Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Genetically engineered immune cells have kept two people cancer-free for a decade
Long-lasting leukemia remission prompts doctors to call CAR-T cell therapy a ‘cure’ for some.
- Health & Medicine
A faulty immune response may be behind lingering brain trouble after COVID-19
The immune system’s response to even mild cases of COVID-19 can affect the brain, preliminary studies suggest.
- Archaeology
A taste for wild cereal sowed farming’s spread in ancient Europe
Balkan groups collected and ate wild cereal grains several millennia before domesticated cereals reached Europe.
- Health & Medicine
Will animal-to-human organ transplants overcome their complicated history?
The elusive goal of using animal organs for transplants could be within reach, but it’s too soon to tell.
- Science & Society
Here are the Top 10 science anniversaries of 2022
Insulin to treat diabetes, the slide rule and the birthdays of Gregor Mendel and Louis Pasteur make the list.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, researchers thought Americans outgrew marijuana
In the 1970s, it was thought that adults over age 25 may “outgrow” marijuana. Fifty years later, older adults are in on the action.
- Psychology
How mindfulness-based training can give elite athletes a mental edge
Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy are two types of training psychologists are using to bolster athletes’ mental health.
- Health & Medicine
Antimicrobial resistance is a leading cause of death globally
In more than 70 percent of the 1.27 million deaths caused by antimicrobial resistance, infections didn’t respond to two classes of first-line antibiotics.
- Humans
Babies may use saliva sharing to figure out relationships
Actions like sharing bites of food or kissing may cue young children into close bonds, a new study suggests.
- Archaeology
Gold and silver tubes in a Russian museum are the oldest known drinking straws
Long metal tubes enabled communal beer drinking more than 5,000 years ago, scientists say.
- Genetics
A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
People with some genetic variants close to smell-related genes had an 11 percent higher risk of losing their sense of taste or smell.
- Animals
Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans
Syria’s 4,500-year-old kungas were donkey-wild ass hybrids, genetic analysis reveals, so the earliest known example of humans crossing animal species.
