Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Northwest Passage: Americas populated via Alaska, genetics show
A single population of prehistoric Siberians crossed the Bering Strait into Alaska and fanned out to North and South America, a new genetic analysis of living Native Americans suggests.
- Archaeology
Rolling Back the Years
Scientists are refining carbon dating techniques to make the archaeological timeline more precise.
- Health & Medicine
Dengue virus found in donated blood
Scientists have discovered that 12 units of blood donated in Puerto Rico in late 2005 contained the dengue virus.
- Health & Medicine
Sleeping sickness pill may work as well as injections
The first oral drug for sleeping sickness is showing effectiveness in a trial in central Africa.
- Health & Medicine
Bomb craters mean trouble for islanders
A skin infection in people living on the Pacific island of Satowan stems from swimming in ponds formed from World War II bomb craters there.
- Health & Medicine
Patch guards against Montezuma’s revenge
A patch worn on the skin delivers a vaccine against a form of Escherichia coli that causes traveler's diarrhea.
- Health & Medicine
Additives may make youngsters hyper
Common food colorings and the preservative sodium benzoate have the potential to foster hyperactivity and inattentiveness in children, a new study finds.
- Anthropology
Ancient-ape remains discovered in Kenya
Newly unearthed fossils of a 9.8-million-year-old ape in eastern Africa come from a creature that may have evolved into a common ancestor of African apes and humans.
- Humans
Letters from the December 1, 2007, issue of Science News
Bed nets and insecticides Kenyan researchers report that insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce malaria-related deaths in children (“Keep Out: Treated mosquito nets limit child deaths,” SN: 9/29/07, p. 195). While these nets appear to provide preventive measures against malaria, my only concern is the toxicity of the insecticides. The World Health Organization lists two of […]
- Humans
From the November 20, 1937, issue
An American Nobel laureate in physics, the need for research in the chemistry of petroleum, and a new way to send photographs by telegraph.
- Health & Medicine
Biohazard: Smoking before or after pregnancy may harm daughters’ fertility
Smoking before pregnancy or during breastfeeding might impair the female offspring's fertility, a study in mice shows.
- Health & Medicine
Wrong Way: HIV vaccine hinders immunity in mice
An HIV vaccine hurts, not helps, the immune systems of mice, say scientists.
