Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Weak appetite in elderly ties to hormone
A hormone known to suppress appetite is more abundant in seniors than in young adults and has a greater effect in squelching hunger in elderly people.
- Health & Medicine
Mice reveal the off switch for inflammation
Working with genetically engineered mice, scientists have identified a crucial natural mechanism that rodents use to shut down inflammation before it does harm.
- Health & Medicine
Newfound flu protein may kill immune cells
A dash of serendipity led to the discovery of a new protein, produced by most strains of the influenza A virus.
- Health & Medicine
Boost in protein repair extends fly lives
In warmer-than-normal conditions, fruit flies that overproduce a protein-repair enzyme live about one-third longer than typical flies.
- Health & Medicine
Gene Therapy for Sickle-Cell Disease?
By adding a useful gene to offset the effects of a faulty one, scientists have devised a gene therapy that prevents sickle-cell anemia in mice.
- Anthropology
Evolving in Their Graves
Understanding what early, rudimentary burials meant to modern humans' antecedents—assuming early humans did, in fact, bury their dead—could help anthropologsts untangle a lasting mystery of human evolution.
- Health & Medicine
Surprise! Fat proves a taste sensation
The share of consumed fat that travels into a person's bloodstream depends on whether the person tasted fat to begin with.
- Health & Medicine
Delayed surgery aids spinal cord repair
Postponing surgery to repair a severed spinal cord in rats improves the likelihood that the operation will counteract the injury.
- Anthropology
Human evolution put brakes on tooth growth
A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that the slower pace of dental development observed in people today dates back only about 100,000 years.
- Health & Medicine
Low Radiation Hurts Bystander Cells
New research confirms that alpha particles from decaying radon atoms can damage neighboring cells they don't directly hit and suggests a mechanism for this so-called bystander effect.
- Health & Medicine
Thinking the way to stronger muscles
Thinking about exercising a muscle can make it stronger.
- Health & Medicine
New epilepsy drug is possible
A drug mimicking a natural substance in the brain may offer a new therapy for epilepsy.
