discoveries

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

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5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a big and poisonous jellyfish

(Newser) - A pair of surprise discoveries, one in a museum basement and the other from a plane over the desert, highlight the week's list:
  • 6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement : An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally
...

Anti-Anxiety Drug Makes Fish Live Longer
Anti-Anxiety Drug
Makes Fish Live Longer 
STUDY SAYS
Aug 8, 2014 11:30 AM CDT

Anti-Anxiety Drug Makes Fish Live Longer

Human tranquilizer makes perch aggressive but also seems to increase longevity

(Newser) - On the one hand, fish exposed to the tranquilizer oxazepam when it seeps into their waters kind of become jerks, reports a study in Nature . On the other hand, this same drug, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety and insomnia in human adults, apparently helps them live longer, reports Nature...

Why Fake Smiling Is a Bad Idea

Trying to mask unhappiness might make you unhappier, study says

(Newser) - If you're subscribing to the old adage of "grin and bear it" to mask negative emotions, you're not doing yourself any favors—we're simply not that easily fooled. Researchers say that over time, fake smiling can actually cause people to associate smiling with feeling unhappy, and...

Hope for 'Butterfly' Kids Thanks to New Treatment

Their rare genetic disorder can cause severe blistering all over the body

(Newser) - When Elisa McCann was born 18 months ago, her parents knew something was wrong. Their third child had blisters everywhere on her body within her first day of life, and doctors quickly diagnosed a rare genetic disorder called epidermolysis bullosa (EB), reports Today . In kids with the condition, who are...

Giant New Jellyfish Has No Tentacles

Keesingia gigas has potentially deadly sting

(Newser) - A huge new species of jellyfish discovered off western Australia looks a bit like a plastic bag—but one that can deliver a potentially lethal sting. Keesingia gigas is as long as a human arm, though bizarrely, none of the specimens caught or photographed appear to have any tentacles, the...

6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement

It had been uncatalogued since 1930 expedition in modern-day Iraq

(Newser) - An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally has an ID: It's a 6,500-year-old man newly nicknamed Noah, reports Philly.com . Historians didn't figure it out until a project to digitize the museum’s collection revealed that...

Sandstorms Reveal Ancient Designs in Peru Desert

Pilot spots newly exposed Nazca lines

(Newser) - Sandstorms in Peru have revealed mysterious designs believed to have been etched into the desert thousands of years ago. The newly exposed geoglyphs, discovered last week by a pilot flying over the region, include a snake nearly 200 feet long as well as a bird and some llama-like creatures, reports...

Daily Aspirin Cuts Cancer Risk, but...
 Daily Aspirin 
 Cuts Cancer 
 Risk, but... 
study says
Aug 6, 2014 6:15 AM CDT

Daily Aspirin Cuts Cancer Risk, but...

Concerns remain about side effects, including bleeding

(Newser) - Researchers in Britain are trumpeting the benefits of taking aspirin daily following a new investigation that suggests it could cut the risk of certain cancers. Data from 200 studies indicates that bowel, esophageal, and stomach cancer cases and deaths could drop 30% to 40% if people took the drug every...

'Hobbit' Found Decade Ago Not New Species

The skull appears to belong to an individual with Down Syndrome

(Newser) - When a skull and several bone fragments were discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004, one scientist called it "the most important find in human evolution for 100 years." The discoverers hailed it as a previously unknown and extinct human species, which they...

Mystery of China's Terracotta Army Solved

Scientists finally figure out what binding material was used

(Newser) - Every member of First Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army—thousands of replicas of Chinese imperial guards rendered in clay around 221 BC—is unique and incredibly realistic, which is why they've fascinated researchers since they were discovered in 1974. Now, scientists in China say they’ve peeled back...

Here's How We Quickly Judge Human Faces

Features lead to assumptions about character, study says

(Newser) - Have masculine or feminine features? A big smile? Characteristics like these, it seems, are central to our snap judgements of people's faces. Using a computer model, researchers have figured out how different features affect our first impressions, the BBC reports. The system is based on 1,000 pictures of...

Couples' Memories Become Intertwined

Their stories are more detailed when they work together: study

(Newser) - Couples may be able to remember together what the individual partners can't. Though studies have in the past suggested that collective recall doesn't work as well as individual, long-term relationships may provide an exception to the rule, io9 reports. In a new study, couples were in many cases...

Blood Test Might Reveal Suicide Risk

Gene key to our stress response: researchers

(Newser) - Scientists say they have a new way of determining suicide risk, and it's based on genetics—requiring only a blood test. Researchers running postmortem genome scans of brain samples found that the brains of those who'd committed suicide had less of a gene called SKA2, as well as...

&#39;Bad Timing&#39; Wiped Out Dinosaurs
 'Bad Timing' 
 Wiped Out 
 Dinosaurs 
in case you missed it
Aug 2, 2014 11:59 AM CDT

'Bad Timing' Wiped Out Dinosaurs

Asteroid hit at just the wrong time, researchers say

(Newser) - The huge asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago was very bad timing for the dinosaurs, a new study says—it wiped them out, but they probably would have survived if it had hit at a "more convenient" time. The impact in what is now Mexico is almost...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including an octopus especially devoted to her eggs

(Newser) - Two revelations about the moon were among the week's more intriguing discoveries:
  • The Moon Isn't Round: It Bulges Like a Lemon : We may have walked on it 45 years ago, but scientists have only now discovered the true shape of Earth's moon. And while it might look
...

New Ice Cream Changes Colors When Licked

Spanish physicist concocted sweet treat that reacts to temps, acids in human mouth

(Newser) - Manuel Linares is serious about ice cream. So serious that the Spanish physicist signed up for "mentored coursework" at a local business association, earned what he calls a "master's diploma in creating artisan ice cream," and created a frozen concoction that turns colors when it's...

The Moon Isn't Round— It Bulges Like a Lemon

The moon has a small bulge in its middle, but we can't see it

(Newser) - We may have walked on it 45 years ago, but scientists have only now discovered the true shape of Earth's moon. And while it appears to be a perfect sphere, it's actually "like a lemon with an equatorial bulge," one researcher tells the New York Times ...

Mystery of Giant Holes at 'End of the World' May Be Solved

Geologist thinks biggest is a sinkhole that 'erupted,' thanks to melting permafrost

(Newser) - Huge, mysterious gaping holes in Northern Siberia may not be such a mystery anymore. One scientist has pinned down a cause and, spoiler alert, it's not aliens or weapons testing, as had been theorized . The first hole discovered in the Yamal Peninsula, which is 260 feet wide , is likely...

Deep-Sea Octopus Guards Eggs for Years—Sans Food

4.5 years is the longest known brooding or gestation period of any animal

(Newser) - Talk about endurance. Elephants endure 20-month gestation periods, and some deep-sea sharks carry their embryos for even longer than that, but the deep-sea octopus takes the cake. Scientists say they've observed one in California guarding her eggs for 4.5 years, the longest known brooding or gestation period of...

Mammoths and Mastodons Stuck Close to Home

Study of ancient teeth reveal surprising clues about how and where they lived

(Newser) - Mr. Snuffleupagus and friends didn’t much like to leave home—at least not the ones that lived in what is now Ohio and Kentucky, a University of Cincinnati study reveals. Researchers had long believed mammoths and mastodons were nomadic, but their teeth tell a different story. Mammoths ate grasses...

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