Ars Technica
Diagnosing deadly medieval fever epidemics through ancient DNA
Many epidemics of fever ravaged Europe from ancient times through the early 20th century. But one disease stands out in ...
Ancient Italian cemeteries tell tales of barbarian migration
We know very little of [Longobards] or any of the other barbarian tribes that roared through Western Europe other than ...
Brain implants could control epileptic seizures with chemical stimulants
People who suffer severe epileptic seizures may one day be able to control or even prevent them with an electronic ...
Pinpointing the internal clock that helps us mark the passage of time
Manmade clocks may precisely measure time, but, from a human perspective, the passage of time is remarkably fluid. It drags ...
How math skills and a love of patterns are linked to autism
[O]ur brain uses two modules to try to make sense of the world. One systemizes: it looks for patterns and ...
Hospital ‘superbugs’ getting better at defeating alcohol-based hand sanitizers
Popular hand sanitizers may be heading the way of antibiotics, according to a study published this week in Science Translational Medicine ...
Boy almost back to normal 3 years after doctors remove large section of his brain
A boy who had large parts of the right side of his brain removed due to a slow-growing tumor made ...
Genes play a role in educational achievement, but not as much as your parents’ education does
What's more important, genes or environment? …The advent of genomics has given us a new perspective on the role of ...
Using gene editing to merge an organism’s chromosomes into ‘one giant molecule’
Complex organisms have complex genomes. While bacteria and archaea keep all of their genes on a single loop of DNA, ...
Why it’s difficult to declare the end of an Ebola outbreak
The World Health Organization on [July 24] declared the official end of the latest outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic ...
Better than antibiotics? Bacteria-targeting viruses show potential against pneumonia
Like other cells, bacteria often find themselves victims of viral infections, dying as new viruses burst out to infect their ...
Can we delay aging by killing off old cells with powerful drug combo?
We have a good idea of what makes individual cells old. Things like DNA damage, shortened chromosome ends, and a ...
GMO crops so efficient at killing pests, adjacent non-GMO crops are also protected
One of the great purported boons of GMOs is that they allow farmers to use fewer pesticides, some of which are ...
USDA wants your opinion on its GMO labeling proposal
There's nothing inherently unsafe about genetically engineering crops or agricultural animals. ... But the public has been consistently uneasy about ...
Ars Technica decision to reject reporting on latest cellphone scare study illustrates how journalists apply science literacy
[Recently], a fellow editor emailed me a link to yet another study purporting to show that cellphone use could be ...
Woman’s death blamed on bee-sting acupuncture promoted by Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop
A 55-year-old Spanish woman has died following repeated exposures to an acupuncture method that uses live, stinging bees instead of ...
Stone tool evolution study illuminates early human development
For at least 2.6 million years, humans and our ancestors have been making stone tools by chipping off flakes of ...
Ecological vanishing act: African rainforests disappeared, then bounced back
Three thousand years ago, dense old-growth rainforests covered most of central Africa. But around 2,600 years ago, an event that ...
Male birth control: Still no pill despite 50 years of contraceptive research
Today, there are 17 female-controlled forms of contraception approved by the FDA, including the birth control pill. Yet condoms and ...
What happened to the native Caribbeans? Ancient DNA could solve mystery
The Bahamas weren’t settled until 1,500 years ago. The people who settled there are known as the Lucayan Taino, and ...
Harnessing evolution for space travel: Using biomimicry to recreate life on Mars
[E]volution has had billions of years of trial and error to produce species that are well adapted chemically and physically ...
Ancient poison used for arrows could lead to male birth control pills
According to scientists, a poison arrow in the quiver may let loose a very sticky nether-region massacre. The poison in ...
Mystery of anesthetics: Despite lack of central nervous system, plants too ‘pass out’ from ‘knock out’ drugs
Just like humans, plants can succumb to the effects of general anesthetic drugs, researchers report in the Annals of Botany. The finding ...
Gut microbiome could influence response to cancer treatment
When [cancer] drugs work, the immune system tramples tumors into oblivion. But they don’t always work—in fact, cancer drugs can ...
‘Kelp highway’–not a land bridge–likely brought first humans to the Americas
For decades, students were taught that the first people in the Americas were a group called the Clovis who walked ...
Modeling human tumors in mice can be problematic—here’s why
[A] new study [read full study] suggests that an unfortunate side effect of ... evolutionary changes is that human tumors are ...
Chemotherapy drugs can be blocked by bacteria hiding in cancer cells
Of all the kinds of bacteria, some are charming and beneficial, others are malicious and dangerous—and then there are the ...
Proof of Viking warrior women? Maybe, but maybe not
In a paper published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Uppsala University archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson and her team announced that they had, at ...
