discoveries

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

Stories 1501 - 1520 | << Prev   Next >>

Drivers Use Phones on 88% of Car Rides
'Damn Near Everybody' 
Uses Phones While Driving
STUDY SAYS
Apr 18, 2017 8:33 AM CDT

'Damn Near Everybody' Uses Phones While Driving

Zendrive shares concerning numbers in largest distracted-driving analysis yet

(Newser) - An eyebrow-raising new study assesses the extent of distracted driving, with stats revealing just how many people use their cellphones while behind the wheel. "Damn near everybody … damn near all the time," Wired concludes after reviewing the Zendrive report, which the driving analytics company says is the...

Melting Glacier Caused River to Vanish in 4 Days
Scientists Head
to River for Work,
Find Lake Instead
STUDY SAYS
Apr 17, 2017 1:17 PM CDT

Scientists Head to River for Work, Find Lake Instead

Glacier melt spurred by climate change caused Yukon River to vanish in just 4 days

(Newser) - When scientists from the University of Illinois and Canada's Simon Fraser University headed to northern Canada last August to do some fieldwork along the Slims River, they were met by a surprising sight. The Yukon river was no longer flowing and instead resembled a "long, skinny lake,"...

Workers Found Hidden Stairs, Then a Crown and Coffins

Remains of 5 archbishops of Canterbury found by mistake in former medieval church

(Newser) - The Telegraph calls it the "perfect Easter story," except with ex-archbishops of Canterbury instead of Jesus, and a rather full tomb replacing Jesus' empty one. Workers renovating the Garden Museum (once a medieval-era church) next door to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lambeth Palace stumbled across a vault...

Jupiter&#39;s Great Red Spot Has Some Company
Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Has Some Company
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apr 16, 2017 8:03 AM CDT

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Has Some Company

Astronomers have discovered a 'Great Cold Spot' on Jupiter

(Newser) - It looks like Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot has some company. Astronomers recently discovered a second spot located high in Jupiter's atmosphere, according to a study published Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters . According to a press release , astronomers are calling this new spot the "Great Cold Spot....

New Database Gives Tree Scientists an Important First

They know how many different species exist: about 60K

(Newser) - Tree lovers, take note: A new database called GlobalTreeSearch has for the first time provided a tally of all the world's tree species. The answer: 60,065. Scientists from Botanic Gardens Conservation International in the UK spent two years compiling the database, relying on information from 500 published sources...

Montana Fossil Reveals Ancient Sea Creature

A long-gone inland sea still has secrets to give up

(Newser) - A fossil found by a Montana elk hunter nearly seven years ago has led to the discovery of a new species of prehistoric sea creature that lived about 70 million years ago in an inland sea that flowed east of the Rockies, the AP reports. The new elasmosaur species is...

No, Your Period Doesn&#39;t Sync With Your Roommate&#39;s
Busted: Longtime Myth
About Women's Periods
new study
Apr 14, 2017 9:08 AM CDT

Busted: Longtime Myth About Women's Periods

Women's periods don't sync up, even if they live together, scientists say

(Newser) - Sorry, ladies, but your roommate, sister, or female partner doesn't have an "alpha uterus" that's causing your menstrual cycle to align with hers. That's per a new study by period-tracking app Clue , which joined with University of Oxford scientists to determine if there was any truth...

You Are Probably Tying Your Shoes Incorrectly
You Are Probably Tying
Your Shoes Incorrectly
new study
Apr 13, 2017 11:04 AM CDT

You Are Probably Tying Your Shoes Incorrectly

Physicists explore why knots unravel, confirm square knot better than 'granny'

(Newser) - For such an age-old problem, it's gotten surprisingly little scientific study. But now physicists at Berkeley think they've figured out why the knots of our shoelaces come untied, reports the BBC . Through slow-motion video , they found that it's a complex combination of stomping (your foot hitting the...

After the Battle, Army Ants Leave No Soldier Behind

Many ants injured in battle are saved by being carried back to the colony

(Newser) - A new study provides the first evidence that ants rescue members of their own colony post-battle even when those ants aren't in imminent danger, reports the Guardian . The observation came about when biologist Erik Frank was watching army ants march out to battle termites in highly patterned formation—"...

Noisy Shrimp Named After Pink Floyd
Noisy Shrimp Named
After Pink Floyd
Apr 12, 2017 12:15 PM CDT

Noisy Shrimp Named After Pink Floyd

Pistol shrimp's bright-pink claw makes such a loud sound it'll blow your mind

(Newser) - If you've ever been blown away by Pink Floyd, you'll get why scientists just named a similarly thunderous crustacean in its honor. Per a post in the Zootaxa journal , a species of pistol shrimp with an intensely colored red-pink claw, found in the Pacific Ocean near Panama, has...

