Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Humans

    Letters from the July 14, 2007, issue of Science News

    At least a few years to prepare “Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?” (SN: 4/21/07, p. 244) posits that every 64 million years a mass die-off occurs due to increased cosmic rays. When will the cosmic rays again be at their maximum? Robert RichardsMetairie, La. The article failed to mention when the next […]

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  2. Humans

    From the July 3, 1937, issue

    A spectacular freak photograph of a solar eclipse, meteorites as the remnants of lost planets, and inducing dropsy in animals.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Concerns over Genistein, Part II—Beyond the heart

    Mice eating a diet laced with an estrogen-like constituent of soy display a puzzling variety of changes, some apparently good, some potentially bad.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Spermicide Flip Side: Compound may promote papillomavirus infection

    The widely used spermicide nonoxynol-9 may boost the infectiousness of human papillomavirus, mouse tests show.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Bad News for Cats: Cat allergen hits all allergic people

    People allergic to dust mites, mold, grass, and other common irritants—but not to cats—still have greater breathing difficulties when they live around the animals.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotics in infancy tied to asthma

    Infants who get several courses of antibiotics before their first birthdays are more likely to develop asthma later.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Linking stress and senility

    A gene that's active in the brain may help explain why emotional stress seems to increase a person's likelihood of getting Alzheimer's disease.

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  8. Humans

    Letters from the July 7, 2007, issue of Science News

    Hex sine? The NASA researchers baffled by the hexagonal shape in Saturn’s soupy atmosphere at its northern pole (“A hexagon on the ringed planet,” SN: 4/28/07, p. 269) should read “As waters part, polygons appear” (SN: 6/3/06, p. 348). It is worth investigating whether there is a similar phenomenon—I still suspect some sort of standing […]

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Restoring Scents

    Experimental treatments may activate the sense of smell in people who can detect few or no odors.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Infectious Foie Gras?

    Foie gras contains misfolded proteins that, when given to mice, trigger disease.

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  11. Humans

    Bad Science

    Ben Goldacre, M.D., a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian, looks at science and medicine through a skeptical lens in this popular blog. Go to: http://www.badscience.net

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  12. Humans

    From the June 26, 1937, issue

    Fur fashions from Ethiopian monkeys, the Big Bang as the source of cosmic rays, and ensuring airline pilots get enough oxygen.

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