Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Why it’s easier to catch a cold, the flu or COVID in the winter
Low humidity protects viruses and cold temperatures may blunt some immune responses, making viral infections like colds, flu and COVID-19 more likely.
- Health & Medicine
4 key things to know about lung infections caused by fungi
News that three kinds of fungi are more widespread than previously thought prompted reader questions about risk, symptoms and more. We answer them.
- Genetics
50 years ago, scientists sequenced a gene for the first time
Within five decades, scientists went from sequencing a single gene to sequencing the entire human genome.
- Archaeology
Complex supply chains may have appeared more than 3,000 years ago
Finds from one of the world’s oldest shipwrecks hint that miners in Central Asia and Turkey provided a crucial metal to Mediterranean rulers.
- Archaeology
Lasers reveal sites used as the Americas’ oldest known star calendars
By around 3,100 years ago, Mesoamerican ritual complexes tracked celestial cycles using a 260-day count, a huge lidar mapping project shows.
- Earth
Indigenous people may have created the Amazon’s ‘dark earth’ on purpose
Modern Amazonians make nutrient-rich soil from ash, food scraps and burns. The soil strongly resembles ancient dark soils found in the region.
- Health & Medicine
Fungi that cause serious lung infections are now found throughout the U.S.
Doctors should be on the lookout for three types of fungi that, when inhaled, can lead to serious infections, researchers say.
- Science & Society
Meet the first Black American to earn an evolutionary biology Ph.D.
In ‘A Voice in the Wilderness,’ Joseph L. Graves Jr. discusses his scientific journey, how he debates racists, and more.
- Health & Medicine
Brain scans suggest the pandemic prematurely aged teens’ brains
A small study suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have aged teen brains beyond their years.
- Health & Medicine
These 5 biomedical advances gave 2022 a sci-fi feel
Big steps in biology and medicine include pig to human organ transplants, synthetic embryos and a fully complete human genome.
- Life
Here are 5 record-breaking science discoveries from 2022
The earliest surgery, fastest supercomputer and biggest single-celled bacteria were some of this year’s top science superlatives.
- Health & Medicine
Medical racism didn’t begin or end with the syphilis study at Tuskegee
Racism that fueled the syphilis study still permeates the U.S. health care system, causing disparities in access to medical care and health measures.