Evidence of Deepest Life on Earth Found Near Mariana Trench

Microbes could be living up to 6 miles under the seafloor

(Newser) - A team of researchers may have discovered evidence of the deepest life on Earth (and we're not talking college freshmen taking their first philosophy class). According to a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , there may be microbes living up to six miles under...

Tilt of Your Phone Could Spill Your Data to Hackers

They could get your PINs and passwords by exploiting device sensors: study

(Newser) - Under the right conditions, hackers could theoretically exploit a built-in feature in smartphones to steal passwords and PINs, and it all comes down to the tilt users employ and the way they type, the Guardian reports. In a study published in the International Journal of Information Security , Newcastle University researchers...

Egypt Just Found Another Pyramid
Egypt Just Found
Another Pyramid
in case you missed it
Apr 8, 2017 10:21 AM CDT

Egypt Just Found Another Pyramid

Experts believe it's 3.7K years old

(Newser) - An excavation team in Egypt has found what appears to be the interior of a buried pyramid dating back 3,700 years to the 13th dynasty. The antiquities ministry says that both a corridor and a block engraved with 10 lines of hieroglyphics are in good condition, reports the BBC...

Sorry, Cannibals: Humans Just Aren't That Nutritious

Try a boar instead

(Newser) - A human heart might seem like a hefty chunk of meat, but its 650 calories would hardly fill up a hungry cannibal living in Paleolithic times. It's a finding that is forcing researchers to rethink why cannibalism was practiced in that period if not as a last resort to...

Want to Know If You&#39;re Wrong? Ask an Ape
Apes May Be Able
to 'Read Minds'
NEW STUDY
Apr 6, 2017 6:55 PM CDT

Apes May Be Able to 'Read Minds'

And know if humans are harboring false beliefs

(Newser) - Now even the great apes are getting in on debunking "fake news"—or, to be more specific, fake beliefs. German researchers have found that the primates can tell when a human is wrong about something, and can even help to remedy the situation, which in this case was...

Geologists Find Evidence of a Real Brexit
Geologists
Find Evidence
of a Real Brexit
NEW STUDY
Apr 5, 2017 3:33 PM CDT

Geologists Find Evidence of a Real Brexit

Britain cut off from Europe 150K years ago: study

(Newser) - "Without this dramatic breaching Britain would still be a part of Europe," says Sanjeev Gupta—and no, he's not talking about Brexit. In what he dubs "Brexit 1.0—the Brexit nobody voted for," the Imperial College London researcher reveals two massive floods were responsible...

It&#39;s Getting More Difficult to Read Science Papers
It's Getting More
Difficult to Read
Science Papers
STUDY SAYS
Apr 3, 2017 3:19 PM CDT

It's Getting More Difficult to Read Science Papers

Researchers: It's because of technical jargon, also regular old jargon

(Newser) - Put off by the high-level mumbo-jumbo that proliferates in science journals? You're not alone, Swedish researchers have found. In a study published in the preprint server bioRxiv , William Hedley Thompson and his Karolinska Institute team checked out more than 700,000 English-language abstracts from nearly 125 biomedical journals from...

New Clues in the &#39;Coldest Case of All&#39;: the Iceman Murder
New Clues Cometh in
the Murder of an Iceman
in case you missed it
Apr 1, 2017 1:40 PM CDT

New Clues Cometh in the Murder of an Iceman

Copper Age man Oetzi was probably in physical fight days before his demise

(Newser) - It's one of the world's oldest murder mysteries—or what the director of an Italian archaeological museum calls "the coldest case of all"—but per the New York Times , there may be new clues to help figure out the details of Oetzi the Iceman's demise....

Scientists Borrow From Popeye for Heart Tissue Breakthrough

They use spinach leaf to create vascular network for beating human heart tissue

(Newser) - Popeye knew a thing or two about building muscle, maybe even more than we realized. Per National Geographic , scientists have appropriated the cartoon character's favorite snack—a spinach leaf—to help create new human heart muscle. In doing so, they circumvented a tissue issue that's plagued this type...

Mice Have Been Living Off Us Even Longer Than Dogs
Mice Have Been Living Off
Us Even Longer Than Dogs
NEW STUDY
Mar 28, 2017 4:02 PM CDT

Mice Have Been Living Off Us Even Longer Than Dogs

They appeared around 15K years ago in Levant: study

(Newser) - Dogs were the first domesticated animal, but they may not have been the first to mooch off humans. Scientists previously believed mice started congregating around farms to snatch grain about 12,000 years ago. But new research out of Israel's University of Haifa suggests mice were interacting with humans...

Stories 1501 - 1520 | << Prev   Next >>