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Nov 15, 2018
This week we focus on the behavior of the youngest members of the human race. We try to translate the mysterious language of babies. And we ask, when should we step back and just let our children be?
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Nov 15, 2018
A genetic analysis of samples taken from a large UK health database suggest that people who are more sensitive than their peers to the bitter taste of caffeine tend to drink more coffee — not less.
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Nov 14, 2018
New research finds they sustained skull injuries at about the same rate as early modern humans. "I definitely think that it's evidence these guys were not beating each other up," one expert says.
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Nov 13, 2018
A small cylinder called Le Grand K has defined the kilogram for more than a hundred years. But if a scratch ever rendered it lighter, the definition of the kilo literally shifted. Time for a change.
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Nov 13, 2018
Many schools give attendance awards to motivate students. A study found students who were awarded for perfect attendance went on to have more absences than their peers who weren't given the award.
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Nov 10, 2018
After years of debate, a major government funded study failed to find any overall benefit of taking widely used supplements to protect against heart disease or cancer.
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Nov 10, 2018
After years of debate, a major government funded study failed to find any overall benefit of taking widely used supplements to protect against heart disease or cancer.
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Nov 09, 2018
Bees exposed to a type of insecticides called neonicotinoids dramatically changed their behavior — becoming sluggish, antisocial and spending less time caring for the colony's young, researchers say.
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Nov 09, 2018
New research highlights the link between childhood trauma and mental illness and addiction in adulthood, leading some researchers to call it an issue as pressing as any infectious disease.
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Nov 08, 2018
When people are feeling glum, it often means that brain areas involved in emotion and memory are communicating. Researchers have now observed the circuit in action in humans.
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Nov 07, 2018
In mice genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer's symptoms, those given a synthetic version of a chemical in marijuana retained normal memory function.
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Nov 07, 2018
The Pentagon wants university researchers to find ways to protect crops in the field using infectious viruses carried by insects. Critics think it looks like bioweapons research.
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Nov 06, 2018
Biologists are keen to understand how a type of flatworm known as a planarian uses powerful stem cells to regenerate an entire body from a headless sliver of itself.
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Nov 04, 2018
Working memory is where the brain keeps bits of information in everyday life handy. But brain scientists don't agree on how working memory works.
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Nov 02, 2018
Critics, including some leading anesthesiologists, say the drug is unnecessary, and they worry it will be diverted and abused. The Food And Drug Administration says it is addressing safety concerns.
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Nov 02, 2018
After her double mastectomy, writer Catherine Guthrie came to embrace her new body, without breast reconstruction. But she's learned, women have to push the medical system to support this choice.
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Nov 01, 2018
As a woman ages, choosing when to try for a second or third child means weighing fertility odds against the risks of getting pregnant again too soon. A new study provides more data to help decide.
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Oct 31, 2018
Two new studies suggest that minimally invasive surgery for early stage cervical cancer patients leads to death and recurring disease more often than standard surgery through a large incision.
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Oct 31, 2018
A new study found that birds' dinosaur relatives had eggs with traces of two pigments—a red-brown one and a blue-green one. In today's birds that might produce a color such as robin's egg blue.
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Oct 31, 2018
The CDC estimated that 72,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2017. There are many reasons why the opioid crisis is so hard to confront. One of them is social stigma.
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Oct 30, 2018
When researchers convinced a group of young people to stop smoking pot, their cognition quickly improved. This adds to research warning against teen pot use, despite marijuana's growing acceptance.
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Oct 26, 2018
To design a "moral machine," researchers updated a classic thought experiment for the autonomous vehicle age. But do we really want artificial intelligence making decisions on who lives or dies?
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Oct 26, 2018
A research start-up is connecting parents with scientists in hopes of sparking new research on diseases whose survival rates and treatment options haven't budged in 30 years
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Oct 25, 2018
A brain structure that helps us walk a straight line also appears to play a central role in emotional control and decision-making. The findings about the cerebellum challenge years of dogma.
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Oct 23, 2018
The vessel dates back 2,400 years to the days of ancient Greece. "This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world," says archaeologist Jon Adams.
