Humans

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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Health & Medicine

    Mixing Vessel: Air pollution helps cholesterol clog arteries

    When paired with a diet high in fat, breathing polluted air on a regular basis accelerates the accumulation of dangerous plaques in arteries.

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  2. Humans

    Science News of the Year 2005

    A review of important scientific achievements reported in Science News during the year 2005.

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  3. Humans

    Letters from the December 24 & 31, 2005, issue of Science News

    Bends, the truth I very much enjoyed “Cool Birds” (SN: 10/22/05, p. 266). What struck me, however, was a passage that mentioned the “bird’s resistance to the bends” and the researchers’ alleged inability to explain that. As a scuba diver, I know that the bends, or decompression sickness, is caused by breathing compressed air underwater. […]

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Protein predicts sickle-cell danger

    A biological marker of heart trouble can be used to identify sickle-cell anemia patients who are at greatest risk of developing a serious, disease-related complication.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Transfusions harm some heart patients

    Patients who undergo coronary-bypass surgery frequently receive unnecessary blood transfusions as part of their follow-up care.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Old drug, new trick

    The drug rapamycin, now used in transplants, may make chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia more effective.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Molecule marks leukemia cells

    Researchers can now single out malignant cells in the bone marrow of patients with acute myeloid leukemia by using an antibody that latches on to a newfound cell protein.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Rare marrow cells tackle deadly immune reaction

    Researchers have developed a new technique to counter graft-versus-host disease, a common complication of treating blood cancers with marrow-cell transfusions.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Ebola may travel on the wing

    Fruit bats can carry the Ebola virus, suggesting that they may spread it in Africa.

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  10. Humans

    Irreplaceable Perplexity 101

    An imaginary classroom provides lessons on the all-too-real debate over evolution and intelligent design.

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  11. Humans

    Archival Science

    Photos from the Science Service archive at the Smithsonian offer fresh views of the Scopes evolution trial.

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  12. Humans

    From the December 14, 1935, issue

    A TVA dam nears completion, sleep aids memory and relearning, and shedding light on the upper atmosphere.

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