Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Gap in the Defense: Brain cancer patients short on valuable protein
Brain tumor cells have a dearth of an obscure protein called ING4, whose sister compounds have shown anticancer effects.
- Health & Medicine
Ear piercings cause illness, disfigurement
Piercing the upper-ear cartilage under nonsterile conditions can leave a person vulnerable to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, as happened in Oregon in 2000.
- Health & Medicine
Heart patients gain from steep cholesterol drop
Heart patients can lessen their risk of a heart attack and increase their odds of survival by aggressively reducing harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in their blood.
- Anthropology
Grannies give gift of longer lives
Data from two 18th- and 19th-century farming communities supports the theory that child care assistance from grandmothers has contributed to the evolution of extended human longevity.
- Health & Medicine
Drug for migraines helps some patients
An experimental drug that slows blood flow in the brain knocks out migraine headaches in some people.
- Health & Medicine
Formula for Failure
A bacterium that has been known to cause rare, yet fatal infections in infants appears to be more widespread than scientists have realized.
- Humans
Letters from the March 13, 2004, issue of Science News
Dry hole? “Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen” (SN: 1/17/04, p. 46: Tapping sun’s light and heat to make hydrogen) seems to be delivering good news for the environment: “Clean” hydrogen can be produced from water using solar energy. This seems to me, however, to be even more horrifying than the burning of […]
- Humans
From the March 10, 1934, issue
High-speed photography, artificial radioactivity, and earthquake prediction.
- Health & Medicine
Meat of the Matter: Fish, flesh feed gout, but milk counters it
Nutrition research supports the ancient notion that a diet rich in meat contributes to the development of gout, a form of arthritis common in men.
- Health & Medicine
Shutting Off an On Switch: Novel drugs slow two cancers in mice
By shutting down a signaling molecule on cancerous cells, scientists have found a way to slow multiple myeloma and fibrosarcoma, tests in animals show.
- Anthropology
Brain Size Surprise: All primates may share expanded frontal cortex
A new analysis of brains from a variety of mammal species indicates that frontal-cortex expansion has occurred in all primates, not just in people, as scientists have traditionally assumed.
- Health & Medicine
Two arthritis drugs work best in tandem
Two anti-inflammatory drugs for rheumatoid arthritis—methotrexate and etanercept—work better together than either does individually.