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Oct 22, 2018
A very small study shows that microplastics are in human waste in many parts of the world. While it's not entirely clear what that means for our health, it might be a sign that we need to pull back.
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Oct 22, 2018
Though widely prescribed in hospital intensive care units to treat hallucinations and other signs of delirium, Haldol and similar drugs are no better than a placebo for such patients, a study finds.
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Oct 22, 2018
Though widely prescribed in hospital intensive care units to treat hallucinations and other signs of delirium, Haldol and similar drugs are no better than a placebo for such patients, a study finds.
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Oct 22, 2018
Two large studies show that age-related memory loss can be slowed significantly when older people promptly address hearing and vision loss.
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Oct 18, 2018
All kinds of bacteria live with us indoors, and some can make us sick. A new study shows that rooms exposed to light had about half the live bacteria found in rooms that were kept in darkness.
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Oct 18, 2018
A scientific paper published this week predicts climate change will send beer prices skyrocketing and drastically reduce the barley crop. It got tons of media attention. But is beer really doomed?
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Oct 18, 2018
A scientific paper published this week predicts climate change will send beer prices skyrocketing and drastically reduce the barley crop. It got tons of media attention. But is beer really doomed?
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Oct 17, 2018
Cottonseed is full of protein but toxic to humans and most animals. The USDA has approved a genetically engineered cotton with edible seeds. They could eventually feed chickens, fish — or even people.
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Oct 17, 2018
A new analysis of what were initially thought to be microbial fossils in Greenland suggests they might instead just be mineral structures created when ancient tectonic forces squeezed stone.
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Oct 17, 2018
Black men are hit hardest by prostate cancer, but they are underrepresented in research. Researchers held focus groups in three states to understand why.
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Oct 16, 2018
In 2003, Paul Allen created an institute to figure out how the human brain works. That institute has already made contributions that may turn out to be part of his greatest legacy.
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Oct 16, 2018
A social scientist says some portion of people's political leanings can come from an unlikely source: their DNA.
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Oct 15, 2018
Sometimes discoveries derived from patients' medical data become the foundation of new profit-making companies. A fledgling industry wants to help patients get a cut of the cash.
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Oct 15, 2018
Sometimes discoveries derived from patients' medical data become the foundation of new profit-making companies. A fledgling industry wants to help patients get a cut of the cash.
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Oct 11, 2018
A majority of Americans of European descent could be linked to third cousins, or closer relatives, using genealogy databases, a study finds. Soon it may be possible to identify nearly everyone by DNA.
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Oct 11, 2018
Our ability to see colors develops in the womb. Now scientists have replicated that process in the lab using human cells that grow into a functioning retina.
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Oct 10, 2018
People who suffer from prolonged delirium in the hospital are likely to develop long-term mental problems like dementia. Doctors have come up with techniques they say can reduce delirium in the ICU.
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Oct 10, 2018
Up to half of all patients who survive emergency medical treatment in the intensive care unit have mental problems when they return home. Doctors studying the problem say it starts with delirium.
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Oct 09, 2018
When HIV-positive people leave prison, they often lose access to medical care and the drugs that suppress the virus. It's a missed opportunity in the fight against HIV, public health advocates say.
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Oct 09, 2018
Black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. One reason may be that they face economic and cultural barriers to taking the medications that can prevent recurrence.
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Oct 09, 2018
North Atlantic right whales used to turn up large numbers off Maine's coast, but now, adapting to climate changes, they are being spotted further north in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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Oct 08, 2018
Evidence from a site in Belize shows the Maya not only had large-scale salt-producing operations along the coast, they were also using salt to preserve fish for their extensive trade networks.
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Oct 08, 2018
Evidence from a site in Belize shows the Maya not only had large-scale salt-producing operations along the coast, they were also using salt to preserve fish for their extensive trade networks.
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Oct 08, 2018
Evidence from a site in Belize shows the Maya not only had large-scale salt-producing operations along the coast, they were also using salt to preserve fish for their extensive trade networks.
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Oct 03, 2018
Researchers tested what kind of information the animal is able to discern from scent about whether a fruit is ripe. There's evidence that some fruits evolved to better signal ripeness to lemurs.
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Oct 03, 2018
Scientists have detected plenty of planets outside our solar system. Now, they say, they've found the first moon circling one of them.
