discoveries

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

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An HIV Cure May Be Close
An HIV Cure May Be Close
NEW STUDY
Oct 3, 2016 11:33 AM CDT

An HIV Cure May Be Close

UK study sees promising results with new treatment

(Newser) - The first results of a study out of the UK are raising the tantalizing possibility that researchers have figured not just how to treat HIV but how to actually cure it. The first of 50 patients to undergo the experimental therapy, a 44-year-old British social worker, has no detectable traces...

Dogs Will Ignore Your Lousy Suggestions
Dogs Will Ignore
Your Lousy Suggestions
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 2, 2016 7:03 AM CDT

Dogs Will Ignore Your Lousy Suggestions

As opposed to actual humans, who blindly follow

(Newser) - Dogs might be better than humans at ignoring bad advice, suggests a new study out of Yale. In the experiment, researchers trained dogs to get a treat out of a box by moving a lever and then lifting the lid. Then they left the dogs on their own, and a...

Surprise Global Warming Contributor: Reservoirs

They produce as much yearly greenhouse gas emissions as Brazil

(Newser) - There's a new enemy in the battle against global warming: reservoirs. Researchers studying more than 250 of the world's reservoirs found they produce the equivalent of 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide every year, the Washington Post reports. According to Popular Science , that's about the same amount of...

Coaster Cure? 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Also: a potential new way for Zika to spread

(Newser) - A bizarre finding about kidney stones and an amusing one about dogs were among the discoveries to make headlines this week:
  • Ride a Roller Coaster, Pass Some Kidney Stones : Got a kidney stone? Consider a trip to Disney. That's the takeaway from new research out of Michigan State that
...

Humans Are Natural Killers But We&#39;re Not the Worst
Humans Are Natural Killers
But We're Not the Worst
study says
Sep 29, 2016 11:00 AM CDT

Humans Are Natural Killers But We're Not the Worst

Monkeys and meerkats are far more likely to murder their own, researchers say

(Newser) - Violence comes naturally to humans, but we are far less murderous than we used to be, a new study shows. Scientists in Spain who examined the tendency among more than 1,000 mammal species to kill their own found that humans have been "particularly violent" throughout our history, reports...

Narcissism Gets You Only So Far
Narcissism Gets
You Only So Far
NEW STUDY
Sep 29, 2016 9:40 AM CDT

Narcissism Gets You Only So Far

Study finds that emotionally intelligent people are most popular in the long run

(Newser) - Do narcissists get ahead in terms of making friends? At least at first, a new study shows. But being selfless and nice pays off more in the long run, reports the Los Angeles Times . Researchers in Poland looked at how extremely self-centered people fare compared with those who are more...

Man May Have Gotten Zika From Wiping Dad&#39;s Tears
Man May Have Gotten Zika
From Wiping Dad's Tears
STUDY SAYS
Sep 29, 2016 7:51 AM CDT

Man May Have Gotten Zika From Wiping Dad's Tears

Or from his sweat, which would make it first reported case of this kind of transmission

(Newser) - Mystery solved? An elderly Utah man who harbored exceedingly high levels of the Zika virus before he died in June, making his the first death in the continental US linked to the disease, may have passed it onto his son through his sweat and tears. That means the illness...

3-Parent Baby Born After 2-Decade Ban

With mom's nuclear DNA, donor's mitochondrial DNA, and dad's sperm

(Newser) - A 5-month-old born using a "revolutionary" genetic technique is said to be the world's first baby created using DNA from three parents since the technique was banned about two decades ago, New Scientist reports. The boy, IDed by the International Business Times as Abrahim Hassan, was born in...

Ride a Roller Coaster, Pass Some Kidney Stones
Ride a Roller Coaster,
Pass Some Kidney Stones
STUDY SAYS
Sep 27, 2016 10:31 AM CDT

Ride a Roller Coaster, Pass Some Kidney Stones

Though so far just one ride at Disney World seems to do the trick

(Newser) - Got a kidney stone? Consider a trip to Disney. That's the takeaway from new research out of Michigan State University that found taking a spin on a "medium-intensity" coaster may aid in the passing of the pesky mineral masses, with minimal discomfort, the Los Angeles Times reports. The...

