discoveries

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

Stories 561 - 580 | << Prev   Next >>

17 Bodies Thrown in Well Point to Medieval Hate Crime

Researchers say individuals were Jewish, perhaps killed during antisemitic riot

(Newser) - Almost 20 years after the jumbled bodies of 17 men, women, and children were found at the bottom of a medieval well in Norwich, England, researchers believe they know why they were thrown in there, many of them headfirst: It was an antisemitic hate crime. In sequencing DNA preserved in...

It&#39;s Good News for Those Who Like Black Tea
It's Good News
for Those
Who Like
Black Tea
new study

It's Good News for Those Who Like Black Tea

2 cups a day is linked to a modest increase in longevity

(Newser) - When it comes to the potential health benefits of tea, the green variety tends to get all the glory . However, a large new observational study suggests that black tea also does good things for those who drink it, reports the Guardian . The study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found...

Study Sees Unexpected Benefit for Kids Who Play Music

Learning an instrument early may help keep the mind sharp in old age, study suggests

(Newser) - A new study out of Scotland offers a powerful argument for having children or teens learn a musical instrument—they may end up with sharper minds in old age. The study from the University of Edinburgh found what researchers describe as a small but "statistically significant" link between the...

In Doggy Dementia, Exercise Is a Factor
In Doggy
Dementia,
Age 10 Is
a Big Year
new study

In Doggy Dementia, Age 10 Is a Big Year

Annual risk goes up substantially from then on, though exercise may help ward it off

(Newser) - Among vets, it's called canine cognitive dysfunction. Among pet owners, it's more familiarly known as doggy dementia. Now a large new study in Scientific Reports sheds some more light on the condition, which can be tricky to diagnose. Some key takeaways:
  • Exercise: The study of more than 15,
...

You and Your Doppleganger Share More Than Looks
You and Your Doppleganger
Share More Than Looks
new study

You and Your Doppleganger Share More Than Looks

Study shows that unrelated look-alikes also share genes and even behaviors

(Newser) - Studies of twins are common. Studies of unrelated people who could pass for twins, not so much. But in Cell Reports , researchers dug deep into the phenomenon of dopplegangers—look-a-likes who are aren't actually related—and discovered that they share far more than superficial appearances, reports Science Alert . An...

Ancient Estate Unearthed in Israel


In Israel,
Dig Reveals
an Ancient
Estate
photos

In Israel, Dig Reveals an Ancient Estate

Site in town of Rahat dates back to 8th or 9th century

(Newser) - Archaeologists unearthed a lavish 1,200-year-old estate in Israel's southern desert that offers a unique glimpse of life for wealthy residents of the Negev region, the country's antiquities authority said Tuesday. The discovery in the Bedouin town of Rahat dates to the early Islamic period in the eighth...

Old Map May Settle Mystery of Wales&#39; Atlantis
Researchers May Have Found
the 'Atlantis' of Wales
new study

Researchers May Have Found the 'Atlantis' of Wales

They spot long-gone islands off the coast on medieval map

(Newser) - It's not the Atlantis, but two researchers may have figured out answers about the Welsh version of the legend. Poring over a medieval map, they spotted two islands in what is now Cardigan Bay, reports the BBC . No such islands exist today, leading Simon Haslett of Swansea University and...

First US Navy Destroyer Sunk by Enemy Fire Is Found

Tales of kindness, bravery surround 1917 sinking of USS Jacob Jones

(Newser) - The first US Navy destroyer to be sunk by enemy fire—specifically a torpedo shot from a German submarine—has been discovered more than a century after ending up in a watery grave. The USS Jacob Jones was sent to the submarine-infested waters around the UK to help safeguard supply...

Discovery Means &#39;Forever Chemicals&#39; May Get a Death Date
Simple Remedy
Provides Hope on
'Forever Chemicals'
NEW STUDY

Simple Remedy Provides Hope on 'Forever Chemicals'

Researchers describe novel method of breaking down PFAS safely and cheaply

(Newser) - Scientists know them as poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Everyday folk know them as "forever chemicals." However you refer to them, these chemicals, resistant to liquid and heat and used in everyday products from cosmetics to paint to paper to food packaging , are toxic at certain levels...

Dino-Killing Asteroid May Have Had a Friend
Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
May Have Had a Friend
NEW STUDY

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid May Have Had a Friend

Fossils suggest 5-mile-wide crater off West Africa is also 66M years old

(Newser) - The 6-mile-wide asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago may have had a baby cousin that struck on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Uisdean Nicholson of Scotland's Heriot-Watt University discovered a hidden depression of a similar age as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico...

