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5 articles from ScienceNOW

Electrical stimulation of the brain may help people who stutter

When Guillermo Mejias was 7 years old, his parents sent him out to buy bread during a family holiday in southern Spain. Mejias still remembers his growing anxiety as he walked to the bakery, repeating what he would say over and over in his head. But when the moment arrived, he was unable to produce a single word. He recalls returning empty-handed, ashamed, and wondering what to tell his...

‘The complexities are staggering.’ U.S. plans huge trial of blood tests for multiple cancers

Tests that screen seemingly healthy people for many kinds of cancer by analyzing a blood sample are starting to enter the clinic—worrying some physicians and scientists that they could do more harm than good. Now, as part of President Joe Biden’s reignited Cancer Moonshot, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is laying plans to evaluate the promise of such tests. Last week,...

Modern city dwellers have lost about half their gut microbes

Deep in the human gut, myriad “good” bacteria and other microbes help us digest our food, as well as keep us healthy by affecting our immune, metabolic, and nervous systems. Some of these humble microbial assistants have been in our guts since before humans became human—certain gut microbes are found in almost all primates, suggesting they first colonized a common ancestor. But...

Women scientists don’t get authorship they should, new study suggests

Poba/iStock Science is increasingly conducted by teams. But within those teams, credit isn’t always allocated equitably: Women are less likely to be authors than men in their research group at the same career stage , even accounting for the hours each individual worked on the project, according to a study published today in...