discoveries

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

Stories 721 - 740 | << Prev   Next >>

Our Sister Planet Just Got Undressed
Our Sister Planet
Just Got Undressed
NEW STUDY
Apr 30, 2021 9:40 AM CDT

Our Sister Planet Just Got Undressed

Venus' fundamental properties revealed through radar speckle tracking

(Newser) - Scientists have parted the clouds on Venus, our shrouded neighbor, revealing the length of its day, the rough size of its core, and the tilt of its axis. All this took almost 15 years to figure out. Between 2006 and 2020, Jean-Luc Margot and colleagues at the University of California,...

Scan Reveals Big Surprise: a Pregnant Mummy
Scan Reveals Big Surprise:
a Pregnant Mummy
new study
Apr 29, 2021 2:42 PM CDT

Scan Reveals Big Surprise: a Pregnant Mummy

It might be a first; researchers were expecting to find a male Egyptian priest

(Newser) - When researchers from the Warsaw Mummy Project in Poland began examining an Egyptian mummy with X-ray scans, they expected to be looking at a male priest. Instead, the scans revealed the mummified person was actually a woman about 7 months pregnant, reports the Guardian . It's more than a small...

When Dolphins Need Help, They Call Their Friends
A 'Striking' Find on How
Dolphins Communicate
NEW STUDY
Apr 27, 2021 10:34 AM CDT

A 'Striking' Find on How Dolphins Communicate

Allies recognize, respond to signature whistles, which are like names: study

(Newser) - If you want to be lifelong friends with a dolphin, you'd better have their back. New research shows male dolphins will race to assist other dolphins at the sound of their signature whistles—if they're part of the same alliance. The ground-breaking findings suggest dolphins have a concept...

Utah Discovery a &#39;Tipping Point&#39; on T. Rexes
Mass T. Rex Death Site
Births a Terrifying Theory
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apr 25, 2021 10:30 AM CDT

Mass T. Rex Death Site Births a Terrifying Theory

The dino predators may have hunted in packs: researchers

(Newser) - Imagine being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Now imagine being chased by six. That might've been the scenario for T. rex prey, according to new research suggesting the dino predator hunted in packs like wolves. The theory stems from a site discovered in 2014 at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National...

They Spent 40 Days in a Dark Cave for Science. Some Want to Go Back

Isolation study in France deprived subjects of clocks, light, contact with outside world

(Newser) - Ever wonder what it would feel like to unplug from a hyperconnected world and hide away in a dark cave for 40 days? Fifteen people in France did just that, emerging Saturday from a scientific experiment to say that time seemed to pass more slowly in their cavernous underground abode,...

Nuclear Fallout From Long-Ago Tests Show Up in US Honey
Newest Ingredient
in US Honey:
Nuclear Fallout
NEW STUDY
Apr 23, 2021 12:50 PM CDT

Newest Ingredient in US Honey: Nuclear Fallout

Scientists say we shouldn't be worried about radioactive traces from bomb tests in '50s and '60s,

(Newser) - Some cesium with your chamomile tea? If you use honey, there's a distinct possibility you may have ingested the radioactive version of the element, thanks to nuclear fallout from decades-ago bomb tests that's showing up in US honey, per Science . In research published last month in Nature Communications...

AI Finds What Humans Can't on Longest Dead Sea Scroll

Subtle character differences suggest it was written by 2 scribes, not one

(Newser) - Looking at the 24-foot-long Great Isaiah Scroll, the longest of 950 discovered Dead Sea scrolls, you'd assume it made someone's hand very, very tired. But the "near uniform" Hebrew script on the 2,000-year-old scroll discovered in 1946, which looks to the naked eye to have been...

Harriet Tubman's Long-Lost Maryland Home Is Found

Likely site of her father's home discovered in Maryland

(Newser) - In a marshy woodland in Maryland, a teenage Harriet Tubman learned the skills that would carry herself, her family, and countless others out of slave states along the Underground Railroad. And now, we know exactly where that was. Archaeologists have located the likely site of the home Tubman's father...

Scientists May Have Cracked 'Fairy Circle' Mystery

Microbes inside grassless circles appear to inhibit seedling growth, researchers say

(Newser) - Scientists in Australia believe they may have an explanation for the "fairy circle" phenomenon, and it doesn't involve termites—or fairies. The researchers say soil microbes appear to be a major contributor to the grassless circles long considered one of nature's greatest mysteries , the New York Times...

Scientists Create Coolest Paint Ever
Whitest Paint Ever Could
Slash Need for Air Conditioning
in case you missed it
Apr 18, 2021 3:30 PM CDT

Whitest Paint Ever Could Slash Need for Air Conditioning

Ultrawhite paint reflects both light and heat

(Newser) - Scientists in Indiana have created a paint so incredibly white that it could theoretically help save the planet. The Purdue University researchers say the ultra-white paint reflects more than 98% of the sunlight that hits it, compared to between 80% and 90% for standard white paints. The paint reflects both...

