Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Why it’s still so hard to find treatments for early COVID-19
Small studies, unexpected side effects and incomplete information about how drugs work can stymie clinical trials for drugs that can treat COVID-19.
- Health & Medicine
What experts know so far about COVID-19 boosters for immunocompromised people
Some immunocompromised people remain at risk for severe COVID-19 despite being vaccinated. Studies hint that an additional vaccine dose might help.
- Anthropology
A partial skeleton reveals the world’s oldest known shark attack
An ancient shark bite victim died quickly, before his body was recovered and buried, a new study finds.
- Health & Medicine
The coronavirus cuts cells’ hairlike cilia, which may help it invade the lungs
Images show that the coronavirus clears the respiratory tract of hairlike structures called cilia, which keep foreign objects out of the lungs.
- Humans
Only a tiny fraction of our DNA is uniquely human
Some of the exclusively human tweaks to DNA may have played a role in brain evolution.
- Health & Medicine
Human cells make a soaplike substance that busts up bacteria
Nonimmune cells can fight off pathogens by releasing a detergent-like molecule that dissolves bacterial membranes.
- Health & Medicine
Millions of kids have missed routine vaccines thanks to COVID-19
Missed shots due to the pandemic may have cut vaccination rates for measles, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis to their lowest levels in over a decade.
- Humans
‘The Joy of Sweat’ will help you make peace with perspiration
Dripping with science and history, a new book by science journalist Sarah Everts seeks to take the stigma off sweat.
- Science & Society
How science overlooks Asian Americans
Existing scientific datasets fail to capture details on Asian Americans, making it hard to assess the group’s overall well-being.
- Health & Medicine
One mutation may have set the coronavirus up to become a global menace
A study pinpoints a key mutation that may have put a bat coronavirus on the path to becoming a human pathogen, helping it better infect human cells.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, scientists found a virus lurking in human cancer cells
In 1971, scientists were building a case for viruses as a cause of cancer. Fifty years later, cancer-preventing vaccines are now a reality.
- Health & Medicine
How your DNA may affect whether you get COVID-19 or become gravely ill
A study of 45,000 people links 13 genetic variants to higher COVID-19 risks, including a link between blood type and infection and a newfound tie between FOXP4 and severe disease.
