Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Here’s the latest good and bad news about COVID-19 drugs
After coronavirus vaccines, antivirals and a monoclonal antibody are the next line of defense, but the treatments may be hard for some people to find.
- Humans
Eating meat is the Western norm. But norms can change
A meat-heavy diet, with its high climate costs, is the norm in the West. So social scientists are working to upend normal.
- Health & Medicine
How to wash chicken in the kitchen more safely, according to physics
Despite the advice of health experts, most people who cook chicken at home wash it. New research offers ways to reduce spreading dangerous germs.
- Psychology
Latin America defies cultural theories based on East-West comparisons
Theories for how people think in individualist versus collectivist nations stem from East-West comparisons. Latin America challenges those theories.
- Neuroscience
A very specific kind of brain cell dies off in people with Parkinson’s
Of out 10 kinds of dopamine-making nerve cells, only one type is extra vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease.
- Archaeology
Ancient ‘smellscapes’ are wafting out of artifacts and old texts
In studying and reviving long-ago scents, archaeologists aim to understand how people experienced, and interpreted, their worlds through smell.
- Animals
Some hamsters are extremely susceptible to COVID-19
Golden Syrian hamsters used in research and popular as pets can become infected with SARS-CoV-2 with very low doses of the virus, a new study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
The body’s response to allergic asthma also helps protect against COVID-19
A protein called IL-13 mounts defenses that include virus-trapping mucus and armor that shields airway cells from infection.
- Health & Medicine
How I decided on a second COVID-19 booster shot
Boosters help for a short time, and mixing vaccines doesn’t seem to push the immune system toward making unhelpful antibodies, studies show.
- Health & Medicine
Joggers naturally pace themselves to conserve energy even on short runs
Data from fitness trackers and treadmill tests challenge ideas about what drives speed.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists were seeking the cause of psoriasis
In the 1970s, scientists found a link between a chemical messenger and psoriasis, a complex inflammatory skin disorder.
- Health & Medicine
Antibiotics diminish babies’ immune response to key vaccines
With each round of antibiotics during a child’s first two years, antibody levels to four vaccines dropped further from what’s considered protective.
