Humans

  1. Health & Medicine

    Bad Break: Homocysteine may weaken bones

    Elderly people with elevated concentrations of the amino acid homocysteine in their blood are more likely to break bones than are people with low amounts.

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  2. Humans

    Plan B ruling is prescription for controversy

    Contravening a recent recommendation from one of its advisory panels, the Food and Drug Administration denied an application to make the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B available without a doctor's prescription.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Nanoparticles could mark spots for surgery

    A new molecule studded with magnetically active ions may soon help surgeons extract, with minimal cutting, lymph nodes likely to harbor cancer.

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  4. Humans

    Historical chemistry library wows scholars

    A new library in Philadelphia is home to one of the world's most extensive and valuable collections of historical chemistry texts.

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  5. Anthropology

    Neandertals may have grown up quickly

    A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that Neandertals grew to maturity at a faster pace than people do.

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  6. Humans

    From the May 5, 1934, issue

    Steel pipes of the Boulder Canyon project, diphtheria and the blood-brain barrier, and weather effects of volcanic eruptions.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Cord Blood to the Rescue: Infusions help babies with Hurler’s syndrome

    Umbilical cord blood transplants boost overall health and survival in patients with the rare hereditary condition called Hurler's syndrome.

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  8. Humans

    A National Science Museum

    If you can’t make it to Washington, D.C., to visit the recently opened Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences, check out the museum’s online exhibits. Explore how DNA analysis can catch criminals and stop epidemics, witness the potential effects of global warming, and glimpse the frontiers of scientific research. Go to: […]

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  9. Humans

    Letters from the May 8, 2004, issue of Science News

    Listen carefully Perhaps Stefan Koelsch’s study should have been limited to trained musicians, rather than exclude them (“Song Sung Blue: In brain, music and language overlap,” SN: 2/28/04, p. 133: Song Sung Blue: In brain, music and language overlap). Word and visual associations in music are vigorously reinforced in movie soundtracks, cartoons, and elsewhere. But […]

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Ironing Out Some Mental Limitations

    Iron deficiency can subtly compromise how well a person performs multiple challenging tasks simultaneously.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Humidity may affect LASIK surgery

    High humidity can boost the chances of needing follow-up surgery after LASIK surgery for nearsightedness.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Delaying Dementia

    The limited success of attempts to treat Alzheimer's disease with several compounds that appear able to prevent the disorder suggests that the window for derailing the development of the illness may close years before cognitive decline becomes evident.

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