BOSTON – The oral health of ethnic minorities and lower-income groups is much worse than that of the general population, but leveraging social networks and other innovative healthcare delivery channels may help close this troubling gap.

The threat of climate change is not some distant apparition for the indigenous peoples who dwell along the shores of Alaska’s bays and rivers—it is something they are confronting today. And it affects the major pillars of their society, speakers said recently at AAAS.

Scientists have discovered the cremated skeleton of a Paleoindian child in the remains of an 11,500-year-old house in central Alaska. The findings reveal a slice of domestic life that has been missing from the record of the region’s early people, who were among the first to colonize the Americas.

The discovery, by Ben Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and colleagues, appears in the 25 February issue of the journal Science.

Yvette Roubideaux decided she wanted to become a physician when she was 16. A member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, she had seen the delays and staff shortages at health facilities on the reservation as she was growing up. She felt there was a need for more American Indian doctors to help improve the situation.