discoveries

Read the latest news stories about recent scientific discoveries on Newser.com

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Boaty McBoatface Makes 'Remarkable' Find in Loch Ness

Robot sub discovers 1970s camera system set up to spot Nessie

(Newser) - Robot submarine Boaty McBoatface has made a surprise discovery in Scotland's Loch Ness—and though it's not Nessie herself , it is related to the rumored monster hiding in the loch's depths. The sub was recently undergoing testing for deep sea research expeditions in Loch Ness when its...

Babies Might Remember More Than We Thought

A new study reveals that infants have the ability to form memories

(Newser) - Nobody remembers their first few years of life, but that doesn't mean babies don't remember anything at all. "We have memories from what happened earlier today and ... even from a few years ago," Tristan Yates, a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia University, tells NPR . "But all...

Egypt's Latest Royal Tomb Is a Mystery

Abydos tomb, some 3.6K years old, has been stripped of identifiers of its occupant

(Newser) - Egypt has announced the discovery of its second royal tomb in the same year. Weeks after revealing the discovery of King Thutmose II's tomb , archaeologists unveiled the discovery of a looted tomb belonging to another pharaoh, who remains unidentified. The tomb was found at a necropolis in Abydos, one...

How'd Iguanas Get to Fiji? Looks Like a Raft Made of Plants
Mystery of How Iguanas
Got to Fiji May Be Solved
NEW STUDY
Mar 23, 2025 1:30 PM CDT

Mystery of How Iguanas Got to Fiji May Be Solved

Research suggests lizards floated to remote islands from North America on a vegetation raft

(Newser) - Researchers have long wondered how iguanas got to Fiji, a collection of remote islands in the South Pacific. They thought maybe they'd scurried there through Asia or Australia before volcanic activity pushed Fiji far away. But new research published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

It's the 'First Material Evidence' of World's First Empire

4K-year-old cuneiform tablets reveal the bureaucratic 'spreadsheets' of Mesopotamia

(Newser) - Archaeologists say they've found "the very first material evidence of the very first empire in the world" in 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets unearthed in Iraq. More than 200 administrative tablets have been discovered in the ancient megacity of Girsu, now Tello, along with some 50 administrative seals, per...

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Use Venomous Mating Strategy
Male Blue-Lined Octopuses
Paralyze Females to Mate
new study
Mar 16, 2025 11:30 AM CDT

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Paralyze Females to Mate

They use 'high-precision bite' to inject neurotoxin before mating

(Newser) - Female black widows sometimes eat their mates after copulation. Female praying mantises are known for biting off the male's head. Scientists now say male blue-lined octopuses avoid a similar fate because of an aggressive defensive measure: They bite the larger females and inject them with venom near the aorta...

This May Be the First Evidence of Narwhals Playing
The Narwal's
Signature Tusk
May Be Multipurpose
NEW STUDY
Mar 13, 2025 9:23 AM CDT

The Narwal's Signature Tusk May Be Multipurpose

It could have uses in foraging and play, in addition to mating

(Newser) - What is the point of a narwhal's signature tusk, which is actually just one, long spiraled tooth? The answer may be multifaceted, according to new research. Prior research indicates the lengthy tooth, rarely seen in females, is a sexual display, used to communicate a male's fertility —the...

Archaeologists Found the Head in 1927. Now, the Body

Buddha torso found in Cambodia's ancient Angkor temple complex

(Newser) - Archaeologists in February unearthed a torso of a Buddha statue at Cambodia's ancient Angkor temple complex—essentially completing a puzzle that's been nearly a century in the making. The AP reports the nearly 4-foot-tall torso, which is thought to date to the 12th or 13th century, was uncovered...

Shipwreck Discovery Gave Him 'Chills'

Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the Great Lakes

(Newser) - Twenty years before the Titanic changed maritime history, another ship touted as the next great technological feat set sail on the Great Lakes. The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the lakes. Built to break speed records, the 300-foot freighter dubbed "the inland...

128 New Moons Nearly Double Saturn's Tally
We Have a New
'Moon King'
Mar 12, 2025 11:07 AM CDT

We Have a New 'Moon King'

Discovery of 128 Saturn moons brings planet's total to 274

(Newser) - Move over, Jupiter: Saturn is the new "moon king," with 274 planetary satellites in orbit, almost half of which were only just discovered. As of 2023, Jupiter was considered the leader among moon-hosting planets in the solar system with 92 confirmed, compared to Saturn's 83. Jupiter now...

We Underestimated the Megalodon
We Underestimated
the Megalodon
NEW STUDY
Mar 11, 2025 1:16 PM CDT

We Underestimated the Megalodon

Extinct shark could've been as long as 2 school buses, as heavy as a blue whale

(Newser) - It hasn't been easy forming a picture of the megalodon , a massive shark that dominated the oceans millions of years ago, because fossil finds include only teeth and vertebrae . But researchers in 28 countries now believe they have a good idea of what the shark looked like after comparing...