It Wouldn&#39;t Have Been Easy to Bump Into a T. Rex
Total, All-Time T. Rex
Population Put at 2.5B
new study
Apr 15, 2021 4:38 PM CDT

Total, All-Time T. Rex Population Put at 2.5B

Their numbers were spread over more than a million years, so it's not like they were on every corner

(Newser) - One Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That’s how many of the fierce dinosaur kings probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple of million years, a new study finds. Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity, and the creatures' energy...

Off-Duty Cops Antiquing in Brussels Make Quite a Find

Roman statue worth $120K had been stolen from Italy nearly a decade ago

(Newser) - Two Italian police officers on assignment in Belgium were exploring some of Brussels' antique shops after work when they discovered a $120,000 Roman statue, stolen from Italy nearly a decade ago. The statue of a headless Roman in a draped toga struck the men as suspicious. As members of...

How Ancient Wisconsin Rocks Got to Wyoming: the Hard Way
Dinosaurs May Have Brought
Wisconsin Rocks Westward
new study
Apr 12, 2021 10:56 AM CDT

Dinosaurs May Have Brought Wisconsin Rocks Westward

Study suggests they were eaten by sauropods and transported hundreds of miles to Wyoming

(Newser) - A few years ago, scientists at a dig site in Wyoming came across rocks that seemingly had no business being there. They were round and smooth, smaller than a human hand, and unlike anything else in the region, per Wyoming Public Media . So how did they get there? In the...

A 'Mind-Blowing' Find: Egypt's 'Lost Golden City'

Archaeologists tease 'untouched tombs filled with treasures' in Luxor

(Newser) - Big news out of Egypt, where a 3,000-year-old lost city has reportedly been found buried under the sand untouched. The "lost golden city of Luxor," as Egyptologist Zahi Hawass dubs it, was uncovered in September and dates to the reign of Tutankhamun's grandfather, Amenhotep III, who...

&#39;Ghost Forest&#39; Problem Is Creeping Inland
'Ghost Forest' Problem
Is Creeping Inland
new study
Apr 8, 2021 2:11 PM CDT

'Ghost Forest' Problem Is Creeping Inland

Study finds that once-thriving forest in North Carolina is being decimated by saltwater

(Newser) - The issue of "ghost forests" is a familiar one to climate researchers. The term refers to how rising sea levels—or, more specifically, encroaching saltwater—kills trees along the coast, per Live Science . But a new study out of North Carolina suggests that "it's not just the...

It Killed the Dinosaurs, but Then It Gave Birth to Something Else

You can thank the Chicxulub impact for our modern rainforests: study

(Newser) - We owe a lot to the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. For one thing, it gave us the lush tropical rainforests that help keep our planet healthy. That's according to a first-of-its-kind study published Friday in Science that looks at the effects of the...

Tolkien Fans Go Bananas Over Unearthed Soviet Version of LOTR

They're watching 'Khraniteli,' which aired just once on TV in 1991, with fascination, amusement

(Newser) - If you're a JRR Tolkien fan who can't wait for the next project based on his work , take a trip back in time to a bizarre, previously made adaptation you've likely never seen. A full 10 years before Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, the...

She Didn&#39;t Think She Could Get Pregnant While Pregnant. Wrong
She Didn't Think
She Could Get
Pregnant While
Pregnant. Wrong
in case you missed it
Apr 4, 2021 9:53 AM CDT

She Didn't Think She Could Get Pregnant While Pregnant. Wrong

UK woman gives birth to rare superfetation 'super twins,' conceived 3 weeks apart

(Newser) - Rebecca Roberts' first shock when she went for an ultrasound at around 12 weeks during her pregnancy was finding out she was having twins. The second shock was more of a mystery: Doctors were baffled as to why one of the UK woman's fetuses was much bigger than the...

Scott Kelly's Body Endured Another Surprise in Space

Astronaut's heart didn't have to work as hard in zero gravity and so it shrank 27%, scientists say

(Newser) - They called it the "perfect nature versus nurture" experiment : Astronaut Scott Kelly was sent to the International Space Station for nearly a year, while his identical twin, astronaut and now Sen. Mark Kelly, remained on Earth. When Scott Kelly came back home in March 2016, scientists compared his DNA...

Ancient Coins Suggest Notorious Pirate Hid in America

Arabic coins linked to Capt. Henry Every found across New England

(Newser) - A handful of Arabic coins unearthed from a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in rural Rhode Island and other random corners of New England may help solve one of the planet's oldest cold cases. The villain in this tale: a murderous English pirate who became the world's most-wanted criminal after plundering...

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