It Turns Out This &#39;Angry Minion&#39; Isn&#39;t Our Ancestor
This Isn't Our
Ancestor After All
new study

This Isn't Our Ancestor After All

New study has a different take on Saccorhytus

(Newser) - Whew. It turns out the earliest known ancestor of humans is not a sea creature a millimeter in size that lacked an anus. The opposite was thought to be true after the release of a 2017 study in which scientists named Saccorhytus coronaries as a 540 million-year-old member of a...

Ancient Recipe for Bronze Is Finally Cracked
Ancient Recipe for Bronze
Is Finally Cracked
NEW STUDY

Ancient Recipe for Bronze Is Finally Cracked

Researchers say two alloys were key to early China's massive output

(Newser) - Researchers believe they've found the key to a thriving metal industry in ancient China in a 2,300-year-old recipe for bronze. Some 1.5 tons of bronze discovered in the tomb of a general from the Shang dynasty (1600BC to 1046BC) in 1976 helped show the "massive scale"...

Too-Familiar Refrain About Florida Turtles: 'It's a Girl'

Animal facility reports all female hatchlings for 4 years because the sand is so hot

(Newser) - Wildlife experts in Florida keeping watch on sea turtle eggs have had an easy job of late in cataloging the gender of hatchlings—they've all been girls. "Only female sea turtles for the past four years," Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, tells CNN...

Men, Don't Throw in the Towel on Longevity Quite Yet

Despite lower life expectancy, guys still have 'substantial chance of outliving females,' per study

(Newser) - It's long been suggested that women outlive the men in their lives, but new research suggests that may be an oversimplified conclusion. Danish scientists who looked at the bigger picture found that the guys, especially those with a ring on their finger or who hold a college degree, might...

Theory: Maya Rulers' Ashes Used to Make Pelota Balls

Archaeologist believes it happened in at least 3 cases

(Newser) - Pelota is one of the oldest known team sports, played centuries ago by the Maya—in some cases, with a ball that may have been partly made from the ashes of their dead rulers. The BBC reports on archaeologist Juan Yadeun Angulo's theory, which was born from a pair...

King Bluetooth Lies at Center of an Archaeological Dispute

Archaeologist and researcher say he was buried in Poland, but they don't agree on where

(Newser) - More than 1,000 years after his death in what's now Poland, a European king whose nickname lives on through wireless technology is at the center of an archaeological dispute. Chronicles from the Middle Ages say King Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson of Denmark acquired his nickname courtesy of a...

What&#39;s an Arctic Shark Doing in the Caribbean?
Shark Researchers Make
Odd Find Off Belize
in case you missed it

Shark Researchers Make Odd Find Off Belize

Little is known about Greenland sharks, but nobody expected to find one in the Caribbean

(Newser) - With an estimated lifespan of up to 500 years, Greenland sharks are considered the longest-living vertebrates on Earth. They are native to frigid Arctic waters, where they like to feed on polar bear carcasses. But at least one has also ventured to the western Caribbean, and it surprised a boatload...

Pair of COVID Studies Point a Finger at Wuhan Market
Pair of COVID Studies
Land on Same Culprit
new research

Pair of COVID Studies Land on Same Culprit

One mapped locations of infections, the second analyzed genomic diversity of viruses

(Newser) - Two peer-reviewed studies published Tuesday in Science arrive at the same conclusion: Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was where the COVID pandemic originated. The Los Angeles Times explains that after the lab-leak theory was dismissed last year, scientists pointed out there wasn't a plethora of published data on...

Seabed Gives Up Coin Minted 1.8K Years Ago

It's been traced back to Egypt under the rule of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius

(Newser) - Israel's Antiquities Authority said Monday it has discovered a rare 1,850-year-old bronze zodiac coin during an underwater survey off the coastal city of Haifa, reports the AP . The coin bears the image of the zodiac sign Cancer behind a depiction of the moon goddess Luna. Experts say the...

Parents Everywhere Talk to Babies the Same


Parents
Everywhere
Talk to Babies
the Same
new study

Parents Everywhere Talk to Babies the Same

Major new study documents sing-songy 'parentese'

(Newser) - Researchers have managed to find something that societies of all kinds—from hunter-gatherer groups in the Amazon to affluent cities in the West—have in common. We talk and sing to babies in a similar way, according to what is being described as a landmark study in Nature Human Behaviour ...

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