discoveries

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

Stories 701 - 720 | << Prev   Next >>

Journo&#39;s Attic Find: Letters to Him From the Unabomber
Journo Cleaning Attic Makes a
Stunning Find: 'It Can't Be Him'
in case you missed it
Sep 25, 2021 7:00 AM CDT

Journo Cleaning Attic Makes a Stunning Find: 'It Can't Be Him'

Jack Epstein found letters from Ted 'Unabomber' Kaczynski: 'Thankful I hadn’t been rude to him'

(Newser) - Most people might expect to find old tchotchkes, photos, and letters when cleaning out the attic, but two letters found by Jack Epstein this summer while cleaning out his own attic weren't yellowed love notes or ancient report cards—they were letters to him from Ted Kaczynski, aka the...

Cavers Say They Made It to Bottom of the 'Well of Hell'

They found snakes in Yemen sinkhole, but no sign of a gateway to the underworld

(Newser) - For untold centuries, the Well of Barhout in eastern Yemen, also known as the Well of Hell, has been feared by locals who believe it is a gateway to the underworld or a prison for genies. A team of Omani cavers, however, say they descended to the bottom and found...

Schoolkids Discover New Species of Penguin
Children's
Field Trip
Yields New
Penguin Species
new study
Sep 17, 2021 9:20 AM CDT

Children's Field Trip Yields New Penguin Species

Kairuku waewaeroa lived eons ago in New Zealand

(Newser) - The Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club lived up to its name—its school-aged members are credited with discovering a new species of giant penguin. The discovery of the fossil actually occurred back in 2006 in New Zealand, but researchers didn't identify the new species until this week in the Journal ...

New CDC Research Bolsters Support for COVID Vaccines
Unvaccinated
Far More Likely
to Die of COVID
NEW studies
Sep 10, 2021 2:33 PM CDT

Unvaccinated Far More Likely to Die of COVID

Moderna 'moderately' more effective at preventing hospitalization, but all 3 get thumbs-up overall

(Newser) - President Biden is getting pushback , mostly from GOP circles, on the sweeping vaccine mandates his administration put into place this week, but new CDC research may help nudge the vaccine-hesitant into getting their shots without any further directive. Per the Washington Post , the three new studies published Friday "highlight...

Michelangelo Was Shorter Than You Think
Michelangelo Was
Shorter Than You Think
new study
Sep 9, 2021 6:20 PM CDT

Michelangelo Was Shorter Than You Think

New study puts him at 5-2, max

(Newser) - The evidence is circumstantial, but researchers say it's strong enough to show that Michelangelo was a pretty short guy. Specifically, he stood 5-foot-2, max, according to a new study by Italian researchers in Anthropologie . And how did researchers determine this? By examining three shoes—a pair of a leather...

A Warning for Cannabis Users Under 45
A Warning for
Cannabis Users
Under 45
NEW STUDY
Sep 7, 2021 10:25 AM CDT

A Warning for Cannabis Users Under 45

They're almost twice as likely as nonusers to suffer a heart attack, study finds

(Newser) - Heart attacks are significantly more prevalent in US adults under 45 who use cannabis than those who don't, according to researchers, who dispute the idea that cannabis is safe. Their study, published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal , looks at the health data of more than 33,000...

Female Octopuses Will Throw Stuff at Bothersome Males
Most Animals Don't Throw.
Female Octopuses Do
new study
Sep 1, 2021 11:56 AM CDT

Most Animals Don't Throw. Female Octopuses Do

Behavior was spotted among octopuses off Australia

(Newser) - When female octopuses are trying to keep males at bay, they throw stuff. Sometimes. So found a study that has yet to be peer-reviewed. Researchers from the US, Canada, and Australia say their finding builds on research done in 2015, in which they recorded wild octopuses in Jervis Bay off...

Scientists Stumble Upon World's Northernmost Island

They thought they were on Oodaaq Island, discovered they were further north

(Newser) - Scientists who thought they were on Oodaaq Island, an Arctic island off the coast of Greenland, checked their position and found they were actually 2,625 feet further north. That means they likely discovered the planet's northernmost island, the point of land closest to the North Pole, the BBC...

Scientists Work to Tie Uranium Cubes to Nazis

Hundreds were lost in the years following WWII

(Newser) - At the close of World War II, some 664 "Heisenberg cubes" belonging to the Nazis were dug up from a field near physicist Werner Heisenberg's secret subterranean lab and brought to the US. Kurt Diebner was at the same time also running a lab focused on trying to...

Rattlesnakes Can Fool Us With Their Rattles
Rattlesnakes Can Fool Us
With Their Rattles
new study
Aug 24, 2021 9:10 AM CDT

Rattlesnakes Can Fool Us With Their Rattles

They change the frequency, making it sound like they're closer than they really are

(Newser) - The rattle of a rattlesnake turns out to be way more complicated than we knew. Researchers have discovered that the snakes are masters of auditory deception, reports the BBC . In a new study in Current Biology , researchers found that they rattle their tails at a frequency of 40 hertz if...

