discoveries

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

Stories 1121 - 1140 | << Prev   Next >>

Visit This Natural Wonder, Face $740K Fine

'Sarlacc's Pit' is dangerous, mostly unexplored

(Newser) - A massive cave discovered in British Columbia's Wells Gray Provincial Park and said to be among Canada's largest has been given an unofficial name. "Sarlacc's Pit" resembles the lair of Sarlacc in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, though Star Wars fans—and everyone else—should...

Scientists' Quest: Making Chickens Happy

Study in Canada may result in better living conditions, even if only briefly

(Newser) - How do you measure a chicken's happiness? Is it in the way it runs for food? How much time it spends preening? To size up what might make chickens happy in their brief lives, researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, are putting 16 breeds through physical...

Saturn&#39;s &#39;Rain&#39; Is Quickly Killing Its Rings


Saturn's Rings
Just Got a
Death Date
NEW STUDY
Dec 19, 2018 10:30 AM CST

Saturn's Rings Just Got a Death Date

NASA study predicts they'll be gone in 100M years

(Newser) - NASA's Voyager spacecrafts recorded data suggesting Saturn's rings were disappearing when they whipped past the planet decades ago. Now, confirmation: The rings have likely existed for only a fraction of the planet's 4.5 billion years and will be gone in an astrological flash, reads a new...

Farthest Observed Object in Solar System Is 'Farout'

Dwarf planet is 11 billion miles away

(Newser) - Astronomers have spotted the farthest object ever observed in our solar system—and they've nicknamed the pink cosmic body "Farout." The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced the discovery Monday. "Farout" (pronounced far-out) is a dwarf planet about 120 astronomical units away—that's...

Beneath Egypt's Big Find: 5 Hidden Shafts

Hope is that one holds a sarcophagus

(Newser) - Egypt on Saturday announced the discovery of a "one-of-a-kind [find] in the last decades": a private tomb belonging to a senior official from the 5th dynasty of the pharaohs, which ruled roughly 4,400 years ago. Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani announced the find at the site of the tomb...

Century Later, Mystery of Lost US Warship Is Solved

Mine from a German U-boat sunk USS San Diego, say researchers

(Newser) - A century later, we can now blame a mine from a German U-boat for the lone major US warship sent to the ocean's depths during World War I. The USS San Diego got there fast: The armored cruiser listed and sank within 30 minutes of an explosion off the...

Baboon Experiment May Have Big Implications
Baboon Experiment May
Have Big Implications
new study
Dec 6, 2018 8:14 AM CST

Baboon Experiment May Have Big Implications

Two survive 6 months with pig hearts

(Newser) - A new study involving pigs and baboons could mean big news for humans downs the road. Researchers successfully implanted pig hearts into baboons, and two of the recipients lived for six months before being euthanized, reports Scientific American . Writing in Nature , the researchers from Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland call the...

His Toothbrush Holder Turns Out to Be 4K Years Old

Dates back to 1900 BC and the Indus Valley in what is now Afghanistan

(Newser) - Some people might use an old mug to hold toothbrushes and toothpaste. A man in England used a 4,000-year-old piece of pottery, by accident. Karl Martin picked up the pot along with another at a flea market for all of $5, reports Atlas Obscura . Martin is a valuer at...

Number of Vincent Van Gogh Photographs Cut in Half

Image long believed to show famous artist is actually his brother

(Newser) - The number of verified photos of painter Vincent van Gogh just got cut in half. New research suggests that a photo of a boy heretofore believed to show Vincent at age 13 actually portrays his brother, the then-15-year-old Theo van Gogh, the Telegraph reports. That leaves just one photo of...

Spiders Share Surprisingly Similar Trait to Mammals
Spider Milk? Researchers
Make Surprising Discovery
new study
Nov 30, 2018 8:45 AM CST

Spider Milk? Researchers Make Surprising Discovery

Researchers discover a breed in which the mothers nurse their offspring

(Newser) - It was an arachnid mystery: Scientists studying a particular type of spider couldn't figure out how the babies kept growing in the nest even though mom wasn't bringing back any food to them. Then a researcher spotted a baby clinging to its mother's abdomen. "I had...

A Lego Needs 1.71 Days to Make the Unkindest Journey

If swallowed, that's how long it takes to reappear, researchers conclude

(Newser) - It may not be the most burning of unanswered science questions, but researchers have figured out how long it would take for a swallowed Lego to re-emerge in the toilet bowl. Figure 1.71 days. That was the average time for six brave volunteers who swallowed a Lego head, then...