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Oct 03, 2018
In small study of middle-aged women, a history of sexual assault and workplace harassment was linked to health problems like hypertension, sleeplessness and depression.
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Oct 03, 2018
The Nobel Prize in chemistry, which honors researchers for advances in studying how molecules combine and interact, is being announced Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
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Oct 03, 2018
Frances H. Arnold, an American chemist, has won half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and George Smith of the U.S. and Sir Gregory Winter of the U.K will share the other half.
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Oct 02, 2018
Fried chicken, mac and cheese and sweet drinks: A study suggests Southern cuisine may be at the center of a tangled web of reasons why black people are more prone to hypertension than white people.
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Oct 02, 2018
Fried chicken, mac and cheese and sweet drinks: A study suggests Southern cuisine may be at the center of a tangled web of reasons why blacks in America are more prone to hypertension than whites.
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Oct 02, 2018
Astronomers have found a distant dwarf planet that appears to confirm the existence of Planet Nine, a giant planet lurking in the outer reaches of the solar system.
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Oct 02, 2018
Only about 10 percent of nurses in the U.S. are men. Research indicates that ideas of masculinity prevent men from pursuing a career in nursing.
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Sep 27, 2018
The scientists think when this new dinosaur was alive, it was the largest creature ever to have walked the Earth. And unlike the lumbering creatures that came later, it could pop up on its hind legs.
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Sep 26, 2018
The audit has been called a political gesture to placate anti-abortion groups that oppose use of the tissue. Fetal tissue has played a part in developing vaccines and medical treatments.
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Sep 25, 2018
A researcher in Australia has invented a low-tech, insecticide-free trap that might be able to reduce bites from a particularly pesky mosquito in some neighborhoods.
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Sep 24, 2018
Scientists demonstrate that a "gene drive" can rapidly spread a genetic mutation through a species, perhaps providing a potent new weapon against malaria. But there are plenty of skeptics.
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Sep 24, 2018
Humans have harnessed the ripening power of the plant hormone ethylene for centuries, but a recent discovery of how a plant controls the hormone may lead to more precise human control of ripening.
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Sep 23, 2018
Though teenagers need about nine hours of rest a night, most get only seven and are suffering. A new survey suggests their parents are struggling, too. Here's how to improve the quality of teen sleep.
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Sep 22, 2018
The research suggests that the ongoing opioid crisis may be part of a larger epidemic going back decades. The study also shows more users take multiple drugs — many of which are more potent.
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Sep 21, 2018
Walter Mischel had an idea that became a pop culture touchstone. He wanted to see if preschoolers seated in front of a marshmallow could delay their gratification. What did the experiment really mean?
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Sep 20, 2018
A Japanese research team made immature human eggs from stem cells that were derived from human blood. The technique brings scientists a step closer to being able to mass-produce human eggs.
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Sep 20, 2018
Scientists at Johns Hopkins have identified a brain region in monkeys that influences their desire to take big risks. When this area is inactivated, the monkeys tend to hedge their bets.
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Sep 20, 2018
The drug makes the usually antisocial creatures much more interested in friendly contact with other octopuses. It's one more sign that the chemistry of social behavior has deep evolutionary roots.
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Sep 19, 2018
A small study of teens who were conceived via assisted reproductive technology finds a significant number already have hypertension and premature "age-related changes" in their blood vessels.
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Sep 18, 2018
A study of nearly 2 million art auction sales show paintings by women fetch less money than paintings by men. Gender disparities that plague many parts of the economy also affect the art world.
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Sep 18, 2018
Dessa is a singer and writer from Minneapolis who spent years trying to fall out of love and get over her ex. Nothing seemed to help — until she visited a research lab for a brain scan.
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Sep 17, 2018
The largest study of its kind shows a high prevalence of adverse childhood experiences — or ACEs — across the population, but especially among some vulnerable groups.
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Sep 14, 2018
Russian agents were allegedly planning to hack into a Swiss laboratory that was analyzing nerve agents used in March against a former Russian spy and his daughter.
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Sep 13, 2018
An FDA scientist will present the results of a large government study on the safety of the plastic additive BPA.