Geologists May Have Solved a Grand Canyon Mystery
Geologists May Have Solved
a Grand Canyon Mystery
in case you missed it
Aug 22, 2021 8:00 AM CDT

Geologists May Have Solved a Grand Canyon Mystery

The 'Great Unconformity' of rocks has been a puzzle for 150 years

(Newser) - The Grand Canyon may be a geologic marvel, but it's also a geological puzzle—one that may have finally been cracked. The puzzle is known as the Great Unconformity, explains a release at Phys.org . In parts of the canyon, layers of rock about 520 million years old sit...

These Two Look Familiar?
Hey, Look Who NOAA
Just Found in the Ocean
in case you missed it
Aug 7, 2021 7:00 AM CDT

Hey, Look Who NOAA Just Found in the Ocean

Expedition turns up real-life counterparts to SpongeBob and Patrick Star

(Newser) - A marine biologist with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History did a double-take while reviewing footage from a deep-sea drone. There, on the ocean floor, sat the real-life doppelgangers for SpongeBob SquarePants and his pal Patrick Star, reports Smithsonian . "I normally avoid these (references)..but WOW,"...

Researchers: Strong Evidence Links Alcohol to Cancer

But there's also good evidence that coffee reduces the risk of liver cancer

(Newser) - The effect of diet on cancer is tough to determine for many reasons, including the fact that most studies rely on data self-reported by participants, researchers say in a new study. The Imperial College London scientists looked at 860 meta-analyses of published studies involving 11 anatomical sites and found that...

We Didn&#39;t Have Machu Picchu&#39;s Timeline Quite Right
Machu Picchu
Study Alters Story
of Inca Emperor
new study
Aug 4, 2021 11:53 AM CDT

Machu Picchu Study Alters Story of Inca Emperor

Results suggest Pachacuti's initial conquests occurred earlier than thought

(Newser) - Our understanding of Machu Picchu's timeline wasn't quite right, or so a new study published in Antiquity suggests. It's long been thought that the Peruvian site was built after AD 1438, reports the Guardian , a conclusion that was drawn from the accounts of Spanish conquistadors who were...

Origins of Earth&#39;s Oxygen? Longer Days
When Earth's 6-Hour Days
Grew, So Did Our Oxygen
new study
Aug 2, 2021 11:50 AM CDT

When Earth's 6-Hour Days Grew, So Did Our Oxygen

Study suggests theory on how creatures could finally breathe

(Newser) - Scientists have a new idea for how Earth got its oxygen: It’s because the planet slowed down and days got longer. A study published Monday proposes and puts to the test the theory that longer, continuous daylight kick-started weird bacteria into producing lots of oxygen, making most of life...

Female Surgeons Pay 'High Price' of Tougher Pregnancies

Study suggests that grueling hours and work culture are factors

(Newser) - Female surgeons may be among the most highly trained medical professionals in the land, but they tend to have difficult pregnancies more often than other women. Fixing the problem will require changing the culture of residency programs, say the authors of a new study in JAMA Surgery . The bleak stats:...

Have Heart Issues? A Bit of Booze Daily 'Not That Bad'

New research shows light to moderate alcohol consumption may protect previous heart patients

(Newser) - Alcohol was the bad guy again in a recent study tying it to hundreds of thousands of cancer cases, but if you're already suffering from a cardiovascular condition? A small amount daily is "not that bad." That's how scientist Emmanuela Gakidou of the University of Washington'...

Jewish Artifacts Thought &#39;Lost For All Time&#39; Found in US
Jewish Artifacts Thought
'Lost for All Time' Found in US
in case you missed it
Jul 25, 2021 5:00 PM CDT

Jewish Artifacts Thought 'Lost for All Time' Found in US

Funeral scrolls, community records were illegally taken from eastern Europe around WWII

(Newser) - The Justice Department says it's recovered funeral scrolls, manuscripts, community records, and other priceless historical items stolen from Jewish people during the Holocaust that were thought to have been "lost for all time." The 17 artifacts dating from 1840 were taken from Jewish communities in Romania, Hungary,...

28 Unknown Viruses Found Frozen in Tibetan Ice

'These are viruses that would have thrived in extreme environments'

(Newser) - If we ever find viruses on Mars or another distant planet, they may resemble the ancient viruses scientists have discovered frozen deep in a glacier in Tibet. Researchers say ice samples taken from the Tibetan Plateau ice cores contained the genetic codes for 33 viruses, including 28 previously unknown to...

Lethal Coral Disease Linked to Cruise Ships
Lethal Coral Disease
Linked to Cruise Ships
new study
Jul 22, 2021 2:37 PM CDT

Lethal Coral Disease Linked to Cruise Ships

Study suggests wastewater from ships is responsible for SCTLD

(Newser) - A dangerous new threat to coral reefs might be the fault of cruise ships. A peer-reviewed study suggests ships that improperly dispose of wastewater are causing outbreaks of an unusually lethal and fast-spreading disease known as stony coral tissue loss disease, reports the Guardian . SCTLD first turned up in Florida...

Stories 701 - 720 | << Prev   Next >>