Humans

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- Health & Medicine
Cannabis may alter a teen’s developing brain
Marijuana use between ages 14 and 19 was linked to faster thinning of brain regions important in decision-making.
- Archaeology
A medieval grave may have held a powerful nonbinary person
A 1,000-year-old grave in Finland, once thought to hold a respected woman warrior, may belong to someone who didn’t have a strictly male or female identity.
By Bruce Bower - Psychology
How to resist and counter today’s flood of fake news
Although misinformation bothers most people, few know how to spot deceit or nonsense, studies find.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Plasma
In physics, plasma refers to one of the four states of matter. In medicine, plasma describes the part of blood that ferries cells, nutrients and more throughout the body.
- Health & Medicine
Discovering the power of placebos
If you take a fake pill and expect to feel better, you may. Researchers are learning how this placebo effect works and how to use it to help patients.
- Archaeology
Skeletons point to world’s oldest known shark attacks
The newfound remains came from people who had lived thousands of years ago in Peru and Japan, half a world apart.
By Bruce Bower - Humans
Got back-to-school COVID-19 questions? We’ve got answers
If everybody masks up at school, that could prevent a bumpy 2021–22 schoolyear. It also could keep safe those students too young to be vaccinated.
By Sujata Gupta - Humans
How COVID-19 testing plans can keep kids safe in school
As U.S. students head back to school, various testing strategies are being rolled out to help keep kids safe during in-person learning.
- Health & Medicine
Kids lost more than learning when COVID closed their schools
The first 18 months of the pandemic has already taken a hefty academic and emotional toll on students, new research shows.
- Health & Medicine
Millions of kids have missed routine vaccines thanks to COVID-19
The missed shots brought vaccination rates for measles, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis to their lowest levels in over a decade.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 can infect kids — and risks sickening some severely
Not all are equally impacted. Even among supposedly low risk groups, concerns intensify as the super-contagious delta variant sweeps across the globe.
- Health & Medicine
What is the role of in-person classes in COVID-19’s spread?
New data haven’t shown that schools pose a big coronavirus risk to kids and their families, despite fears that they might.