discoveries

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

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Study Highlights Zika's Devastating Spread to Fetus

Study offers strongest evidence yet of birth defects from virus

(Newser) - The Zika virus' apparent effect on fetuses is on shocking display in a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine that was rushed to publication given the virus' spread . Though it offers no definitive link between Zika and fetal abnormalities, the study does produce the first evidence of...

66 People Were Mentally Ill. How Euthanasia Came Next

A look at cases in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2014

(Newser) - Euthanasia is itself not without controversy; the euthanasia or assisted suicide (EAS) of the mentally ill even more so. It's an infrequent practice but one on the rise in the Netherlands, which is thought to have seen no more than five such cases in 1997 but 42 in 2013....

Gravitational Waves Have Been Detected

Albert Einstein FTW!

(Newser) - Albert Einstein predicted it in 1916; scientists confirmed it in 2016: Gravitational waves have been detected, an effort backed by "2 detectors, 1,000 scientists, 16 countries, and 25 years," as an introductory video trumpeted at a Thursday morning press conference . "Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected...

1 in 10 Syrians Killed, Wounded During War
 1 in 10 Syrians Killed, 
 Wounded During War 
NEW REPORT
Feb 11, 2016 9:03 AM CST

1 in 10 Syrians Killed, Wounded During War

Human life, infrastructure, and economy have been 'obliterated'

(Newser) - A recent United Nations report that warned the Assad regime is "exterminating" civilians in Syria at alarming rates is an understatement compared to a new report from the Syrian Center for Policy Research. While other UN numbers, which the group stopped collecting in mid-2015, indicated at least 250,000...

Why Dementia Rates Are Going Down
 Why Dementia Rates 
 Are Going Down 
NEW STUDY
Feb 11, 2016 8:00 AM CST

Why Dementia Rates Are Going Down

Education, heart health cut the risk, researchers say

(Newser) - If you look after your heart and educate your brain, you have a better chance of avoiding or at least delaying dementia, new research suggests. Boston University School of Medicine researchers say data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has tracked the health of thousands of people in the Massachusetts...

What It Means If Gravitational Waves Were Detected

The big press conference is scheduled for 10:30am ET

(Newser) - A press conference scheduled for 10:30am ET Thursday has the scientific world on the edge of its seats. The rumor/expectation/prevailing hope: that 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted their existence, the hunt for gravitational waves has led to their direct detection. In a media advisory released Monday, the National...

5 States With Highest, Lowest Property Taxes

From New Jersey to Hawaii

(Newser) - You could likely tick off many, many differences between Hawaii and New Jersey, but 24/7 WallSt has identified perhaps the wonkiest of them all: property taxes. The site crunched the numbers on what people pay in each state as a percentage of home value and found that Jersey residents pay...

US, Global Shark Attacks Hit All-Time High

But shark-related deaths remain steady with 6 in 2015

(Newser) - Scientists' prediction of increasing shark attacks appears to be coming true: There were 98 shark attacks worldwide in 2015—the highest number recorded in the International Shark Attack File 's 57-year history, reports Time . The next highest total, 2000's 88 attacks, falls well behind the new record, which...

Kids With Step-Siblings More Apt to Be Aggressive
Kids With Step-Siblings
More Apt to Be Aggressive
NEW STUDY
Feb 10, 2016 8:01 AM CST

Kids With Step-Siblings More Apt to Be Aggressive

New research establishes a link, but questions remain over why

(Newser) - Kids with step- or half-siblings are more likely to behave aggressively than those who don't have this added complexity in their family structure, researchers at the University of Michigan report in the journal Demography . They studied about 6,500 children and their families from across the country in the...

Zika Could Be Even Worse for Babies Than We Thought

China reports 1st case of the virus

(Newser) - New research has made the dizzyingly fast spread of the Zika virus even scarier for expectant parents. Brazilian doctors say that in addition to abnormally small heads, some babies born to infected mothers appear to have eye defects that could seriously affect their vision, NBC News reports. The eye trouble...

Researchers Explain Why We Sigh

It's actually a vital life process to keep our lungs functioning: study

(Newser) - People may think they sigh just for the heck of it, but UCLA and Stanford researchers have pinpointed two specific clusters of neurons in the brain stem that appear to turn normal breaths into sighs—and that process may happen for a vital reason, a press release notes. Using mice...

Study Finds 'Fast and Efficient' Way to Stop Jet Lag

And you can do it while you sleep

(Newser) - Researchers at Stanford University have discovered what a press release calls a "fast and efficient" way to stop jet lag before it starts: repeatedly flashing light into your eyes while you sleep. "If you are flying to New York tomorrow, tonight you use the light therapy," Dr....

Ray of Hope in Drug to Treat 'Childhood Alzheimer's'

Niemann-Pick Disease Type C prevents the body from processing cholesterol properly

(Newser) - Not long before her 10th birthday, Hayley Koujaian began to have seizures. They weren't the first sign that something was amiss—for three years she was put in a variety of learning environments and programs but her cognition seemed to be slowly declining instead of progressing. Finally, after a...

Woman's Fitbit Reveals She's Pregnant

Redditor decoded the wonky data for her husband

(Newser) - A couple in New York City have good news to share thanks to some wonky Fitbit data and a helpful Redditor: They're expecting. YoungPTone, who identifies himself only as David, posted about issues with his wife's Fitbit on a Reddit thread last week, suspecting a problem with the...

Cause of Man's 5-Day Bout of Hiccups: a Tumor

Large mass was pressing against the phrenic nerve in his neck

(Newser) - When a 35-year-old man went to the hospital twice in a matter of weeks for "intractable" hiccups that lasted more than two days back in 2014, he was given an antipsychotic drug that has helped relieve symptoms in similar patients. The drug didn't help, but eventually the hiccups...

How a Dog IQ Test Could Help Humans

How well 'Mensa mutts' do on cognitive tasks could help with human health, too

(Newser) - In a move that researcher Dr. Rosalind Arden says could have "far-reaching implications for understanding human health and disease," scientists from the London School of Economics and the University of Edinburgh set out to understand the link between intelligence and health by studying … dogs. Per the Independent ...

Study Finds Another Reason to Be Wary of Tasers

They could lead to false confessions, researchers say

(Newser) - People have died after being Tased , and now a new study finds another reason to be wary of Tasers: The weapons may lead to false confessions. Criminology researchers actually found 142 people willing to be Tased—most of them were college students, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports—and then used...

The Most, Least Talkative States

If a New Yorker calls an Iowan, it might be lopsided

(Newser) - It may not be a huge surprise that New York is ranked No. 1 in a list of the most talkative states, but any guesses on the least talkative? The distinction goes to Iowa, according to analytics firm Marchex . It arrived at this conclusion by analyzing 4 million phone calls...

Yale Grad Students Debunk 1951 Dinner-Party Legend

A hoax of mammoth proportions is revealed

(Newser) - The Explorers Club Annual Dinner in New York—now going on its 112th year —has long treated its guests to exotic food items, including in more recent years deep-fried tarantulas, goat eyeball martinis, and the barbecued sex organs of bulls, reports the Atlantic . But the most famous meal of...

Decades-Old Question About This 'Purple Sock' Is Answered

Scientists still haven't seen the creatures feed

(Newser) - Since it was first discovered 60 years ago off the coast of Sweden, biologists have wondered exactly where the deep sea creature that resembles a crumpled purple sock belongs in the animal kingdom's family tree. Now the discovery of four new species in an entirely different ocean has effectively...

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