Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
How I’ll decide when it’s time to ditch my mask
New COVID-19 masking guidelines are designed for communities not individuals, making a decision about safety difficult.
- Genetics
How gene therapy overcame high-profile failures
A dark period for gene therapy didn’t derail scientists determined to help patients.
- Health & Medicine
What do we mean by ‘COVID-19 changes your brain’?
The events of our lives are reflected in the size, shape and behavior of our constantly changing brains. The effects of COVID-19 changes aren’t clear.
- Archaeology
Ancient seafarers built the Mediterranean’s largest known sacred pool
The Olympic-sized pool, once thought to be an artificial inner harbor, helped Phoenicians track the stars and their gods, excavations reveal.
- Health & Medicine
A gene therapy for hemophilia boosts levels of a crucial clotting protein
A one-time, gene-based treatment for hemophilia increased the amount of a necessary blood clotting protein in men with a severe form of the disease.
- Health & Medicine
School mask mandates in the U.S. reduced coronavirus transmission
Mandatory masking lowered transmission rates to nearly one-fourth those of schools where masks were optional, data from over 1 million children show.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, oxygen was touted as a potential memory loss treatment
In 1972, researchers were studying whether hyperbaric chambers could help reverse senility. Today, science is still piecing together clues.
- Archaeology
Ancient Homo sapiens took a talent for cultural creativity from Africa to Asia
Excavations at two sites continents apart show that Stone Age hominids got culturally inventive starting nearly 100,000 years ago.
- Animals
Genetically modified mosquitoes could be tested in California soon
The EPA also OK’d more trials in Key West, Fla. Both states now get their say in whether to release free-flying Aedes aegypti to sabotage their own kind.
- Life
Some E. coli set off viral grenades inside nearby bacteria
A bacterial toxin called colibactin awakens dormant viruses embedded in bacterial DNA, but its ecological role is still unknown.
- Neuroscience
A hit of dopamine sends mice into dreamland
New results are some of the first to show a trigger for the mysterious shifts between REM and non-REM sleep in mice.
- Health & Medicine
How to interpret the CDC’s new mask guidelines
Based on the CDC’s new metrics, most people no longer need to wear masks in most situations, but that could change.
