discoveries

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

Stories 1841 - 1860 | << Prev   Next >>

Near Ocean's Deepest Spot, a 3.5-Second Symphony

Scientists believe it comes from minke whales

(Newser) - The 3.5-second symphony covers nearly half of the sound range that humans can hear, rising from a frequency as low as 38 hertz to an 8,000-hertz "metallic finale." But unless you make a detour to waters above the deepest spot in the ocean, you might never...

You Can Tell a Rat Is Happy by His Ears
You Can Tell a Rat
Is Happy by His Ears
study says

You Can Tell a Rat Is Happy by His Ears

Researchers say the rodents have their own versions of smiling

(Newser) - Scientists have already found that rats seem to enjoy having their bellies tickled. They let out a noise too high-pitched for the human ear to detect and keep coming back for more. Now, adding to the idea that rats have their own version of a giggle, researchers at the University...

Lengthy Marriages May Raise Stroke Survival

People who've never married or been divorced fare worse

(Newser) - A leading cause of death and disability in the US, strokes affect nearly 800,000 adults every year. Now researchers are showing for the first time that current and past marital status can play a big role in survival rates following a stroke, reports MedicalXpress . After tracking the outcomes of...

Scientists Take 'Huge' Step Toward Reversing Aging

'Our study shows that aging may not have to proceed in one single direction'

(Newser) - In the future, we may be able to treat aging itself, rather than just the diseases that come with it, the Guardian reports. “Our study shows that aging may not have to proceed in one single direction," researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte says. "With careful modulation, aging...

What 6 Years of Advil Can Do to Your Ears
What 6 Years of Advil
Might Mean for Your Ears
new study

What 6 Years of Advil Might Mean for Your Ears

Long-term use of some pain relievers could compromise hearing, study says

(Newser) - Regularly popping a dose of Advil or Tylenol could compromise your hearing. A new study that examined the long-term use of over-the-counter pain relievers found that women who took certain meds steadily for six years were 10% more likely to experience hearing loss, reports the New York Times . The pain...

Famed Astronomer's Remains Have High Levels of ... Gold?

Famously wealthy, eccentric scientist appears to have been surrounded by gold

(Newser) - Tycho Brahe was an unusual man. The Danish astronomer from the late 1500s who laid the foundation for modern astronomy was extremely wealthy, had a pet moose, and according to a new analysis of his hair and bones, was also—literally—full of gold, reports the University of South Denmark...

Mystery Lives On for 'Amazon's Own Stonehenge'

Experts believe 127 stone structures in Brazil suggest sophisticated astronomical observatory

(Newser) - "What other secrets about our past are still hidden in Brazil's jungles?" These are the musings of Lailson Camelo da Silva, the man credited with stumbling across the "Amazon's own Stonehenge," the New York Times reports. Scientists had come across the huge granite blocks—a...

The Skinny on Sweet Potatoes Is &#39;Promising&#39;
New Weight-Loss Aid:
Sweet Potato Wastewater?
STUDY SAYS

New Weight-Loss Aid: Sweet Potato Wastewater?

Mice lost weight after consuming it in new study

(Newser) - Tired of Thanksgiving weight gain? Next year you might want to pass on the sweet potato pie and drink a tall glass of sweet potato wastewater instead. That's what a new study in the Heliyon journal hints at with what Modern Farmer says "might be the weirdest weight-loss...

A Buoy Noticed a Wave in 2013 That Was 'Remarkable'

Others may have been taller, but this was recorded by the best tool we have

(Newser) - The world's "highest significant wave height as measured by a buoy" was 62.3 feet, located in the (very) high seas between the UK and Iceland, and occurred in 2013, the World Meteorological Organization has confirmed. The wave formed after a strong cold front passed through the remote...

Scientists Figure Out Why Men Have No Penis Bone
Scientists Figure Out
Why Men Have
No Penis Bone
NEW STUDY

Scientists Figure Out Why Men Have No Penis Bone

Human sex is just too speedy: study

(Newser) - Monkeys have them. In walruses, they might be up to two feet long. Mice have teeny, tiny ones. So why don't human men have a penis bone? Scientists have a theory, and gentlemen, it might hurt your ego a bit. While researching the bone—known as the baculum—researchers...

