Imagine removing a branch of the U.S. government, say the Supreme Court. What are the myriad ways that such an upheaval might reshape people’s lives? Policy makers and researchers probably…
Category: Humans
A gene therapy for hemophilia boosts levels of a crucial clotting protein
A gene-based therapy is potentially a step closer to becoming a one-time treatment for men with hemophilia. The life-threatening genetic disorder hinders the body’s ability to form blood clots. In…
‘The Dawn of Everything’ rewrites 40,000 years of human history
The Dawn of EverythingDavid Graeber and David WengrowFarrar, Straus and Giroux, $35 Concerns abound about what’s gone wrong in modern societies. Many scholars explain growing gaps between the haves and…
The earliest evidence of tobacco use dates to over 12,000 years ago
Ancient North Americans started using tobacco around 12,500 to 12,000 years ago, roughly 9,000 years before the oldest indications that they smoked the plant in pipes, a new study finds.…
‘Ghost tracks’ suggest people came to the Americas earlier than once thought
Footprints left behind by prehistoric people may be some of the strongest evidence yet that humans arrived in the Americas earlier than previously thought. Over 60 “ghost tracks” —…
School mask mandates in the U.S. reduced coronavirus transmission
The verdict is, once again, in: Masking in schools is effective. During the COVID-19 pandemic’s delta variant wave, schools that required masking had approximately one-fourth the rates of in-school coronavirus…
50 years ago, oxygen was touted as a potential memory loss treatment
Retaining older people’s memory — Science News, March 18, 1972 In spite of the age-old yearning for the Fountain of Youth, there is a marked lack of research toward retaining…
Military towns are the most racially integrated places in the U.S. Here’s why
Amber Williams and her husband bought their first house in 2008 for $80,000 in the small military city of Killeen, Texas. “I wanted to go big and bad, but he…
How mindfulness-based training can give elite athletes a mental edge
On yellow poster board, blue letters spell BELIEVE, a nod to the Emmy-winning TV show Ted Lasso. The sign hangs above mindfulness researcher Tommy Minkler’s office door at West Virginia…
Babies may use saliva sharing to figure out relationships
Young children are always watching. That includes when people swap spit through actions like sharing food — helping the tots work out who is in close relationships with one another,…