Scientists Just Discovered a Quirk of Whale Songs
Scientists Just Discovered
a Quirk of Whale Songs
new study
Nov 26, 2018 5:17 PM CST

Scientists Just Discovered a Quirk of Whale Songs

Humpbacks sing an increasingly complex tune for years, then drop it for something simpler

(Newser) - Researchers studying the songs of humpback whales have discovered a quirk of the undersea music: The whales sing the same song for a few years, adding individual embellishments and making it increasingly complex all the while. And then, poof, they switch to a simpler tune and start the cycle over...

Most Dangerous Place for Women: Home
Most Dangerous Place
for Women: Home
NEW STUDY
Nov 26, 2018 7:31 AM CST

Most Dangerous Place for Women: Home

More than half of women killed worldwide in 2017 died at hands of intimate partner, family member

(Newser) - Men make up the lion's share of homicide victims, but it's women who "pay the highest price as a result of gender inequality, discrimination, and negative stereotypes." That's according to a new UN report out of its Office on Drugs and Crime, ABC News reports,...

200M Dirt Piles in Brazil Aren&#39;t There by Accident
200M Dirt Piles
in Brazil Aren't
There by Accident
in case you missed it
Nov 25, 2018 3:45 PM CST

200M Dirt Piles in Brazil Aren't There by Accident

Termites have moved an insane amount of soil over 4,000 years

(Newser) - Around the time Egypt's pyramids were built, another massive project got underway in a different part of the world. And like the pyramids, the resulting site in northeastern Brazil is visible from space today. But there was no ramp or pulley, or even manpower. Rather, as entomologist Stephen Martin...

One Particular Year May Have Been Worst for Humans

Be glad you avoided 536

(Newser) - It's an interesting bar bet for armchair historians: Name the worst year in human history. For Harvard medieval historian Michael McCormack, the smart money is on 536. "It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," he tells...

It's the Only Animal That Poops Cubes. Mystery Now Solved?

Elastic intestines and a need for turf-marking may be the drivers behind wombats' odd feces shape

(Newser) - Poop comes in all shapes and sizes, but one kind of marsupial produces oddly symmetrical, six-sided feces that have had scientists scratching their heads. Patricia Yang, a mechanical engineering fellow at Georgia Tech, decided she needed to get to the bottom of why wombats expel poop cubes—the only known...

Drug a 'Good First Step' for Kids With Peanut Allergies

Experimental drug AR101 found to ease reactions in more than 2/3 of kids with peanut allergy

(Newser) - For parents of kids with peanut allergies, a new study holds "lifesaving" hope. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times report on AR101, an experimental drug from Aimmune Therapeutics that's been shown to ease reactions in kids with peanut allergies. In the oral immunotherapy study published in...

Giant Impact Crater Reported in Unusual Place
Under Greenland's Ice,
a Surprise Find
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nov 18, 2018 12:10 PM CST

Under Greenland's Ice, a Surprise Find

Scientists think they've found one of the world's biggest impact craters

(Newser) - Scientists think they've found one of the world's biggest impact craters, but confirmation is tricky given its location—under a glacier in Greenland. In the journal Science Advances , researchers make the case that a meteorite perhaps a mile wide slammed into Greenland somewhere between 12,000 and 3...

Humans of the Era as Prone to Violence as Neanderthals
200 Skulls Suggest Neanderthal
Stereotype Is Wrong
NEW STUDY
Nov 15, 2018 10:20 AM CST

200 Skulls Suggest Neanderthal Stereotype Is Wrong

Early modern humans just as prone to violence: study

(Newser) - The perception of Neanderthals as big, stupid oafs has been mostly debunked . Now, a new study is helping buck another stereotype depicting the human relatives as especially prone to violence. The idea stems from trauma, particularly to the head and neck, visible among Neanderthal remains. When researchers compiled reports on...

Men Are From Mars (Logic), Women From Venus (Empathy)

Cambridge scientists reinforce old stereotypes; critics pounce on 'neurosexism'

(Newser) - In what's said to be the largest study examining differences between the sexes, a longtime stereotype is holding some water—though critics are pushing back on the supposed biological merit underlying the results. The Telegraph reports that researchers at the University of Cambridge tested more than 670,000 people...

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