Humans

  1. Health & Medicine

    Mouth germs team up to boost disease risk

    The oxygen given off by harmless mouth bacteria can help disease-causing invaders grow strong and flourish.

    By Laurel Hamers
  2. Health & Medicine

    U.S. to outlaw antibacterial soaps

    Soaps with germ-killing compounds promise cleaner hands. But manufacturers couldn’t show they offer any safety advantage. Now the U.S. government is banning them.

    By Helen Thompson and Janet Raloff
  3. Brain

    This supplement makes calorie-rich foods less tempting

    A supplement that contains the fatty acid propionate causes the brain to rate high-calorie foods less appealing.

    By Alison Pearce Stevens
  4. Animals

    Cool Jobs: Linking animal health to human health

    Scientists who watch out for diseases in wild animals also can play a role in keeping people from getting sick.

    By Liz Devitt
  5. Health & Medicine

    Grandparents’ diet could be a weighty issue for grandkids

    Australian scientists have found that fat mice can pass on a heightened risk of obesity to their sons and grandsons.

    By Dinsa Sachan
  6. Genetics

    Explainer: What is epigenetics?

    Epigenetics is the study of molecular “switches” that turn genes on and off. Tweak those switches and there could be big health consequences.

    By Janet Raloff
  7. Archaeology

    ‘Cousin’ Lucy may have fallen from a tree to her death 3.2 million years ago

    A contested study suggests that Lucy, a famous fossil ancestor of humans, fell from a tree to her death.

    By Bruce Bower
  8. Health & Medicine

    ‘Smart’ sutures monitor healing

    Coatings added to the threads used to stitch up a wound let researchers use electrical signals to monitor a wound’s healing — even one covered by a bandage.

    By Sid Perkins
  9. Ecosystems

    Will chicken cologne guard you from malaria?

    Mosquitoes that carry malaria are repelled by the smell of chickens. In malaria country, that could make these birds a human’s best friend.

    By Sharon Oosthoek
  10. Brain

    Zika can damage the brains of even adults

    The Zika virus can damage a developing baby’s brain. The infection can also kill off an important type of cells in adult brains, a new mouse study finds.

    By Meghan Rosen
  11. Health & Medicine

    Nano medicines take aim at big diseases

    Nanomedicines are new treatments and tools that are taking aim at disease from the cellular level. Medicine’s next big thing could be very teeny tiny.

    By Kathiann Kowalski
  12. Animals

    Got milk? Roach milk could be a new superfood

    Scientists have just figured out the recipe for cockroach milk. And that could be a first step toward making it part of the human diet. Yum!

    By Dinsa Sachan