Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Running Interference: Fresh approach to fighting inflammation
Two experimental drugs stop inflammation in mice by preserving a natural inflammation inhibitor.
- Health & Medicine
Sleepy teens haven’t got circadian rhythm
High schools that begin classes as early as 7:30 a.m. deprive teenagers of sleep, and attempts to reset an adolescent's biological clock fail to solve the problem.
- Humans
Letters from the July 2, 2005, issue of Science News
Chlorine’s fate? “Special Treatment: Tiny technology tackles mega messes” (SN: 4/23/05, p. 266), on the reaction of nanoparticles of iron with trichloroethane (TCE) contaminating an aquifer, states that the TCE is converted “into ethane.” What happens to the chlorine stripped off the TCE? Is it converted into insoluble inorganic compounds or is it available to […]
- Health & Medicine
Stepping Off the Scale
While walking, obese people alter their gait to minimize both energy expenditure and the stress on their knee joints.
- Humans
From the June 22, 1935, issue
Beauty in a police radio transmitter, a new aid in controlling diabetes, and mathematical help for cake bakers.
- Health & Medicine
Attack on Elephantiasis: Antibiotic offers weapon against tropical scourge
An antibiotic called doxycycline can cure people of elephantiasis, a parasitic disease, by killing the bacterium that the parasite needs to survive.
- Humans
Letters from the June 25, 2005, issue of Science News
Dark secret? “Dark Influence: Most of the universe’s matter is out of sight, but not out of mind” (SN: 4/23/05, p. 264) made me wonder about the possibility of a continuum of matter. Could part of the problem in identifying dark matter be that only part of the spectrum of matter is observable by our […]
- Health & Medicine
Alcohol increases bacterium’s virulence
Drinking alcohol can increase the ability of one type of bacteria to cause disease.
- Health & Medicine
Ready-to-eat spinach bears tough microbes
Bagged spinach may contain a significant number of bacteria, many of which are resistant to several antibiotics.
- Health & Medicine
Raisins may combat cavity-causing bacteria
Raisins may fight the bacteria that cause cavities rather than contribute to tooth decay.
- Health & Medicine
Heart attack treatment: Better late than never
A new study contradicts the notion that heart attacks run their course in less than a day and suggests that even delayed treatment can preserve endangered heart tissue.
- Health & Medicine
Cocaine abusers get more heart aneurysms
Regular cocaine users are about four times as likely as nonusers to have an aneurysm in a coronary artery.
