discoveries

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

Stories 1161 - 1180 | << Prev   Next >>

First Civil War 'Limb Pit' Is Excavated

Find at Manassas National Battlefield Park reveals the aftermath of battle

(Newser) - A utility crew working at Virginia's Manassas National Battlefield Park unearthed what at first just seemed like portions of bone. Then came more bones, so far 11 limbs in all, nearly all of them leg bones. Now, thanks to help from forensic anthropologists at the Smithsonian's National Museum...

A Martyr's Bone Was Plucked From the Sea, Then the Trash

Bone fragment said to be that of St. Clement handed over to Westminster Cathedral

(Newser) - St. Clement was said to have been put to death by being tied to a boat anchor and drowned. Just shy of 2,000 years later, what's believed to be a piece of one of his bones has been presented to Westminster Cathedral. The path from there to here...

Scientists Discover Big Problem With Ancient Trees
Scientists Make Alarming
Find About Ancient Trees
in case you missed it
Jun 16, 2018 10:30 AM CDT

Scientists Make Alarming Find About Ancient Trees

Africa's oldest baobabs are dying, quickly

(Newser) - Researchers taking a survey of some of the world's oldest and funkiest trees have bad news to report: Africa's legendary baobabs are dying. The statistic getting the most attention out of the new study in Nature Plants is that eight of the continent's 13 oldest baobabs have...

Ancient Turquoise Rewrites Aztec History
Ancient Turquoise
Rewrites Aztec History
new study
Jun 14, 2018 9:20 AM CDT

Ancient Turquoise Rewrites Aztec History

Looks like Mesoamericans found their own and didn't trade with American Southwest

(Newser) - For a long time, scholars have thought that the Aztecs had frequent contact with groups in what's now the American Southwest. But a new chemical analysis of ancient turquoise artifacts just put a giant hole in that theory. It now appears that the Aztecs and another Mesoamerican civilization known...

A Search for Ancestors Reveals She Had Been Swapped at Birth

Women discover they were switched at birth

(Newser) - A fun foray into finding out more about her ancestry through a popular genealogy website led to a shocking revelation for 72-year-old Denice Juneski: She wasn't related to any of her own relatives—at least not the ones she'd grown up knowing. KARE reports that as Minnesota's...

The Sculpted Head Is Exquisite, but Packs a Mystery

Archaeologists have dated it to the 9th century BC, but don't know who it depicts

(Newser) - An enigmatic sculpture of a king's head dating back nearly 3,000 years has set off a modern-day mystery caper as scholars try to figure out whose face it depicts. The 2-inch sculpture is an exceedingly rare example of figurative art from the Holy Land during the 9th century...

Babies May Not Get the Concept of 'Zero,' but Bees Do

Researchers amazed that honeybees can grasp the abstract construct of 'nothing'

(Newser) - Dolphins, monkeys, birds, and homo sapiens have a shared understanding of a quite difficult concept, and now honeybees are joining the party. Per a release , that concept is "zero," an abstract mathematical construct that scientists say stumps humans until at least preschool , but which they now note is...

Lightning Strikes on Jupiter Differ From Ours in One Way

Strikes can occur at same rate and in the same frequency, but the where isn't the same

(Newser) - Astronomers have been intrigued at the notion of lightning strikes on Jupiter since Voyager 1 detected flashes nearly four decades ago, notes Space.com . Now the Juno orbiter has revealed a surprise: Those strikes are more similar to lightning strikes on Earth than previously thought. For one thing, Jupiter's...

In Coal Country, a &#39;Slow-Rolling Disaster&#39;
In Coal Country,
a 'Slow-Rolling
Disaster'
NEW STUDY
May 23, 2018 4:40 PM CDT

In Coal Country, a 'Slow-Rolling Disaster'

New studies show increase in numbers of miners with both early, advanced 'black lung disease'

(Newser) - In what one epidemiologist calls a "slow-rolling disaster," a new set of studies presented at an American Thoracic Society conference this week offered glum news for coal miners. Per NPR , more Appalachian miners are plagued by both early- and late-stage pneumoconiosis , or "black lung disease," than...

They 'Didn't Like' the Vase. Then They Learned Its Value

Attic find from Qing Dynasty could fetch up to $850K

(Newser) - It's not $136 million in art , but it's not an ex-boyfriend , either. Rather, the latest attic find is a perfect condition Chinese vase from the 18th-century Qing dynasty. Its owners took the vase, reportedly made for the Qianlong Emperor, to be appraised at Sotheby's three months ago...

