science

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Physicists Need New Accelerator for 'God Particle'

Japan is expected to be home to $8B project

(Newser) - The good news for physicists is that they've finally found the elusive Higgs boson . The bad news is that to truly study it in the hope of unlocking the mysteries of the universe, they're going to need a whole new particle accelerator, reports NPR . And the type of...

Shark Week Once Mattered; Now It's a Joke

Alan Yuhas: Discovery abandons science in quest for ratings

(Newser) - The Discovery Channel's Shark Week is under way again, but it can't end soon enough for Alan Yuhas at the Guardian . Discovery now prefers schlock to science, as evidenced by the fictional documentary Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives that kicked off this year's festivities. When it began...

Why We&#39;re Short on Scientists
 Why We're Short on Scientists 
OPINION
Jul 18, 2013 12:57 PM CDT

Why We're Short on Scientists

Cass Sunstein doesn't think we're doing enough to prepare them in high school

(Newser) - Why is the US falling behind in science? Why are fewer people earning science and engineering degrees here than in, say, China and Japan? Cass Sunstein at Bloomberg thinks the answer lies in a new study that found that while 19.8% of kids entering college are interested in majoring...

Scientists Find Mysterious Changes in Earth's Spin

Something at Earth's core responsible for changes every 6 years

(Newser) - How fast our planet turns—and, in turn, how long our day is—is not a stagnant thing. In fact, it changes every 5.9 years, according to a new study published in Nature . The Earth spins slightly faster or slower on a regular cycle, adding or subtracting milliseconds to...

Solar System's Edge Mystifies Scientists

Voyager 1 reaches outer limits and smashes old theories

(Newser) - Voyager 1 may not have exited our solar system , but it's throwing scientists some unexpected curve balls from 11 billion miles away, reports the Los Angeles Times . The spacecraft is now in a strange zone known as the "magnetic highway," and nothing out there seems to be...

Plants Can Do Arithmetic: Study
 Plants Can Do Arithmetic: Study 
in case you missed it
Jun 29, 2013 7:50 AM CDT

Plants Can Do Arithmetic: Study

Leaves can calculate exactly how much starch a plant will need each night

(Newser) - How do plants survive without starving through the night when there's no sunlight to nourish them? Simple arithmetic. A study by UK scientists to be published in the journal eLife found that plants precisely calculate and adjust the amount of starch to store and consume overnight, to make sure...

700K-Year-Old Horse Yields World's Oldest DNA

Pushes back their evolution to 4M years ago

(Newser) - Woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and... horses? According to research using the oldest DNA ever found, horses have been trotting around for millions of years—about 4 million, to be exact. The study, published in Nature , explains how scientists used DNA from a 700,000-year-old horse foot bone found in Canada'...

Nuclear Bombs Prove Our Brains Keep Growing

Research uses fallout from tests to show we get new brain cells as adults

(Newser) - Congratulations, your adult brain isn't meekly withering into a useless mass after all—it is instead generating new neurons all the while. Scientists have long debated whether the brain keeps growing into adulthood, and new research in Cell seems to have settled the mystery. What's more, the Swedish...

Coming to Google Street View: Galapagos Islands

Google captures panoramic views of remote and inaccessible areas

(Newser) - If you've ever wished you could visit the Galapagos Islands, you'll soon get the chance to see the remote volcanic islands from the comfort of your own home. Google sent hikers to the area complete with Street View gear to capture panoramic views of even the most inaccessible...

How Cockroaches Lost Their Sweet Tooth&mdash;Fast
How Cockroaches Lost
Their Sweet Tooth—Fast
new study
May 24, 2013 5:31 AM CDT

How Cockroaches Lost Their Sweet Tooth—Fast

Glucose-averse roaches emerged in as few as 5 years: study

(Newser) - We're not so lucky as to have a genetic mutation that keeps us away from sugar—but that's the case with some cockroaches, which scientists reveal have quickly evolved in a way that keeps them away from glucose, a popular ingredient in roach-poison bait. That cockroaches have grown...

