human

Population sequencing data reveal a compendium of mutational processes in the human germ line By Vladimir B. Seplyarskiy, Ruslan A. Soldatov, Evan Koch, Ryan J. McGinty, Jakob M. Goldmann, Ryan D. Hernandez, Kathleen…

Poultry passport to pandemicWhat conditions are required to nurture the seeds of a pandemic? The avian influenza virus H7N9 rarely spills over into humans, but when it does, mortality exceeds 30%, far in excess of that of severe acute…

TCR-like antibodies tackle celiac diseaseIngestion of gluten-containing food triggers the gastrointestinal symptoms of celiac disease in patients with CD4+ T cells specific for deamidated gluten peptides presented by disease-associated…

Babbling batsA notable aspect of language development in humans is the babbling stage. During this time, toddlers make a range of specific sounds as they practice and imitate adult speech. Humans are not the only vocal learners, however, so…

Daily energy expenditure through the human life course By Herman Pontzer, Yosuke Yamada, Hiroyuki Sagayama, Philip N. Ainslie, Lene F. Andersen, Liam J. Anderson, Lenore Arab, Issaad Baddou, Kweku Bedu-Addo, Ellen E.…

Sensing metabolic shiftsHuman γδ T cells play a critical role in surveillance against infection and cancer and use various mechanisms to sense metabolic changes associated with these assaults. Harly et al. describe a role for the stress…

AbstractThe spillover of animal coronaviruses (aCoVs) to humans has caused SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. While antibody responses displaying cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal/common cold human coronaviruses (hCoVs) have been…

Cleansing the cytosolMost human cells, not just those belonging to the immune system, mount protective responses to infection when activated by the immune cytokine interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). How IFN-γ confers this function in nonimmune cells…

KIR3DL3-HHLA2 interactions protect tumorsHHLA2 (a B7 family member) has both immune inhibitory and activating abilities and is expressed in many human cancers. These differing functions rely on the receptor to which it binds, yet many of…

SummaryNew genomic studies (1), new fossils (2, 3), and new dates of existing ones (4) suggest that our African origin has a deeper history—one that took place in the context of high population and lineage diversity and which was…

Climate change is leading to systemic and existential impacts, and evidence is mounting that these can result in the displacement of human populations. There is a rapidly growing demand for comprehensive risk assessments that include…

Habitability loss is increasingly recognized as an important dimension of climate risk assessment and one with complex linkages to migration. Most habitability assessments, like climate risk assessments more generally, are based on…

SummaryOne of the most enduring themes in human neuroscience is the association of higher brain functions with gray matter. In particular, the cerebral cortex—the gray matter of the brain's surface—has been the primary focus of decades of…

Connecting the dots on white matterThe white matter of the brain, which is composed of axonal tracts connecting different brain regions, plays key roles in both normal brain function and a variety of neurological disorders. Zhao et al.…

SummaryImagine a choice between two gambles: getting $100 with a probability of 20% or getting $50 with a probability of 80%. In 1979, Kahneman and Tversky published prospect theory (1), a mathematically specified descriptive theory of how…

Discovering better theoriesTheories of human decision-making have proliferated in recent years. However, these theories are often difficult to distinguish from each other and offer limited improvement in accounting for patterns in…