White Wine May Carry Surprising Health Risk
White Wine May Carry
Surprising Health Risk
STUDY SAYS

White Wine May Carry Surprising Health Risk

Researchers see association with skin cancer

(Newser) - If you're undecided about whether your next glass of wine should be red or white, a new study out of Brown University may provide the tipping point: It suggests that white wine raises the risk of skin cancer. While researchers have long known that alcohol in general can raise...

Santa&#39;s Reindeer Are Shrinking
Santa's Reindeer
Are Shrinking

Santa's Reindeer Are Shrinking

Blame warmer temperatures, say scientists

(Newser) - Santa might need to recruit a few extra reindeer this year. According to Scottish scientists, Arctic reindeer are shrinking in size. Scientists weighed 135 reindeer on Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 800 miles from the North Pole, each April from 1994 to 2015 and found the animals shrank from 121...

Man Walks Into Auction House With Long-Lost Da Vinci

'An exciting discovery'

(Newser) - A Metropolitan Museum of Art curator says that when she took her first look at a newly surfaced drawing that a Paris auction wanted a second opinion on, her heart started pounding and her eyes "jumped out of their sockets." Carmen Bambach, the Met's curator of Italian...

Our Days Are a Smidge Longer Than They Used to Be
Our Days 
Are a Smidge
Longer Than
They Used to Be
study says

Our Days Are a Smidge Longer Than They Used to Be

Which we know thanks to some meticulous ancient astronomers

(Newser) - The meticulous work of ancient astronomers has led to a modern observation: Our days are longer than they used to be. Not that you'd notice: The new research in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A shows that it takes the Earth a tiny bit longer these days to...

Dino Surprise: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Also: the return of the 'psychedelic slinky'

(Newser) - A first-of-its-kind discovery about dinosaurs in a most unusual place and a potentially scary study for those who groom "down there" make the list:
  • Scientists Find Dinosaur Tail Preserved in Amber : Researchers were perusing an amber market in Myanmar when they stumbled across a truly extraordinary specimen. Trapped inside
...

Hero King's Unknown Face Now Revealed

Two versions, one with leprosy and one without, attempt to show us the leader

(Newser) - Robert the Bruce, King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329 and perhaps most famous for defeating the English army at the Battle of Bannockburn, has been dead some 700 years, but we're just now getting a good idea of what he might have looked like. Without...

Major Dino Discovery Made in Amber Meant for Jewelry

Scientists have found a feathery dinosaur tail

(Newser) - Researchers were perusing an amber market in Myanmar when they stumbled across a truly extraordinary specimen, National Geographic reports. Trapped inside a golden piece of amber—already partially shaped to be sold as jewelry—was a fully feathered section of a dinosaur's tail. According to the Los Angeles Times...

A Surprise 'Silent Extinction': Giraffes

IUCN report reveals 'devastating' decline of nearly 40% over past 30 years

(Newser) - No one used to pay much mind to the giraffes that roamed Africa. But new numbers from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature show a significant decline in their population over the past three decades and have conservationists worried that the elegant creature is falling victim to what...

Humans Have Made 30 Trillion Tons of Stuff

That's 110 pounds per square meter of the Earth's surface

(Newser) - Humans have built a ton of things to keep us alive on this twirling little rock: farms, airports, roads, CDs, houses, computers, landfills, and so forth. All these things are known as the technosphere, and for the first time ever—in a study published last month in the Anthropocene Review...

'Psychedelic Slinky' Spotted for First Time in 100 Years

Weird sea creature of legends found off California coast

(Newser) - In 1899, a Leipzig University marine biologist named Carl Chun came across a see-through "sea blob" in the southern Atlantic, and its existence hasn't been confirmed since—until now. Live Science reports on the Bathochordaeus charon invertebrate (what it describes as a "psychedelic Slinky"), recently spotted...

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