discoveries

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

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Utah Just Nabbed Its First Wolverine

Creature never before caught in the state is fitted with a GPS collar

(Newser) - Wolverines are notoriously reclusive creatures in the state of Utah, with only eight confirmed sightings over the last 40 years or so, per Smithsonian . Utah's wolverines, though, might be about to give up their secrets, thanks to the first-ever capture of one of the animals there. State wildlife officials...

Sinkhole on Arctic Seafloor Could Hold a City Block
Huge Sinkholes
Are Forming on
Arctic Seafloor
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 19, 2022 6:30 AM CDT

Huge Sinkholes Are Forming on Arctic Seafloor

Permafrost is melting beneath the ocean, as on land: researchers

(Newser) - Melting permafrost has been wreaking havoc on the Arctic landscape, triggering ground collapses that leave deep holes in the earth. Now we have evidence that the same thing is happening under the ocean. Large sections of permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, were submerged as glaciers melted around the end of...

New Giant Tortoise Species Discovered in Galapagos
Giant Tortoise Species
Is 'New to Science'
NEW STUDY
Mar 14, 2022 12:35 PM CDT

Giant Tortoise Species Is 'New to Science'

It was mistakenly believed to be a now-extinct Galapagos species, researchers say

(Newser) - Researchers believe they have discovered a new species of giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands, which is news they'd be happier about if it didn't also mean that another species has apparently gone extinct. Scientists who analyzed genetic material from museum samples discovered that samples brought back from...

Massive Impact Crater Is Almost as Old as the Dinosaurs
Dating of Impact Crater
Was Off by 55M Years
in case you missed it
Mar 13, 2022 4:35 PM CDT

Dating of Impact Crater Was Off by 55M Years

Crater under Greenland glacier likely formed 58M years ago: study

(Newser) - The 19-mile-wide impact crater hiding under a glacier in Greenland isn't just among the world’s largest . At 58 million years old, it's also among the most ancient, forming just 8 million years after the asteroid strike on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula wiped out the dinosaurs, according...

'We Have Made Polar History': The Endurance Is Found

Incredibly well-preserved shipwreck discovered some 10K feet down in Weddell Sea

(Newser) - Ernest Shackleton wrote that his ship the Endurance sank in "the worst portion of the worst sea" in 1915. Now, more than a century later, its wreckage has been found some four miles from where the ship's captain believed it went down. "We have made polar history...

First Octopus Arrived Before the First Dinosaur
Octopus That Predated
Dinos Is Named After Biden
new study
Mar 8, 2022 5:00 PM CST

Octopus That Predated Dinos Is Named After Biden

Newly dated 'Syllipsimopodi bideni' fossil goes back 330M years

(Newser) - Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses—an approximately 330 million-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana. The researchers concluded the ancient creature lived millions of years earlier than previously believed, meaning that octopuses originated before the era of dinosaurs, per the AP . The 4.7-inch fossil has 10 limbs—...

Lost Continent Explains a 34M-Year-Old Extinction
Lost Continent Explains
a 34M-Year-Old Extinction
NEW STUDY
Mar 7, 2022 2:55 PM CST

Lost Continent Explains a 34M-Year-Old Extinction

Researchers discover Balkanatolia, an ancient island turned land bridge

(Newser) - About 34 million years ago, native fauna disappeared from Western Europe, as mammals from Asia took over. The extinction, known as the Grande Coupure or "great break," might as well have been called the great puzzle. For decades, researchers have been unable to explain how animals from eastern...

Amazon Rainforest May Need a New Name
Amazon Rainforest
May Need a New Name
new study
Mar 7, 2022 12:08 PM CST

Amazon Rainforest May Need a New Name

Researchers say it's on track to become a savannah

(Newser) - Young people today may see the Amazon rainforest shift into the Amazon savannah in their lifetimes. That's the takeaway of an alarming new study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change, reports USA Today . Researchers examined month-to-month satellite images of the rainforest from the last 20 years and concluded...

King Tut's Dagger Came From Outer Space—and Also Syria

Blade was forged of iron long before the start of the Iron Age

(Newser) - King Tut had a sweet dagger. Of course, the young king also had a sweet wardrobe, chariots, shrines, and a horde of other treasures, all discovered in the early 1900s along with his famous mummy. Still, the dagger has always been the source of much conjecture. And it’s not...