Great Ape, Extinct Lion Among Top New Species

Several endangered species among top finds over past year

(Newser) - It's understandable that a fish in the deepest spot on Earth would escape human notice for millennia. How a great ape managed the same feat is less clear, though both are now included in a list of the top 10 of 18,000 new species discovered over the past...

By This New Measure, Plants Rule the Earth
By This New Measure,
Plants Rule the Earth
NEW STUDY
May 22, 2018 9:40 AM CDT

By This New Measure, Plants Rule the Earth

They outweigh all other life on the planet, by a mile

(Newser) - A first-of-its-kind study reveals that humans make up a minuscule portion of life on the planet. As in 0.01%, reports the Guardian . The flip side of that? Despite the scant figure, humans have reshaped the animal kingdom, helping wipe out about 83% of mammals and half of all plants...

She'd Vaped for Just 3 Weeks. Then, a Trip to the ER

Teen spent 5 days on ventilator after she suffered respiratory failure

(Newser) - News of one scary vaping experience follows another. Days after authorities confirmed a Florida man died when his vape pen exploded , sending projectiles into his brain, a study published in the journal Pediatrics tells of an 18-year-old Pennsylvania woman who ended up in an emergency room with a cough and...

Legendary Ancient City Found by Accident

Mardaman in modern-day Iraq is nearly 5K years old

(Newser) - Archaeologists who've spent five years digging up an ancient city in Iraq's Kurdistan region have finally learned its name—and it's legendary. Mardaman, once the capital of a Mesopotamian province and its own independent kingdom, is believed to have begun as early as 4,800 years ago...

In One of Planet&#39;s Most Remote Spots, a Plastic Bag
Plastic Bag Found in
Truly Depressing Spot
new study
May 15, 2018 10:45 AM CDT

Plastic Bag Found in Truly Depressing Spot

Not even the bottom of the Mariana Trench is safe from our trash

(Newser) - "Single-use plastic reached the world's deepest ocean trench at 10,898 m," states the study plainly, referring to that great scourge: the plastic bag. National Geographic reports that a review of the Deep-Sea Debris Database, an assemblage of photos and videos taken during roughly 5,000 dives...

There May Be a Way to Stop People From BSing
There May Be
a Way to Stop
People From BSing
NEW STUDY
May 14, 2018 12:40 PM CDT

There May Be a Way to Stop People From BSing

Simply calling them out on the facts usually works, suggests a new study

(Newser) - Why do people BS, and what can make them stop doing it? A new study suggests the bull tends to flow when people feel social pressure to have an opinion on something—even if they don't fully understand the subject, per Poynter . And it's worse if people don'...

Utah Couple Doing Yard Work Find Skeleton&mdash;From Ice Age
Couple Finds 'Cow' Remains in
Yard—Except It's Not a Cow
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
May 13, 2018 10:05 AM CDT

Couple Finds 'Cow' Remains in Yard—Except It's Not a Cow

Utah skeleton is actually that of a Pleistocene Era horse

(Newser) - When Laura and Bridger Hill started doing yard work at their home in Lehi, Utah, last September to prep for a retaining wall, the last thing they expected was to stumble across Ice Age-era remains. But that's exactly what happened, with the couple telling the New York Times they...

In the 'Most Under-Observed' Ocean, a Mammoth Wave

78-foot wave recorded Tuesday in Southern Ocean

(Newser) - The northern hemisphere still has it beat, but the southern hemisphere can now claim a new record when it comes to tallest wave. A solar-powered buoy placed near New Zealand's Campbell Island in the Southern Ocean on Tuesday recorded an eight-story wave that measured 78 feet in height, beating...

Hunt for MH370 Turns Up Indian Ocean's Deepest Wrecks

They're 2.3 miles below the ocean's surface

(Newser) - A four-year search of the depths of the Indian Ocean has failed to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. But the unprecedented sonar hunt for the missing airliner might be close to solving 19th-century mysteries—the locations of two sailing ships that vanished with cargoes of coal, reports the AP . Maritime...

This Is the Longest Line You Can Sail Without Hitting Land

It goes more than 19K miles, from Pakistan to Russia

(Newser) - Feel like getting away on the open sea for a long while? Get yourself a boat and head to Pakistan's coastal town of Sonmiani. From there, you can embark on the longest sailable straight line possible, reaching Russia's Karaginsky District some 19,940 miles away, according to researchers....

Stories 1161 - 1180 | << Prev   Next >>