Archaeologists: This Is 'Holy Grail Stuff'
Archaeologists: Canoe
Find Is 'Holy Grail Stuff'
in case you missed it
Mar 8, 2025 11:30 AM CST

Archaeologists: Canoe Find Is 'Holy Grail Stuff'

Traditional 'waka' on Chatham Island could be 'one of the most important finds of all time in Polynesia'

(Newser) - A father-son duo on Chatham Island, 500 miles east of New Zealand, stumbled upon a find so rare, archaeologists describe it as "holy grail stuff." Vincent Dix and his son Nikau initially planned to build a coffee table from planks of wood found flowing out of a washed-out...

Bone Tools Came 1.2M Years Before Homo Sapiens
Bone Tools Came
1.2M Years Before
Homo Sapiens
NEW STUDY
Mar 6, 2025 8:15 AM CST

Bone Tools Came 1.2M Years Before Homo Sapiens

Early humans carved hand axes from hippo, elephant leg bones 1.5M years ago

(Newser) - Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago, reports the AP . A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by...

Researchers Predict Next Ice Age, With a Catch
Researchers Predict
Next Ice Age—With a Catch
new study
Mar 3, 2025 10:37 AM CST

Researchers Predict Next Ice Age—With a Catch

It should happen in 10K years, but our warming temperatures are likely to delay it

(Newser) - Researchers say they have for the first time cracked the code on how to determine when ice ages come and go—and their formula suggests the next one should arrive in 10,000 years, reports USA Today . But there's a catch: Our warming temperatures make it "very unlikely"...

Ancient Bones Found in Cave Show Signs of Cannibalism

Bones discovered long ago in Maszycka Cave in Poland give up more secrets

(Newser) - It's been more than a century since human bones dating back 18,000 years were found in the Maszycka Cave in Poland, and they're only now giving up some more of their secrets—grim ones. A study published in Scientific Reports in early February and based on the...

In Vesuvius, a Human Brain Turned Into Stunning Glass

Vesuvius victim's brain liquified at up to 1,100 degrees, then quickly cooled: study

(Newser) - They are tiny pieces of black glass. They are also, technically, fossilized brains. The pea-sized pieces of shiny glass, actually quite beautiful close up, were discovered around 2018 inside the skull of a man who died when Italy's Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD, destroying Roman cities including Herculaneum and...

After Trip, Her Legs Were Burning. Culprit: a Brain Worm
Woman's Unwelcome Souvenir
From Trip: a Brain Worm
in case you missed it
Feb 23, 2025 3:10 PM CST

Woman's Unwelcome Souvenir From Trip: a Brain Worm

Parasite contracted in Hawaii or Southeast Asia caused patient's legs to feel like they were burning

(Newser) - A woman on a whirlwind three-week junket to Hawaii, Japan, and Thailand returned home with an unwanted memento: a parasite that embedded itself in her brain and made her legs feel like they were burning. That odd sensation started out in the New England 30-year-old's feet after she got...

Turns Out, Ancient Mummies Smell Kind of Nice
Scent of Ancient Mummies
May Surprise You
in case you missed it
Feb 22, 2025 11:30 AM CST

Scent of Ancient Mummies May Surprise You

It's pleasant, not rancid, scientists report

(Newser) - Soon, visitors to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo will be able to catch a whiff of humans who died thousands of years ago. A new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society suggests they might be pleasantly surprised. Researchers extracted scents from inside the sarcophagi of nine mummies...

Burials in River Thames Go Back 6K Years
River Thames Has Been
a Burial Site for 6K Years
new study
Feb 22, 2025 7:00 AM CST

River Thames Has Been a Burial Site for 6K Years

'There really was something significant going on in the Bronze and Iron Ages,' says researcher

(Newser) - Researchers taking the most comprehensive look yet at ancient bones dredged from the River Thames in London have dated some of the remains back 6,000 years, reports Gizmodo . However, Live Science reports that most of them date from the Bronze Age (2300 to 800 BC) and the Iron Age...

Want to Make Your Texts More Intense? Use. Periods.
Adding Periods to Texts
Changes. Their. Intensity.
NEW STUDY
Feb 20, 2025 5:35 PM CST

Adding Periods to Texts Changes. Their. Intensity.

Researchers say periods and text breaks may be 'equivalent to a dramatic pause'

(Newser) - We all likely spend a fair amount of time analyzing text messages. It's not always easy to gauge a sender's feelings from written words, as facial expressions and patterns of rhythm and sound often used to shape meaning in spoken conversations are absent. But "textisms"—a...

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