen in its first year of widespread use.
By Nathan Seppa -
- Chemistry
Nicotine’s new appeal
Mimicking the addictive compound’s action in the brain could lead to new drugs for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.
By Laura Beil - Earth
The Case for Very Hot Water
Turning down the thermostat on a home's water heater could foster the growth of toxic bacteria in home plumbing.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Drug may offer MS turnaround
A drug used against leukemia can ease disability in early-stage multiple sclerosis patients over a three-year span.
By Nathan Seppa - Earth
Big Water Losses
America's ailing water-delivery infrastructure is literally throwing clean water away -- and dirtying some of what it moves toward our taps.
By Janet Raloff - Health & Medicine
Closest look yet at lung cancer genes
A large study offers clues to the genetics behind lung cancer.
- Humans
Middle schoolers earn top prizes in science competition
Five winners awarded top prizes in the Society for Science & the Public’s national science competition for middle school students.
- Humans
Midlife suicides are on the rise
Data gleaned from death certificates indicate that, from 1999 to 2005, middle-aged whites accounted for much of the overall increase in the U.S. suicide rate.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
Elephants’ struggle with poaching lingers on
Even as African elephants struggle to recover from decades-old poaching, the animals face new and renewed threats today.
- Tech
Coal Country’s New Foresters
New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.
By Janet Raloff - Tech
Trading Forests for Coal
Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.
By Janet Raloff