Humans
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
How U.S. public health cuts could raise risks of infectious diseases
Deep funding cuts and widespread layoffs impact everything from local public health outreach to global disease surveillance, making us more vulnerable, experts warn.
- Health & Medicine
A shingles vaccine may also help reduce dementia risk
Analysis of a Welsh program offering live-attenuated shingles vaccines to people born after a certain date showed a 20 percent relative drop in dementia risk.
- Health & Medicine
Skin cells emit slow electric pulses after injury
The electric skin cell signals, which move at glacial pace compared to those in nerve cells, may play a role in initiating healing.
- Health & Medicine
A new antifungal drug works in a surprising way
Mandimycin, which targets a different essential fungi cell resource than other antifungal drugs, should harm other cell types as collateral — but doesn’t.
- Archaeology
Neandertal-like tools found in China present a mystery
A style of primitive stone tools named for the French site where they were first discovered have shown up half a world away.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI is helping scientists decode previously inscrutable proteins
A new set of artificial intelligence models could make protein sequencing even more powerful for better understanding cell biology and diseases.
- Microbes
Elite athletes’ poop may hold clues to boosting metabolism
In a small study, mice given fecal transplants from elite cyclists and soccer players had higher levels of glycogen, a key energy source.
- Health & Medicine
Surgeons transplanted a pig’s liver into a human
A genetically modified mini pig’s liver was able to function in the body of a brain-dead patient throughout a 10-day experiment.
- Genetics
What 23andMe’s bankruptcy means for your genetic data
As 23andMe prepares to be sold, Science News spoke with two experts about what’s at stake and whether consumers should delete their genetic data.
- Animals
You might be reading your dog’s moods wrong
A dog's physical cues often take a back seat to environmental ones, skewing humans' perceptions, a small study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Tuberculosis could be eradicated. So why isn’t it?
John Green’s new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, reveals how social injustice sustains the disease, despite available cures and vaccines.
- Health & Medicine
Avoidable deaths increased in the U.S. as they dropped elsewhere
In the United States, deaths that could have been avoided rose, on average, from 2009 to 2019. That’s in contrast to European Union countries.
