Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Schools are reopening. COVID-19 is still here. What does that mean for kids?
Children do get COVID-19, and some become very sick and even die. But the disease’s long-term effects on kids remain uncertain.
- Health & Medicine
What science tells us about reducing coronavirus spread from wind instruments
Performers struggled to find evidence that would free them from musical lockdown, so they partnered with researchers to get some answers.
- Health & Medicine
New delta variant studies show the pandemic is far from over
The coronavirus’s delta variant is different from earlier strains of the virus in worrying ways, health officials are discovering.
- Anthropology
A skeleton from Peru vies for the title of oldest known shark attack victim
The 6,000-year-old remains of a teen with a missing leg and tell-tale bite marks came to light after news of a 3,000-year-old victim in Japan surfaced.
- Health & Medicine
Why the CDC says it’s crucial to start wearing masks indoors again
While unvaccinated people are driving the spread of the coronavirus, vaccinated people infected with the delta variant may also easily transmit it.
- 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.