Los Alamos Has Ultra-Secure 'Quantum Internet'

Researchers have been using it for more than 2 years

(Newser) - The concept of a "quantum Internet" is like the holy grail of online security—any such system would guarantee that all communication is safe. Now it appears that researchers at Los Alamos have made real progress: They've been using an uber-secure system of their own design for about...

Meet RoboBee, World's Smallest Flying Robot

Harvard's robotic fly is about the size of a dime

(Newser) - The Guardian calls it the "smallest flying robot in the world," DVice has it as the "world's smallest aerial drone," and USA Today settles for "electronic housefly." By whichever name, the dime-sized device by Harvard scientists is amazing. (They call it "RoboBee,...

Studies Suggest Our View of Cancer Is Outdated

It's not about a particular organ, it's about gene mutations

(Newser) - Two major studies of common cancers have zeroed in on the particular gene mutations associated with both, a breakthrough that could lead to better treatment for those with acute myeloid leukemia and endometrial cancer, reports the Boston Globe . But the studies also lend credence to a broader idea: that our...

Dark Matter News Might Be Space Station's Finest Hour

Experiment there yields what may be the first glimpse of the stuff

(Newser) - Astronomers are plenty excited today over the news that an experiment aboard the International Space Station may have caught the first glimpse of dark matter. You know, the "mysterious substance that may hold the cosmos together," in the words of USA Today . Or the "mysterious dark matter...

Sex-Ed Teacher in Trouble for Teaching Sex-Ed

 Sex-Ed Teacher 
 in Trouble for 
 Teaching 
 Sex-Ed 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 31, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Sex-Ed Teacher in Trouble for Teaching Sex-Ed

Among the complaints in Idaho district: using the word 'vagina'

(Newser) - An Idaho science teacher is being investigated by the state over the content of his 10th-grade biology class. Complaints about Tim McDaniel by scandalized Dietrich school parents include: using the word "vagina," talking about orgasms, showing a video clip of genital herpes, and teaching different forms of birth...

Obesity Is on Your Breath
 Obesity Is on Your Breath 
study says
Mar 30, 2013 5:34 AM CDT

Obesity Is on Your Breath

Microrganisms in gut give off faint scent, says study

(Newser) - Obesity may have a scent—and it isn't Chicken McNuggets. A new study has found that people with higher levels of methane and hydrogen on their breath tend to be fatter, thanks to gas-emitting microorganisms that live in our gut and may contribute to weight gain, reports Time .

In a First, Scientists Track Blue Whales by Song

Researchers able to zero in on mammoth creatures for study

(Newser) - Blue whales may be the planet's biggest creature, but that doesn't mean they're easy to track and study. This should help, however: Australian researchers on the Southern Ocean were able to get around what one called the "needle in a haystack" problem by dropping acoustic buoys...

Liberals Are Also Waging a 'War on Science'

Both sides eschew science when it suits them: Michael Shermer

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom holds that Republicans, not Democrats, are waging a war on science. But "there's a liberal war on science" too, writes Michael Shermer in Scientific American . Yes, it's true that 58% of conservatives believe humans were created, by God, in the past 10,000 years. But...

'Absolute Zero' May Not Be Coldest Temperature

Study suggests Kelvin scale isn't absolute after all

(Newser) - Science students learn that the coldest theoretical temperature isn't found on either the Fahrenheit or Celsius scales, but on the Kelvin scale—at "absolute zero," the point at which even atoms stop moving around. That might change, thanks to German physicists, though you might need a working...

Asia Still Kicking Our Kids&#39; Butts in Math, Science
Asia Still Kicking Our
Kids' Butts in Math, Science
New test results
Dec 11, 2012 10:14 AM CST

Asia Still Kicking Our Kids' Butts in Math, Science

Singapore dominates, according to new testing results

(Newser) - The results of new testing are, unfortunately, more of the same: US kids remain behind a host of other countries in math and science, specifically those in East Asia. American fourth-graders rank 11th in math and 7th in science, while eighth-graders are 9th in math and 10th in science. Leading...

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