discoveries

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

Stories 1121 - 1140 | << Prev   Next >>

Self-Centered? Scientists Say There&#39;s Hope
Scientists Pinpoint
4 Personality Types
in case you missed it
Sep 22, 2018 6:30 AM CDT

Scientists Pinpoint 4 Personality Types

Study refers to reserved, self-centered, role model, and average categories

(Newser) - Northwestern University psychology professor William Revelle spent years trying to show there are no real personality types. His latest research published Monday in Nature Human Behavior points to the opposite conclusion. Using data from 1.5 million survey respondents, it identifies four clear personality types—average, reserved, self-centered, and role...

Fat From This Fossil Solved Decades-Old Mystery
Fat From This Fossil
Solved Decades-Old Mystery
NEW STUDY
Sep 21, 2018 8:56 AM CDT

Fat From This Fossil Solved Decades-Old Mystery

Study says Dickinsonia is earliest confirmed animal in geological record

(Newser) - A researcher calls it "a decades-old mystery that has been the Holy Grail of paleontology": What, exactly, Dickinsonia was. It's one of a group of lifeforms called the Ediacaran biota, which the BBC describes as the "first complex multi-cellular organisms to appear on Earth." But for...

17th-Century Sailor Admits Rape in Concealed Diary Entry

'I did not enter her body, all though I did attempt something in that nature'

(Newser) - The elegant script and color illustrations of Edward Barlow's 225,000-word diary documenting the 17th-century sailor's life at sea have been admired for some 300 years. Hidden beneath was his darkest secret: a note providing what the Guardian calls an "excruciatingly frank account" of his rape of...

This Could Be a Novel Way to Conquer Cocaine Addiction

Scientists devise a genetically engineered skin graft that works in mice

(Newser) - Could a skin graft help cocaine addicts get clean? Scientists at the University of Chicago say their novel approach has worked in mice, reports New Scientist . And if this translates to humans, it could be a game changer, though the remedy is specific to cocaine addiction. In a new study...

Wolf Pup Died 50K Years Ago, Still 'So Cute'

Wolf, caribou found in Canada provide some of the world's oldest mummified soft tissue

(Newser) - "It's so cute" is not a typical reaction upon finding a 50,000-year-old dead animal, yet it's hard to argue with paleontologist Grant Zazula's assessment. With pristine muscle, skin, and fur, the complete mummified wolf pup, believed to have died around eight weeks old, looks as...

Meet the Shark That Likes Grass More Than Meat
Meet the First Known
Omnivorous Shark
NEW STUDY
Sep 5, 2018 6:15 PM CDT

Meet the First Known Omnivorous Shark

Bonnetheads munch on seagrass, and new study finds it's not just incidental

(Newser) - Jaws would've been a lot less scary had Steven Spielberg replaced his great white villain with a bonnethead shark. It's "the first known omnivorous species of shark," says researcher Samantha Leigh, co-author of a new study that describes the hammerhead relative as a lover of seagrass....

Toddlers Can Spot This Unflattering Trait


Toddlers Can
Spot This
Unflattering
Trait
new study
Sep 4, 2018 1:24 PM CDT

Toddlers Can Spot This Unflattering Trait

Study suggests they can distinguish between bullies and authentic leaders

(Newser) - A new study suggests that even toddlers know the difference between an authentic leader and a bully—and they're willing to defy the bully if they can safely do so. The study out of the University of Illinois and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

Big Egypt Find: Signs of Village Way Before the Pyramids

About 2,500 years before, to be (somewhat) exact

(Newser) - When you think of ancient Egypt, pharaohs and pyramids come to mind. But a new discovery in the Nile Delta is shedding some light on an even earlier time in Egypt's history. Archaeologists have discovered storage silos containing animal bones and food dating back to the Neolithic era (around...

Entire Arctic Expedition Perished, but Not Because of Lead

Study looks at fate of crew aboard HMS Erebus and HMS Terror

(Newser) - In 1845, Sir John Franklin set sail from England in the hopes of discovering and successfully navigating the Northwest Passage. Instead, all 128 crew members aboard the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror ended up dead. Nearly all of them actually survived until April 1848, when they fled ships that had...

3 Species Were Known to Go Through Menopause. Now It's 5

Aside from humans, they're all similar in one way

(Newser) - Menopause isn't a distinctly human condition—and now scientists have discovered two more species that experience it and then live well beyond it, bringing the total number to five. The four non-human species that go through menopause are similar in that they're all toothed whales. The new study,...

Was Napoleon Taken Down by a Volcano? Perhaps
Did a Volcano Play a Role in
Napoleon's Downfall? Maybe
in case you missed it
Aug 25, 2018 8:53 AM CDT

Did a Volcano Play a Role in Napoleon's Downfall? Maybe

New study suggests eruption played a role in poor weather conditions during battle

(Newser) - Here's an unexpected theory: that Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 was partly caused by the eruption of an volcano in Indonesia. It's a suggestion tacked onto the end of a study by Dr. Matthew Genge of the Imperial College London published Wednesday in Geology . Titled...

