discoveries

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

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Common Thyroid Cancer Isn't Cancer Anymore

'If it’s not a cancer, let’s not call it a cancer'

(Newser) - A group of 24 doctors from seven countries just reclassified a certain type of thyroid tumor as no longer cancerous, according to a report in JAMA Oncology . That might not seem like that big of a big deal, but it is. The tumor—formerly called EFVPTC (encapsulated follicular variant of...

Even Babies Will Make a 'Deal With the Devil'

Though they much prefer not to, even babies have a price, Yale study finds

(Newser) - Give a baby as young as a few months old the option to play with a nice puppet or a mean one and odds are she'll choose the nice one. But if the mean one has something to offer that the nice one doesn't—say, lots of baby...

Century-Old Evidence of Exoplanet Stuns Scientists

It came 70 years ahead of first exoplanet discovery

(Newser) - Polluted white dwarf stars—which host planetary debris like calcium, magnesium, and iron—are key in helping astronomers discover what's beyond our solar system. "The mechanism that creates the rings of planetary debris, and the deposition onto the stellar atmosphere, requires the gravitational influence of full-fledged planets,"...

Good News for Moms Who Wait to Have Kids

Study: Children of older moms are healthier, taller

(Newser) - Women who wait until 35 or later to have kids face a higher risk of problems, everything from miscarriage to diabetes to chromosomal problems with the newborn. But as Medical Today notes, that hasn't kept the average age of first pregnancies from creeping steadily up. Now, however, Swedish researchers...

Study: STDs, Not Love, Are Why Humans Became Monogamous

Sorry, romance

(Newser) - Our ancestors didn't choose monogamy out of anything so high-minded as love or religion, according to a new study published Tuesday. Rather, it was most likely due to skyrocketing rates of chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea from all the polygamous sex being had. Within hunter-gatherer groups of 30 or fewer...

It's Official: Zika Causes Birth Defects

What was long suspected has been confirmed by the CDC

(Newser) - What has long been suspected was finally confirmed by the CDC on Wednesday: The Zika virus causes birth defects, Time reports. According to the BBC , hundreds of babies in Brazil have been born with microcephaly since the Zika outbreak started, but so far the link between the two hadn't...

Sorry, Hand-Washing Takes More Effort Than You Think

 There's a Better Way 
 to Wash Your Hands 
NEW STUDY
Apr 13, 2016 7:13 AM CDT

There's a Better Way to Wash Your Hands

Best technique to reduce bacteria involves 6 steps: study

(Newser) - You do it several times a day: You grab some soap, rub your hands together for 20 seconds or so, then rinse. Yet if you're aiming to get rid of as much bacteria as possible, you've been washing your hands all wrong. After observing the hand-washing techniques of...

Humans&#39; Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?
Humans' Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?
NEW STUDY
Apr 12, 2016 11:14 AM CDT

Humans' Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?

Diseases out of Africa may have helped lead to their demise

(Newser) - Scientists claim Neanderthals were doomed by everything from climate change to their big eyes . A new study offers a different theory: humans were at least partly responsible. UK researchers say humans who migrated out of Africa were "reservoirs of tropical disease" and may have infected Neanderthals across Europe with...

Even a Second of Laughter Speaks Volumes

Scientists find that across cultures humans are good at discerning intimacy via laughter

(Newser) - What can be revealed in just a brief moment of laughter—an audio recording a mere second long, played without any context to people in two dozen different parts of the world? Quite a lot, it turns out. In fact, that tiny blip of sound is enough for many of...

Ancient Letters Reveal Bible Bombshell

Parts likely written 2.6K years ago: study

(Newser) - "A full homer of wine, bring tomorrow; don't be late." That command, written on pottery excavated near the Dead Sea, not only shows soldiers liked to drink in the Kingdom of Judah around 600BC. It might also push back the date of the Old Testament. In analyzing...

Scientists Wowed by First Look at Brain on LSD

'This is to neuroscience what the Higgs boson was to particle physics'

(Newser) - After taking the first-ever look at how the brain functions on LSD, Imperial College, London researchers sound nearly as enthusiastic about the drug as Timothy Leary. The team scanned the brains of 20 volunteers on the drug and discovered that not only did it increase connectivity between parts of the...

America's Poor Live Longer in 'Unexpected' Places

Stanford researchers analyze over 1B records

(Newser) - A new study says America's wealthy live longer than its poor, which is hardly surprising. But it also says low-income people live longer in certain places—like affluent cities including New York and San Francisco, NPR reports. Why isn't clear, but lead study author Raj Chetty of Stanford...

OTC Painkiller May Make It Hard for You to Notice Errors

Past studies show acetaminophen can dull emotional pain

(Newser) - That Tylenol you just popped may do the trick when it comes to dulling your headache. But a new University of Toronto study finds that the painkiller's active ingredient, acetaminophen, may also put a damper on your ability to notice errors, Science Daily reports. "The core idea of...

Were Laos' Huge Stone Jars Used to Decompose Bodies?

February find provides a new clue

(Newser) - The discovery in February of an ancient burial site could provide a clue for unraveling the mystery of the Plain of Jars—a region in central Laos that is littered with thousands of stone jars, Live Science reports. There are more than 90 jar sites (some with up to 400...

Isaac Newton Wanted to Turn Lead Into Gold

The renowned physicist moonlighted as an alchemist

(Newser) - When he wasn't helping to establish modern physics (or getting bonked on the head by apples), Sir Isaac Newton devoted himself to uncovering the secrets of the "philosopher's stone"—a mythical concoction that was said to turn lead into gold. In fact, Newton wrote more than...

10-Minute In-Person Chat May Reduce Prejudice

'If you ask the right questions ...'

(Newser) - A new study published in the journal Science suggests that a quick, face-to-face conversation can put a dent in LGBT prejudice. Volunteers who went door to door—aka "deep canvassing," per the Atlantic —"substantially reduced transphobia," say the researchers. "We found that a single,...

Scientists Answer Weird Question About Moby Dick

Yes, sperm whales could batter a ship with their heads

(Newser) - A multinational team of researchers set out to settle what has oddly been a longstanding dispute in scientific circles: whether, in Moby Dick-esque fashion, sperm whales could use their heads to bash seagoing vessels. And it seems that Herman Melville got it right. Writing in the journal PeerJ , researchers concluded...

A Wrong Made Wright: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including an alien-fooling cloaking shield for Earth and the skinny on 'bad' carbs

(Newser) - A burial site crammed with curses and the "holy grail" of missing documents make the list:
  • Missing Patent for Wright Brothers' 'Flying Machine' Found : 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
...

Diabetes, Obesity Dramatically Increase Risk of Big Babies

Fetuses can be abnormally large by the sixth month of pregnancy

(Newser) - Diabetic or obese pregnant women may already be carrying abnormally large fetuses by the sixth month of pregnancy, US News & World Report reports. And that matters because, according to the BBC , abnormally large babies are at risk of injury during delivery and can have a higher chance of obesity...

Shrinking Gender Gap Could Give Economy Huge Boost

Increasing equality could add $2.1T to GDP

(Newser) - Shrinking the gender gap in American workplaces could give the US economy a boost almost as big as the GDP of California, according to the latest McKinsey Global Institute study. The institute found that while the economy could grow by $4.3 trillion if the gender gap was completely eliminated,...

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