Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Chemistry

    Catching your breath

    Scientists are investigating how to use the human breath to diagnose diseases and environmental ills.

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  2. Humans

    Worth the cooties

    Boys who attend preschool classes with a majority of girls do better developmentally than other boys.

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  3. Physics

    Galaxy Zoo’s blue mystery (part I)

    A Dutch science teacher found a novel celestial object that had eluded the notice of astronomers.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Stomaching diabetes

    A new way to treat diabetes could recruit cells in the gut to make insulin when the pancreas can’t.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Take a chill pill, T cell

    Targeting a receptor on immune cells may hold promise for treating multiple sclerosis and asthma.

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  6. Computing

    Video Search à la Web

    Finding videos on the web can still be a hit-or-miss proposition.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Coloring the body

    Color MRI scans may one day be possible, thanks to microscopic, tunable magnets.

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  8. Anthropology

    Numbers beyond words

    New research with Amazonian villagers suggests that their language lacks number words but that they still comprehend precise quantities of objects.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Wishful thinking

    Male athletes who think they are getting growth hormone claim to feel better and score higher in a jumping test while on a placebo.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Where funny faces come from

    Making a face might have helped human ancestors survive.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Girl athletes’ energy crisis

    Lack of regular periods in teenage female athletes stems from a hormone imbalance arising from inadequate energy intake.

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  12. Materials Science

    Family Snaps in Peril

    Digital photography appears to be far more ephemeral than camera sales people have led us to believe.

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