On the Surface of the Moon: Ice, Ice, Baby
Good News
for Future
Lunar Colonists
NEW STUDY
Aug 22, 2018 7:50 AM CDT

Good News for Future Lunar Colonists

Astronomers find 'definitive evidence' of ice on moon's surface

(Newser) - Future lunar colonists shouldn't have too much trouble finding water: In a first, astronomers have discovered ice—specifically patches of frost—on the moon's north and south poles, in areas permanently shaded from the sun. Found by observing how molecules absorb infrared light, the ice is particularly concentrated...

Scientists Make Spaghetti Do What It Rarely Does
Scientists Make Spaghetti
Do What It Rarely Does
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Aug 19, 2018 6:57 AM CDT

Scientists Make Spaghetti Do What It Rarely Does

Snap neatly in two

(Newser) - Scientists at MIT have just completed an excellent pasta parlor trick: They figured out how to snap pieces of spaghetti in two. The uninitiated can test the original problem for themselves: Go to the kitchen, pull out a piece of dry spaghetti, and try to break it into two pieces....

What We Assumed About Easter Island May Be Wrong
What We Assumed About
Easter Island May Be Wrong
in case you missed it
Aug 18, 2018 10:00 AM CDT

What We Assumed About Easter Island May Be Wrong

New study looked at the source of the tools used to carve the heads

(Newser) - The tale of the demise of Easter Island's people may have to be rewritten. The story has long held that infighting as resources ran out was one of the main drivers of the collapse, but a new study published in the Journal of Pacific Archaeology suggests a different scenario....

In an Ancient Jar, World's Oldest Cheese Is Found

Remnants of the stuff remain after 3,200 years

(Newser) - For thousands of years beneath Egypt's desert sands, a solidified whitish substance sat in a broken jar. Scientists now say it's "probably the most ancient archaeological solid residue of cheese ever found," per the AP . Archaeologists came across the finding while cleaning the sands around a...

Earliest Mummy &#39;Recipe&#39; Found


Earliest Known Egyptian
Mummy Is Discovered
new study
Aug 16, 2018 10:35 AM CDT

Earliest Known Egyptian Mummy Is Discovered

He moves back the start of the embalming practice about 1,500 years

(Newser) - He was probably in his 20s and died nearly 6,000 years ago in Egypt. Beyond that, not much is known about the mystery man—except that he has helped scientists rewrite the book on mummification. Chemical analysis reveals that whoever buried him also embalmed him, and that pushes back...

Scientists Link Devices' Blue Light to Serious Eye Trouble

When blue light hits our retinas, toxic molecules flow, killing eye cells we can't get back

(Newser) - Staring at your smartphone, tablet, or computer screen for hours on end may not only be fueling your online addiction—it could be wreaking havoc on your eyesight. So says a new study out of the University of Toledo, published in the Scientific Reports journal, and it's all because...

Prozac May Be Hurting Birds&#39; Libido
Prozac's Odd Side Effect:
Less Frisky Birds
new study
Aug 7, 2018 11:05 AM CDT

Prozac's Odd Side Effect: Less Frisky Birds

Females get trace amounts at sewage plants, become less desirable to mates

(Newser) - We humans consume a lot of antidepressants, and that means birds inadvertently do the same while feeding at sewage plants. Now researchers in the UK suggest that it's taking a toll on the birds' libidos, making them—or at least the females—less attractive to prospective mates. In their...

Find Made at Jamestown May Be a Significant One
Find Made at Jamestown
May Be a Significant One
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jul 29, 2018 7:03 AM CDT

Find Made at Jamestown May Be a Significant One

Archaeologists suspect they may have found George Yeardley's remains

(Newser) - "Who got such a prominent burial in the church?" It's the question archaeologists believe they know the answer to, though only time—and DNA analysis—will tell. Scientists working in Jamestown, Va., have unearthed remains they suspect might belong to Sir George Yeardley, the first governor of Virginia,...

Space May Be 20% Closer Than We Thought
World's 'Most
Widely Accepted
Boundary' May
Be Wrong
NEW STUDY
Jul 26, 2018 10:00 AM CDT

World's 'Most Widely Accepted Boundary' May Be Wrong

Astrophysicist says Karman Line is 50 miles above Earth, not 62

(Newser) - Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell calls the Karman Line the world's "most widely accepted boundary." It's otherwise known as the point where space meets Earth's atmosphere, and since before the launch of Sputnik, it's thought to have hovered 62 miles above our heads. Until now. In...

Stories 1121 - 1140 | << Prev   Next >>