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Boys More Likely to Be Born Too Soon
Boys More Likely
to Be Born Too Soon
STUDY SAYS
Nov 15, 2013 1:54 AM CST

Boys More Likely to Be Born Too Soon

'Kangaroo' care can help premature babies survive

(Newser) - In what researchers call a "double whammy for boys," new research has found that they are more likely to be born premature and more likely to die or suffer disabilities from being born too soon. Researchers say the disparity—around 55% of premature births are male—happens all...

Dogs Got Their Start in Europe
 Dogs Got 
 Their Start 
 in Europe 
study says
Nov 14, 2013 7:21 PM CST

Dogs Got Their Start in Europe

And a lot earlier than thought, according to new study

(Newser) - Dogs have been hanging out with humans way longer than thought, a new study suggests. UCLA researchers say the first ones were ancient wolves that started following hunter and gatherers around Europe between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago, reports the BBC . The finding, which contradicts previous theories that...

Secrets of Mysterious Black Hole Jets Revealed
Secrets of Mysterious
Black Hole Jets Revealed
NEW STUDY
Nov 14, 2013 12:54 PM CST

Secrets of Mysterious Black Hole Jets Revealed

Jets have power to spew iron and nickel, study finds

(Newser) - For years, astronomers have wondered what exactly black holes spew into our universe—and now they know. Iron and nickel have been found shooting from the relativistic jets of a black hole several times larger than our sun, but the finding is more surprising than it may seem. It shows...

Australia Yields Evidence of Oldest Life Ever

Rocks in Pilbara reveal 3.5B-year-old microbes

(Newser) - We have found the oldest life on Earth, and it is Australian. A team of researchers from Down Under have found signs of "complex microbial ecosystems" in rock formations from the Pilbara region in Western Australia dating back 3.5 billion years, the Guardian reports. The discovery "pushes...

'Asian Unicorn' Captured on Camera

It's the first sighting of the saola in Vietnam since 1998

(Newser) - One conservationist went so far is to call them "the most important wild animal photographs taken in Asia, and perhaps the world, in at least the past decade." That's because, captured in them, is an image of the "Asian Unicorn." That's the nickname given...

Depression Might Take Years Off Your Life

Study finds that cells age faster in those with the condition

(Newser) - Depression isn't just making life miserable for those afflicted, it's actually making life shorter, a new study suggests. Dutch researchers found that people with depression seem to be aging faster, with the upshot being that they lose four to six years, reports CBS News . They reached the conclusion...

Boost Your Optimism: Wash Your Hands

Trouble is, you might also lose your drive, study says

(Newser) - Feeling dejected? You might want to turn on the sink. Washing your hands, a study suggests, can be emotionally cleansing: It may help us feel more optimistic after a failure. Researchers assigned an "impossible task" to two groups of people; they failed, of course. Then, scientists told one group...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

From a new autism clue to a staggering find in a squalid apartment

(Newser) - This week: The Forbidden City gives up one of its secrets, and a scientist reveals he's created a kind of artificial blood—in Transylvania, no less.
  1. Secret to Building the Forbidden City Revealed : How on earth did 15th-century laborers transport hundred-ton rocks from a quarry more than 40 miles
...

Astronaut Snaps Photo of Huge Typhoon

Death toll from Haiyan in Philippines was at 100 and rising quickly

(Newser) - Super Typhoon Haiyan is done with the Philippines, but it will take some time to get a handle on the death toll—now at 100 and rising—and the damage. In the meantime, US astronaut Karen L. Nyberg took a photo from the International Space Station that provides the best...

NASA 'Dumbfounded' by 6-Tailed Comet

(OK, technically it's a 'comet-like' asteroid)

(Newser) - The Hubble telescope has spotted a spectacular, perplexing object in the middle of the Asteroid Belt: a rock with six "comet-like" dust tails streaming behind it. "We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," David Jewitt, the head of the astronomy team studying the P/2013 P5, said...

Big Meteor Strikes Way More Common Than Thought

Chelyabinsk-size strike happens every 30 years or so

(Newser) - A meteor strike like the one in Chelyabinsk, Russia , earlier this year might seem like a once in a lifetime event, but a new study in Nature says that isn't the case. Using data from sensors around the world, researchers found that big asteroids have hit Earth's atmosphere...

Insects Caught in the Act —in 165M-Year-Old Fossil

Offers rare look at froghoppers' mating evolution

(Newser) - Meet the world's longest-lasting couple: Two insects who've been doing the deed for 165 million years. Yep, Chinese scientists have uncovered an ancient fossil of the love birds, er, froghoppers—the oldest instance of insects caught in the act in rock form, Popular Science reports. "This one...

Fight Dementia: Go Bilingual

Speaking 2 languages helps even if you can't read

(Newser) - If you could be reading this in another language, good news: You may have an extra weapon against dementia. A study in India suggests that being bilingual delays three kinds of dementia by 4.5 years on average, NBC News reports. "Being bilingual is a particularly efficient and effective...

Massive 'King of Gore' Dinosaur Found in Utah

Lythronax argestes was a ferocious beast, the largest of its ecosystem

(Newser) - Tyrannosaurus rex may have ruled the land in its day, but a newly discovered species, its closest known relative, was the top dog some 10 million years earlier. Lythronax argestes—which translates to "the king of gore from the southwest"—lived 80 million years ago in the central...

Babies' Eye Contact May Offer Clue to Autism

Researchers see dropoff at 2 months, earliest sign yet

(Newser) - A new autism study makes what looks to be a significant discovery: The first signs show up as early as two months of age in the form of reduced eye contact by babies, reports the New York Times . If the findings hold up, they could provide doctors with the earliest...

New Body Part Discovered
 New Body Part Discovered 
Nov 6, 2013 7:07 AM CST

New Body Part Discovered

Belgium surgeons confirm the existence of the knee's anterolateral ligament

(Newser) - Two Belgian surgeons have discovered a new body part—though there's potentially a 3% chance you don't actually have it. In a paper published in the Journal of Anatomy , they confirm the existence of the knee's anterolateral ligament. They were far from the first to speculate on...

Transylvania Scientist: I've Made Artificial Blood

It's been successful in mouse transfusions

(Newser) - Synthetic blood that can perform all the tasks of the real thing may be far off. But in the meantime, scientists have been working, with varying degrees of success, on an artificial substance that can at least transport oxygen around the body in emergencies. Now, a scientist in Transylvania—where,...

Secret to Building the Forbidden City? Sleds

Workers used them to push massive rocks over ice long distances

(Newser) - How on earth did 15th-century laborers transport hundred-ton rocks from a quarry more than 40 miles away to the building site of China's Forbidden City? Wisely, it turns out, reports Nature . A newly translated ancient document reveals the trick: They put the slabs on wooden sleds and pushed them...

New Fossil Find: 'Platypus-Zilla'

3-foot-long creature lived between 5M and 15M years ago: scientists

(Newser) - As if platypuses weren't weird enough already, scientists in Australia have come upon a fossilized tooth of what they're calling "platypus-zilla"—a creature some three feet long, or at least twice the size of your everyday platypus. "It probably would have looked like a platypus...

There Are Billions of Earth-Like Planets in Our Galaxy

At least 8.8 billion planets like ours in the Milky Way, study finds

(Newser) - Space is vast, but it may not be so lonely after all: A study finds the Milky Way is teeming with billions of planets that are about the size of Earth, orbit stars just like our sun, and exist in the Goldilocks zone—not too hot and not too cold...

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