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The Human Voice May Not Spark Pleasure In Children With Autism()  

Instructional assistant Jessica Reeder touches her nose to get Jacob Day, 3, who has autism,  to focus his attention on her during a therapy session in April 2007.

June 17, 2013 Scientists and parents have long been baffled by the fact that children with autism often don't pay attention to human voices. Researchers say that may be because speech doesn't activate a reward system in the brain for those children the way it does for typical children.

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Rule Would List All Chimps As Endangered, Even Lab Animals()  

Chimpanzee Toni celebrated his 50th birthday at the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich on Nov. 22, 2011.

June 14, 2013 Though the regulation proposed by the Fish and Wildlife Service would make it more difficult to use chimpanzees for research purposes, that may not be a problem, some scientists say. Scientific advances show the animals are less medically useful than previously thought.

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Sorry, Dr. Oz, Green Coffee Can't Even Slim Down Chubby Mice()  

Raw, green coffee beans. To roast or not?

June 14, 2013 An extract from raw, green coffee beans has been called a "miracle" weight-loss aid. But a study in mice casts doubt on the supplement's fat-burning effects — and even offers preliminary evidence that it could be harmful.

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Scientists Go Medieval To Solve Ancient Leprosy Puzzle()  

A woodcut from the 1800s, Healing the Lepers, depicts the common tableau of Jesus healing a leper as his disciples look on.

June 14, 2013 Looking for clues to to modern-day leprosy, scientists dig up a 500-year-old mass grave and scan for ancient strains of bacteria in human remains. They find that the bacteria that cause leprosy haven't changed, humans have.

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Supreme Court Gene Ruling Splits Hairs Over What's 'Natural'()  

A technician loads patient samples into a machine for testing at Myriad Genetics in Salt Lake City in 2002. The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Myriad cannot patent the BRCA genes, which are tested to check a woman's risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

June 13, 2013 The court said biotech company Myriad could not patent human genes, since they already "existed in nature." But when it comes to synthetic DNA, the court said patents may be acceptable in some cases.

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Prevention Pill Cuts HIV Risk For Injecting Drug Users ()  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doctors should prescribe Truvada, a once-a-day pill for HIV, to help prevent infections in IV drug users.

June 13, 2013 Needle sharing and drug use put an estimated 4,000 people at risk for contracting HIV every year. Now, the same medications that are used to treat HIV-positive individuals might also protect the uninfected before they engage in risky behavior.

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