Humans

  1. Anthropology

    Care-Worn Fossils

    A nearly toothless fossil jaw found in France has reignited scientific debate over whether the skeletal remains of physically disabled individuals show that our Stone Age ancestors provided life-saving care to the ill and infirm.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    New inner ear hair cells grow in rat tissue

    Using a gene known to control hair-cell growth, researchers have grown hair cells in tissue taken from newborn rats' cochleas, raising hopes that inner ear damage may someday be reversible.

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Salt trial provokes DASH of skepticism

    Though a new study finds that dramatic salt restriction can lower blood pressure, even among people without hypertension, some critics challenge its value in setting new dietary guidelines for all adults.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Attack of the Clones: Immune cells single out melanoma tumors

    Scientists can extract immune system cells that recognize tumor cells from people with melanoma, culture the rare cells to greatly increase their number, and inject them into the patients, sometimes putting the brakes on cancer.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Immune protein may stall HIV

    People who have HIV but don't progress to AIDS make extra perforin, a protein that helps kill infected cells.

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  6. Health & Medicine

    Duct tape sticks it to warts

    Treating a wart with a covering of duct tape seems to be more effective—and less painful—than removing the wart by freezing it with liquid nitrogen.

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  7. Humans

    From the May 24, 1930, issue

    GRASSHOPPERS THREATEN UNITED STATES Grasshoppers threaten to wreak heavy damage to grain and forage crops in Montana and the Dakotas this year. There were many hoppers in these states, and in parts of Texas, last year, and the eggs they laid are now hatching in large numbers. If climatic and other conditions favor the growth […]

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  8. Humans

    From the November 12, 1932, issue

    FIRST WELDED PENSTOCK BUILT IN CALIFORNIA Welding, an abundant source of beautiful photographs, furnishes another picture for the front cover of the Science News Letter this week; but beauty was not sufficient reason for its prominence in the cover position. The picture was taken within a welded pipe, one-fourth-mile long, tilted up a mountainside at […]

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Cooking Science

    The Exploratorium’s “Science of Cooking” Web pages offer all sorts of advice on how to improve your cooking–with a pinch of science. Information, recipes, and activities focus on spices, bread, meat, eggs, and more. Experience the thrill of pickle making and learn about a zesty dish called kimchi. Explore the science of cooking your holiday […]

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Schizophrenia spurs imaging network

    Thanks to a federal grant, a team of researchers will establish a national database of brain images that will allow for expanded investigations of the neural basis of schizophrenia.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Old Drug, New Uses?

    A hormone called erythropoietin, long used to treat anemia, also seems to protect against nerve damage and holds promise as a new therapy for stroke and spinal cord injury.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    First Line of Defense: Hints of primitive antibodies

    After looking in primitive marine invertebrates that are considered to be close relatives to vertebrates, immunologists find families of genes that might provide clues as to how early immune systems evolved.

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