Our &#39;Nearest Black Hole&#39; Isn&#39;t a Black Hole at All
Our 'Nearest Black Hole'
Isn't a Black Hole at All
NEW STUDY
Mar 2, 2022 12:37 PM CST

Our 'Nearest Black Hole' Isn't a Black Hole at All

New research indicates 'vampire' star is feeding on its neighbor

(Newser) - European astronomers have put out something of a retraction: that black hole said to be the closest to Earth ever found —well, it doesn't exist. They're not too bothered, however. European Southern Observatory emeritus astronomer Dietrich Baade, co-author of the new research, says their error led to...

'Winter Grab' Seeks to Solve a Great Lakes 'Puzzle'

Scientists from US, Canada try to figure out what happens under surface of lakes when frozen

(Newser) - More than a dozen scientific crews from US and Canadian universities and government agencies are venturing onto the frozen Great Lakes to help unravel the lakes' winter secrets. The field studies over the past few weeks—a collective effort known as the "Winter Grab"—are intended to boost...

Elephant Seals: Surprising Masters of 'Space and Time'

Researchers are impressed by their navigational skills

(Newser) - It may not be the first impression you get from looking at an elephant seal, but the creatures have what scientists describe as an uncanny "perception of space and time." The discovery is detailed in a new study in Current Biology . Researchers were trying to get a handle...

'It's 9K Years Old and Everything Was Almost Intact'

Shrine discovered in Jordan desert

(Newser) - A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan's eastern desert. The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as "desert kites," or mass traps that...

Dying Man's Brain Suggests Life Could Flash Before Our Eyes

87-year-old patient was hooked up to EEG machine at time of death

(Newser) - The last moments of a dying 87-year-old have raised something that researchers write in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience is "intriguing to speculate" about: that it's possible our life really could flash before our eyes as we die. They came to that conclusion somewhat accidentally. The patient...

Largest Known Jurassic Pterodactyl Is Found
Pterodactyl Find Is a
'Discovery of the Century'
NEW STUDY
Feb 22, 2022 2:54 PM CST

Pterodactyl Find Is a 'Discovery of the Century'

Fossil shows pterosaurs evolved huge wingspans much earlier than previously thought

(Newser) - Paleontologists are heralding the "discovery of the century" in Scotland: a fossil of a pterodactyl with a wingspan wider than a king-size bed. The fossil, some 70% complete, is not only the best-preserved of any pterosaur but the largest of any pterosaur to come from the Jurassic period, per...

2020 Rogue Wave Confirmed as 'Most Extreme' on Record

Proportionally speaking, it was a true monster

(Newser) - Rogue waves have gone from folklore to fact over the centuries, and now scientists say they've managed to confirm the "most extreme" ever on record. A rogue wave is a monster that is at least twice the height of those around it, and the 58-footer noted off British...

Mental Speed Slows at 20? Think Again
Our Brains Stay Sharp
Much Longer Than Thought
NEW STUDY
Feb 18, 2022 11:00 AM CST

Our Brains Stay Sharp Much Longer Than Thought

Study suggests mental acuity is largely unchanged until about age 60

(Newser) - Don't let the youngins tell you your brain is slower than molasses. Though plenty of research shows response times slow beginning around the age of 20, that doesn't necessarily support the widely held view that brain processes slow from that age. Indeed, a new study finds this slowing...

In a First, Woman May Have Been Cured of HIV

The process was similar to those the men who went before her underwent

(Newser) - Tuesday brought big news on the HIV front, this time involving a woman who scientists have possibly cured of the disease. NBC News reports she's the first woman in a group that now numbers at most four (two additional women may have been cured, but via their own immune...

&#39;Neanderthal Pompeii&#39; Upends Theories on Replacement by Humans
Cave Find 'Literally Rewrites
All Our Books of History'
in case you missed it
Feb 13, 2022 1:45 PM CST

Cave Find 'Literally Rewrites All Our Books of History'

Site repeatedly changed hands between Neanderthals, Homo sapiens

(Newser) - A cave in southern France that one researcher calls a Neanderthal Pompeii has upended theories about how our species replaced the earlier hominid species in Europe tens of thousands of years ago. Scientists had thought Homo sapiens arrived in western Europe around 40,000 and quickly wiped out the Neanderthals,...

Nuclear Fusion Feat Moves Us One 'Huge Step' Forward

Scientists manage to generate the biggest amount of energy ever from fusion

(Newser) - We are now "a huge step closer to conquering one of the biggest scientific and engineering challenges of them all," according to the CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority: developing "practical" nuclear fusion, as the BBC puts it. Nuclear fusion is the energy process that powers...

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