Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Total Recall: Drug shows long-lasting boosts of memory in rats
Research in rats shows that an experimental drug completely regenerates parts of the brain crucial to forming memories.
- Health & Medicine
Need for Speed: Faster-acting tuberculosis drugs now in testing would limit deaths
Drugs that take only 2 months to cure tuberculosis instead of the usual 6 months could prevent millions of TB infections and deaths.
- Health & Medicine
Scientists find midnight-snack center in brain
Researchers have tracked down the location of a body clock that appears to be regulated by food.
- Health & Medicine
Blood sugar and spice
Eating cayenne pepper with meals may mitigate a hormonal response to food that's linked to diabetes.
- Humans
Letters from the August 12, 2006, issue of Science News
Dates of contention Are the dates quoted in “Stones of Contention: Tiny Homo species tied to ancient tool tradition” (SN: 6/3/06, p. 341) correct? I didn’t think Homo existed as a genus 840,000 years ago. David AdamsBoothwyn, Pa. Fossil finds indicate that the Homo genus originated roughly 2.4 million years ago.—B. Bower No juicy story […]
- Humans
Letters from the August 5, 2006, issue of Science News
Rod is the spoiler While I applaud the work that is looking at the biochemical correlates of aggressive and delinquent behavior, it is important to emphasize that environmental factors still predominate when we are searching for the roots of violence (“Violent Developments: Disruptive kids grow into their behavior,” SN: 5/27/06, p. 328). Although there is […]
- Humans
From the August 1, 1936, issue
A destroyer revealed, light linked to chlorophyll, and hemoglobin analyzed.
- Humans
Cryptology for Kids
Interested in learning about making and breaking codes? The National Security Agency has created an interactive Web site for kids, allowing them to play games and solve puzzles as they learn about codes, ciphers, cryptology, and more. Go to: http://www.nsa.gov/kids/
- Humans
Racial IQ Gap Narrows: Blacks gain 4 to 7 points on whites
African Americans reduced the racial gap on IQ-test scores by about one-third between 1972 and 2002.
- Health & Medicine
Drug rescues cells that age too fast
A new drug shows promise toward correcting the accelerated cellular aging typical of Werner syndrome.
- Humans
Named medical trials garner extra attention
Naming a medical trial with an acronym increases the frequency with which other researchers subsequently cite the study.
- Archaeology
Ancient rains made Sahara livable
New evidence indicates that seasonal rainfall more than 7,000 years ago turned Africa's eastern Sahara desert into a savannalike area that attracted an influx of foraging groups.
