Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- 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.
- Tech
Trading Forests for Coal
Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.
- Archaeology
Really Cool History
Tales of the black band: Clues to a 4,200-year-old mystery lie frozen in icy records stored atop Mt. Kilimanjaro.
- Climate
Eggs, Tea and Mr. IPCC
Even jet-lagged, the world's lead climate negotiator took time out to brief a few reporters.
- Humans
Rumors of Gulf War Syndrome
British Gulf War veterans responded to military secrecy by talking among themselves about their health problems. Through rumor, the vets collectively defined the controversial ailment known as Gulf War Syndrome, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Bacteria that do logic
A team engineers microbes to perform AND, OR, NAND and NOR logic operations.
- Health & Medicine
Streamlined polio vaccine fights outbreaks
Back to basics: A simplified polio vaccine works better than the standard approach and overcomes an unforeseen shortcoming in the widely used oral vaccine.
- Humans
Bypassing paralyzed nerves
Implanted electrode helps paralyzed monkey clench its forearm muscles.
- Climate
The News Climate
Whether people choose to peruse news — and where — may explain what role science plays in shaping public opinion on global warming.
- Humans
Infectious finds at ancient site
A DNA analysis of skeletons found at a submerged Israeli site produces the earliest known evidence of human tuberculosis, now known to have existed at a 9,000-year-old farming settlement.