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Sep 13, 2018
The plastic additive BPA got a clean bill of health in a two-year government study involving thousands of rats. But scientists worried about BPA's risks say the study has flaws.
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Sep 13, 2018
The scientists were inspired by the super-agile fruit fly. And by designing this robot, they've figured out some of the mysteries of one of the fly's fanciest maneuvers.
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Sep 13, 2018
Scientists have developed a forecast model for predicting mass bird migrations, based in part on weather patterns.
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Sep 12, 2018
A new report from the Kew Gardens in London is billed as the first comprehensive report on the state of the world's fungi.
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Sep 12, 2018
As marijuana gains popularity among people 65 and older, geriatricians call for more research on how it affects elderly patients. Shifts in metabolism as we age can intensify any drug's side effects.
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Sep 11, 2018
Bonobos are much more likely than common chimpanzees to share their food, a study suggests. But researchers who study sharing say human kids are more helpful and cooperative than either species.
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Sep 11, 2018
Research on the brains of barn owls suggests that attention problems like ADHD may involve a brain circuit that usually helps us ignore distractions.
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Sep 10, 2018
Scientists affiliated with Harvard and MIT have been battling with colleagues at University of California, Berkeley over who deserves patents for a revolutionary technology used in medical research. On Monday, the east coast scientists won their case in a federal appeals court.
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Sep 09, 2018
Money has poured into Alzheimer's research, but until very recently not much of it went toward investigating infection in causing dementia. A million dollar prize may lead more scientists to try.
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Sep 08, 2018
As a child, John Chater remembers trying different kinds of pomegranates in his grandfather's yard. It spurred him to pursue a dream of diversifying America's crop beyond the red Wonderful variety.
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Sep 07, 2018
Proposals in several cities to offer drug users access to a safe space to consume drugs have caused a political stir, but what do we really know about the effectiveness of safe injection sites?
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Sep 06, 2018
A study suggests large mammals must learn to migrate — and they aren't exactly quick studies. It takes decades before a herd can effectively move across land to find the best food.
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Sep 06, 2018
Microbe-eating-microbes are found in "almost every ecosystem on Earth," says a defense department scientist who hopes bacteria of this type might one day be deployed to fight human infections.
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Sep 05, 2018
New options for non-addictive pain treatment are sorely needed. One researcher is borrowing from the field of cancer nanomedicine to test an idea that could bring relief to chronic pain sufferers.
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Sep 04, 2018
Schadenfreude is an emotion most people try to hide. But research shows people are more likely to exhibit this feeling if they are die-hard fans of a particular sports team.
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Sep 02, 2018
A global development research organization study suggests that there's little data showing whether growers benefit from sustainably certifying their coffee because they are difficult to monitor.
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Aug 31, 2018
Low-income residents living near highways and agricultural and industrial zones are getting hit with a "double whammy" as wildfire smoke drifts to areas where the air is often polluted already.
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Aug 30, 2018
This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we explore why people often avoid telling the truth — to others, and to themselves.
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Aug 29, 2018
Expectant parents of twins and other multiples may be ready for the joy and extra physical demands of caring for more than one baby. But few know the risk of depression and anxiety runs higher, too.
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Aug 29, 2018
Expectant parents of twins and other multiples may be ready for the joy and extra physical demands of caring for more than one baby. But few know the risk of depression and anxiety runs higher, too.
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Aug 29, 2018
A Stanford research team finds that ketamine's ability to quickly relieve depression depends on activating the brain's opioid system. The finding raises new questions about the drug's safety.
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Aug 28, 2018
Harbor seals use sensors in their whiskers to help discern predator from prey. It's all about the way the water whirls, say scientists who are now training computers to be better trackers, too.
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Aug 28, 2018
The U.S. has the highest rates of sexually transmitted disease cases in the industrialized world, say health trackers, with chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis reaching 2.3 million cases in 2017.
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Aug 28, 2018
Lab chimps used in medical studies are being retired to a forested sanctuary. But scientists and workers who care for the animals say some older chimps aren't healthy enough to make the transition.
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Aug 28, 2018
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen also says the multicenter study of life-threatening sepsis will at best produce confusing results. A Harvard doctor and designer of the research disagrees.
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