Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Anthropology
Gene implicated in apes’ brain growth
A gene with poorly understood functions began to accumulate favorable mutations around 8 million years ago and probably contributed to brain expansion in ancient apes.
- Health & Medicine
Papillomavirus infections spike in sunny months
Getting sun could increase vulnerability to a sexually transmitted virus that may lead to cervical cancer.
- Health & Medicine
Exercise after breast cancer extends life
After a woman survives an initial bout with breast cancer, being physically active improves her odds of beating the disease over the long term.
- Humans
From the March 31, 1934, issue
A desert earthquake, producing bromine from seawater, and nerve damage from alcohol consumption.
- Health & Medicine
A Virus Crosses Over to Wild-Animal Hunters
A potentially dangerous virus is moving from nonhuman primates to Africans who hunt and eat wild animals, a new study suggests.
- Anthropology
Monkey Business
They're pugnacious and clever, and they have complex social lives—but do capuchin monkeys actually exhibit cultural behaviors?
- Health & Medicine
Better-Off Circumcised? Foreskin may permit HIV entry, infection
Circumcision seems to offer partial protection against HIV infection, but not other sexually transmitted diseases.
- Archaeology
Laser scanners map rock art
Researchers have developed a way to use laser-based surveying equipment to quickly and easily create detailed images of ancient rock art.
- Humans
Medieval cure-all may actually have spread disease
Powdered mummies, one of medieval Europe's most popular concoctions for treating disease, might instead have been an agent of widespread germ transmission, new research suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Phthalate exposure from drugs?
Use of an ingestible prescription drug may explain the highest blood concentration of a chemical plasticizer ever observed.
- Health & Medicine
All Roads Lead to RUNX
Genetic mutations that predispose some people to the autoimmune diseases lupus, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis appear to have a common molecular feature: They derail the work of a protein, called RUNX1, that regulates how active certain genes are.
- Humans
Letters from the April 3, 2004, issue of Science News
Lack of data? Something jumped out at me from “Telltale Charts: Is anticipating heart disease as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4?” (SN: 1/31/04, p. 72: Telltale Charts). It’s that there were no published data supporting the 50 percent rule taught for years in medical schools. I think this speaks volumes about science and medicine […]
