Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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- Health & Medicine
Asthma Zap: Heated scope reduces attacks
A new tool cools asthma by heating lung tissue to kill overgrown smooth muscle in airways, a hallmark of the disease.
- Humans
Chasing money for science
Stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is forcing scientists to downsize their labs and abandon some of their most promising work.
- Health & Medicine
Working in a cotton mill has bright side
People who work amid bales of raw cotton are less likely to get lung cancer than are people in the general population, a study of Chinese women indicates. While past research has shown that workers in a cotton mill tend to develop shortness of breath, chronic cough, and other health problems, some scientists also noted […]
- Humans
Letters from the March 31, 2007, issue of Science News
On the hoof Do cows and other domestic-herd animals really emit more methane than bison and other wild-herd animals emitted before people came along? Do grass, alfalfa, and other pasture plants remove less carbon dioxide than do forests? There were open grasslands before pastures replaced some forests. I hope the people who are researching these […]
- Health & Medicine
Balancing Act: Excess steroids during pregnancy may pose risks for offspring
Heavy amounts of steroids taken during pregnancy can have long-term deleterious effects on offspring, a study of monkeys shows.
- Health & Medicine
Risky Flames: Firefighter coronaries spike during blazes
A disproportionate number of heart disease deaths among firefighters occur during blazes.
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B found in wrestlers’ sweat
Traces of hepatitis B have turned up in the perspiration of wrestlers, suggesting that the virus could spread to their opponents and teammates.
- Health & Medicine
Preemies respond to immunizations
Babies born prematurely rev up an immune response to two routine childhood vaccines as well as babies who are born full-term.
- Anthropology
Mysterious Migrations
Controversial new studies report that modern humans from Africa launched cultural advances in Europe at least 36,000 years ago and reached what's now western Russia more than 40,000 years ago.
- Health & Medicine
Planting the Seeds for Folate Enrichment
Florida scientists have engineered tomatoes with 20 times the ordinary amount of folate, making them the most concentrated source of this important vitamin ever measured.
- Humans
Letters from the March 24, 2007, issue of Science News
Story panned So we shouldn’t cook food in easily cleanable pots because we might release a little bit of maybe-not-even-toxic chemicals into the food (“Heating releases cookware chemicals,” SN: 1/27/07, p. 61)? Because a common chemical found worldwide is merely suspected of being linked to worldwide rates of exposure? Why are our U.S. companies being […]