What the Hubble Saw Shooting Up on Jupiter Moon

Search for life on Europa could be easier than expected

(Newser) - The Hubble Space Telescope has spied what appear to be water plumes on one of Jupiter's icy moons shooting up as high as 125 miles. The geysers are apparently from an underground ocean that's thought to exist on Europa, considered one of the top places to search for...

FBI: Murders Up 11% in 2015—but There's Context

Stats for violent crime, including rapes and robberies, still below rates from 20 years ago

(Newser) - The number of murders in the US rose 11% last year from 2014, while the number of violent crimes saw a modest increase of 4% after two years of decline, per an FBI press release . Rapes rose 6.3%, aggravated assaults increased 4.6%, and robberies rose by 1.4%...

Risky Water: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Also: a surprising find about fitness trackers

(Newser) - A disturbing find about common tap water and an intriguing one about a famous shipwreck were among the biggest discoveries of the week:
  • That Chemical Erin Brockovich Fought? You're Likely Drinking It : If chromium-6 rings a bell for some odd reason, that reason is likely Erin Brockovich, who famously
...

1930s Letter Shows Al Capone Was a Big Softie

At least when it came to his son, 'Sonny' Capone

(Newser) - Did notorious gangster Al Capone have a soft spot? An intimate letter he penned from prison suggests so. The three-page letter, which being auctioned off next week, is addressed to Capone's son, Albert "Sonny" Capone. The mobster signed it, "Love & Kisses, Your Dear Dad Alphonse Capone...

Weird Science Is Honored Once a Year. 'Goat Man' Won Big

Rat trousers also a winner at Thursday's Ig Nobel Prizes

(Newser) - Thursday night was the silliest night in scientists' calendars, and with winners including a man who wore prosthetic extensions to live among a herd of goats in the Alps for several days, this year's Ig Nobel awards did not disappoint. In front of a rowdy crowd, real Nobel winners...

We All Come From Single Wave of African Migrants
We All Come From Single
Wave of African Migrants
New Study
Sep 21, 2016 3:32 PM CDT

We All Come From Single Wave of African Migrants

Humans that populated the world left Africa 50K to 80K years ago

(Newser) - While all modern humans originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago, scientists have long debated on exactly when and how we spread across the globe. A trio of studies published this week posits that, with one tiny exception, all people living today are descended from the same wave of...

You Might Lose More Weight Without a Fitness Tracker
You Might Lose More Weight
Without a Fitness Tracker
study says
Sep 21, 2016 10:47 AM CDT

You Might Lose More Weight Without a Fitness Tracker

'We were definitely surprised,' say researchers

(Newser) - For those looking to lose weight, a two-year study suggests that wearing a fitness tracker helps. What surprised researchers, however, is that not wearing one seems to help even more, reports Ars Technica . The study in JAMA , perhaps the most comprehensive to date on the subject, followed nearly 500 overweight...

Smoking Damages Our DNA— in Some Cases Permanently

But the vast majority of genes 'recover' within 5 years of quitting

(Newser) - Scientists are learning more about how smoking impacts our health all the way down to our genes, and experts say they're not terribly surprised by new findings that some of the changes to a smoker's DNA appear to be permanent, lingering even decades after the smoker quits, reports...

The Villain of Pearl Harbor Might've Lost a Gold Tooth

Dick Portillo thinks he's found it

(Newser) - An American history buff was leading an expedition through Papua New Guinea last year when one of his companions noticed something shiny sticking out of the mud at the site of a 1943 plane crash. It turned out to be a small gold tooth, but it wasn't the material...

Want Lower BMI? Smoke Pot


Want Lower BMI?
Pot Might Help
NEW STUDY
Sep 19, 2016 11:41 AM CDT

Want Lower BMI? Pot Might Help

Daily marijuana use linked to lower body mass for both women and men

(Newser) - People who smoke weed on a daily basis tend to have slightly lower body mass indexes than people who don't, and while researchers say they're not suggesting that people take up regular marijuana smoking, they're keen to understand the mechanism at play. Specifically, they followed more than...

Russians Secretly Domesticated Foxes in Just 50 Years

No one thought it could be done with this most-untamable creature

(Newser) - For more than 50 years, scientists have been gathering foxes from the Russian wilderness and breeding them, picking the most human-friendly to mate to domesticate the supposedly untamable animals, much as dogs once were, Phys.org reports. And it looks like the project the BBC says was started by Dmitry...

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