discoveries

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

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Building Material of the Future: 'Transparent Wood'

It could be used for windows and solar cells

(Newser) - One of these days, your windows may be made out of wood. Swedish researchers have developed a transparent, wood-based material that could be used to let light into buildings, as well as for making solar cells, Science Daily reports. The transparent wood—the "coolest building material ever," per...

Schizophrenic-Like Traits Let Some Tickle Themselves

Could shed light on schizophrenic hallucinations

(Newser) - More than a decade ago, scientists established a link between schizophrenia and the rare ability to tickle oneself. Now researchers in France have expanded on the findings, reporting in the journal Consciousness and Cognition that the behavior can be found not just in those with full-blown schizophrenia but in otherwise...

Missing Patent for Wright Bros' 'Flying Machine' Found in Cave

The 'holy grail' of lost documents hadn't been seen in decades

(Newser) - Missing for decades, the Wright brothers' patent for their "Flying Machine" was found last month in a manila envelope among 15-foot-high stacks of patent files in a limestone cave outside a small Kansas city. The Washington Post has a fascinating story on how the "holy grail" of missing...

Heavy News: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including possible 'hobbit' murder

(Newser) - A fish on "crutches" and a worrisome obesity update make the list:
  • World's Obese Outnumber the Underweight : Researchers say that over the last 40 years, the number of obese people worldwide has ballooned and the obese now outnumber the underweight. The proportion of obese people worldwide stands at
...

Ancient Virus Could Determine the Sex of Your Baby

'Why ... is a fascinating question'

(Newser) - The sex of baby mice—and quite likely baby humans—is determined by a virus that inserted itself into the mammalian genome 1.5 million years ago, Live Science reports. Yale researchers published their surprising findings on March 30 in Nature . According to a press release , more than 40% of...

Huge Discovery About Vikings Just Came From Space

They may have made it further into America than we ever knew

(Newser) - A "high-tech Indiana Jones" may have just done what no one else has been able to for 55 years: find a second Viking settlement in North America, the Washington Post reports. "Typically in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote in the history books, but what...

Colder Game Days More Dangerous for NFL Players
Colder Game Days More Dangerous for NFL Players
study says

Colder Game Days More Dangerous for NFL Players

Players at higher risk for concussions when playing in the cold

(Newser) - Amid the furor over concussions in the NFL, a new study finds that players are at a higher risk for the injuries during games played when it's colder out. Researchers looked at injury report data from all 32 NFL teams for the 2012-13 and the 2013-14 regular seasons, and...

Stressed Kids Have Higher Heart Attack Risk as Adults

A Finnish study spots a connection

(Newser) - If your kids are happy and you know it clap your hands—because their level of stress in childhood may have an effect on their heart attack risk later in life. So report Finnish researchers in a longitudinal study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics after 311 children were followed...

Mathematicians Reveal 'True Protagonist' on Game of Thrones

Tyrion Lannister takes the cake in Westeros

(Newser) - There are so many characters in Game of Thrones it's hard to keep them straight, let alone identify the main character. Mathematicians Andrew Beveridge and a student from Macalester College turned to "network science" to sort it out, searching for instances in which two characters' names appeared within...

World's Obese Now Outnumber the Underweight

A 5th of the world will be obese by 2025, researchers warn

(Newser) - It's a big world after all: Researchers say that over the last 40 years, the number of obese people worldwide has ballooned and the obese now outnumber the underweight, HealthDay reports. The proportion of obese people worldwide now stands at 11% among men and 15% among women, while 9%...

This Stone May Be Key to Mysterious Yet Influential Ancient Culture

Little survives of the Etruscans, who helped shape ancient Rome and Greece

(Newser) - The Etruscans, a massively influential culture admired by both ancient Greeks and Romans, are largely a mystery to us today because much of their writing has perished, Ars Technica reports. That may change with a 500-pound slab of sandstone containing 70 letters and punctuation marks from the Etruscan language discovered...

Cops: Guy Hid 1.4K Bags of Heroin—in His Body

Specifically, in his rectum

(Newser) - A New York City man has pleaded not guilty after police say they found more than 1,400 bags of heroin stashed inside his body, the AP reports. Vermont State Police say 41-year-old Fernando Estrella of the Bronx was pulled over for a traffic violation early Tuesday in St. Albans....

Parasite Found in Cat Poop Linked to Rage Disorder
Parasite Found in Cat Poop Linked to Rage Disorder
NEW STUDY

Parasite Found in Cat Poop Linked to Rage Disorder

Toxoplasmosis has been linked to host of neurological disorders

(Newser) - People prone to angry outbursts are more than twice as likely to be infected with a common parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which is often spread through cat feces. So report researchers in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , who looked for circulating antibodies to the parasite in 358 adults with intermittent...

German Historian: AP Was in Cahoots With the Nazis

Claims that Nazis even had a propaganda plant as an AP photographer

(Newser) - A historian at Germany's Martin Luther University has uncovered what she says is proof from Associated Press archives that it was in formal cahoots with Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in exchange for being the only Western news agency to report from there, the New York Times reports. In...

Sea Levels Set to Rise Much Faster Than Expected

Collapsing ice cliffs could accelerate Antarctic melt

(Newser) - Warmer air, less-frigid water, and gravity may combine to make parts of Antarctica's western ice sheet melt far faster than scientists had thought, raising sea levels much more than expected by the end of the century, according to a new study. New physics-based computer simulations forecast dramatic increases in...

10 Worst US Cities for Mosquitoes

Let's just throw a mosquito net over the entire Southeast

(Newser) - With the Zika virus making headlines around the world and peak mosquito season only a few months away, USA Today reports on the 20 US cities where you might as well wear a mosquito net when you go outside. The rankings of the worst US cities for mosquitos comes from...

Study: Humans May Have Killed Off Real-Life Hobbits

Homo floresiensis disappeared thousands of years earlier than believed

(Newser) - New research suggests it's possible ancient humans are responsible for killing off Indonesia's hobbits (an urge no doubt felt by modern humans who sat through the extended edition of The Hobbit). Starting in 2003 when their remains were first discovered on the island of Flores, scientists believed Homo ...

Vegetarian Ancestors Affect Your Cancer Risk

Those with gene mutation could overload on fatty acids

(Newser) - You've probably never given thought to what your ancestors stuffed down their gullets. Now might be the time. In a new study in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Cornell University researchers explain that people who come from a line of mostly plant eaters likely carry a gene mutation used to...

Humans and 'Unicorns' May Have Coexisted

Research finds the 'Siberian unicorn' is much younger than we thought

(Newser) - Unicorns are real, and they're a lot younger than we thought. Researchers from Russia's Tomsk State University were digging at a fossil site in Kazakhstan when they found bones belonging to the Elasmotherium sibiricum, otherwise known as the "Siberian unicorn," Huffington Post reports. According to IFL...

Discovery May Provide 50-Day Warning for Heat Waves

Scientist spot pattern with ocean temperatures

(Newser) - Meteorologists might be able to predict heat waves on the East Coast up to 50 days in advance by keeping an eye on ocean temperatures far, far away. Scientists writing in Nature Geoscience say they've picked up on a connection: When a particular weather event known as the Pacific...

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