discoveries

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

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It Was Hanging in Her Kitchen. She Found Out It&#39;s Worth Millions
It Was Hanging
in Her Kitchen.
She Found Out It's
Worth Millions
in case you missed it
Sep 28, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

It Was Hanging in Her Kitchen. She Found Out It's Worth Millions

Elderly French woman's 'Christ Mocked' by Renaissance painter Cimabue could go for $6.6M

(Newser) - An elderly French woman had the painting hanging above a hot plate in her kitchen, thinking it was just an old piece of art. When she finally got curious enough to get it appraised, she found out it was indeed old—and extremely valuable. That's because, per an old-masters...

Study Has Jarring News for Drinkers of Premium Tea
Study Has Jarring News
for Drinkers of Premium Tea
new study
Sep 27, 2019 8:57 AM CDT

Study Has Jarring News for Drinkers of Premium Tea

Those fancy plastic bags deposit billions of microplastics into the cup, say researchers

(Newser) - What do you take in your tea? A little cream, a little sugar, and ... billions of microscopic pieces of plastic? That's the takeaway from a new study at Canada's McGill University, reports the BBC . The study involves only tea that comes in plastic tea bags, generally of the...

What&#39;s a Whale Worth? More Than You Might Think
What's a Whale Worth?
More Than You Might Think
new analysis
Sep 25, 2019 10:35 AM CDT

What's a Whale Worth? More Than You Might Think

Team of economists with the IMF do the math

(Newser) - Whales are actually cash cows, or so suggest economists with the International Monetary Fund. A team helmed by Ralph Chami took a look at the economic benefit provided by whales when it comes to carbon sequestration and ecotourism and arrived at a big figure: $2 million apiece. Their analysis hasn'...

Scientists Piece Together Hints of a Lost Continent
Scientists Piece Together
Hints of a Lost Continent
in case you missed it
Sep 21, 2019 3:16 PM CDT

Scientists Piece Together Hints of a Lost Continent

'Greater Adria' disappeared beneath Europe eons ago

(Newser) - A lost continent isn't quite as lost as it used to be. Scientists have painstakingly fit together clues spread across Europe to unravel the story of Greater Adria, reports Live Science . This continent was about the size of Greenland when it rammed into what's now southern Europe about...

Less Sinister Theory Emerges in Mystery Cuba Illnesses

Ailments coincided with increased fumigation for zika

(Newser) - A new study into the mysterious ailments that plagued US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba has come up with a theory far less sinister than a sonic attack. Researchers say fumigation for mosquitoes might be to blame, reports the Toronto Star . The study, commissioned by the Canadian government, found that...

The Universe May Have Just Lost a Couple of Billion Years

Latest research suggests it may be much younger than previously thought, but there are big caveats

(Newser) - The universe is looking younger every day, it seems. New calculations suggest the universe could be a couple of billion years younger than scientists now estimate, and even younger than suggested by two other calculations published this year that trimmed hundreds of millions of years from the age of the...

World's Most 'Bizarre' Science Discoveries Get Their Due

Among this year's Ig Nobel winners: a diaper-changing device, study on pizza as health food

(Newser) - Training surgeons is as easy as training dolphins or dogs—at least according to a study that Thursday earned a 2019 Ig Nobel, the annual Nobel Prize spoof that rewards weird, sometimes head-scratching scientific discoveries. This year's winners included, per the AP : Dutch and Turkish researchers who figured out...

Scientists' New Find Is Literally Shocking

New species of electric eel can deliver most powerful jolt of any animal

(Newser) - The electric eel just got more electric. A newly discovered species found in the Amazon can inflict an 860-volt jolt—the strongest of any animal, say researchers. How strong is that? Science reports you'd experience a jolt of up to 240 volts if you stuck a fork in a...

Deep-Sea Explorer Went as Low as You Can Go in 5 Oceans

Vescovo is now considering a space mission

(Newser) - The Molloy Deep, 3.4 miles below the surface of the Arctic Ocean, has two things in common with the South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Ocean: It's the deepest spot in that ocean, and Victor Vescovo is the only person who has ever been there. Vescovo, a 53-year-old...

They Spotted the Jellyfish. Then It Started to Shapeshift

And this Deepstaria jellyfish has a little red companion

(Newser) - It looks, in the words of Nerdist , "kind of like the ghost of a plastic bag," and the description is apt. Scientists aboard the research vessel E/V Nautilus have posted video of a rarely seen jellyfish known as Deepstaria. As Mashable notes, the translucent creature has the ability...

One-Legged Skeleton Might Solve Napoleonic Mystery

It could be the remains of Gen. Charles-Étienne Gudin, missing since 1812

(Newser) - A one-legged skeleton found under a Russian dance floor could solve a mystery that has persisted since 1812. Charles-Étienne Gudin, whom the BBC refers to as Napoleon Bonaparte's "favorite general," was hit by a cannonball during the failed French invasion of Russia that year; he had...

Lucy&#39;s Ancestor Now Has a Face
Face of
Lucy's
Ancestor
Revealed
Aug 28, 2019 5:35 PM CDT

Face of Lucy's Ancestor Revealed

Ethiopian fossil reveals face for the species A. anamensis

(Newser) - A fossil from Ethiopia is letting scientists look millions of years into our evolutionary history—and they see a face peering back. The find, from 3.8 million years ago, reveals the face of a presumed ancestor of the species famously represented by Lucy, the celebrated Ethiopian partial skeleton found...

First Big Study Finds a 'Polypill' Cuts Heart Risks

It's got 4 medications to fight strokes, bad cholesterol, and high blood pressure

(Newser) - The idea has been around for two decades or so: Give people one pill containing different drugs to fight an array of heart ailments. Now, the first major long-term study of the concept is in the books—and researchers say it works, reports the BBC . The details are laid out...

Research Claws at &#39;Crazy Cat Lady&#39; Stereotype
Research Claws at
'Crazy Cat Lady' Stereotype
NEW STUDY
Aug 22, 2019 9:20 AM CDT

Research Claws at 'Crazy Cat Lady' Stereotype

It suggests cat owners are no more anxious, depressed than others

(Newser) - Roughly half of Americans buy into the "crazy cat lady" stereotype, generally believing cat owners to be single women surrounded by numerous balls of fur, according to a 2015 survey spotted by the Los Angeles Times . It's a long-standing idea, as evidenced by an 1872 editorial in the...

Study to Solve 'Skeleton Lake' Mystery Only Adds to It

Site in Himalayas is home to hundreds of remains from different times, places

(Newser) - The official name is Roopkund Lake, but the inhospitable site in the Indian Himalayas is better known as "Skeleton Lake" for good reason. Scientists estimate the remains of "several hundred" people are scattered around its shores, explains a study in Nature Communications . New research aimed to resolve once...

History Is Tainted by &#39;National Narcissism&#39;
History Is Tainted by
'National Narcissism'
NEW STUDY
Aug 20, 2019 10:15 AM CDT

History Is Tainted by 'National Narcissism'

Russians, Brits, Americans all claim more than 50% of effort in WWII

(Newser) - We may be deceiving ourselves in teaching history born from "national narcissism," per a new study . "People are highly ethnocentric in viewing their own nation's influence, even in remembering the (nominally) same event: World War II," say researchers from Washington University in St. Louis. They...

Scientists Make 'Big Leap' in Understanding Earthquakes

New study shows that most big quakes are preceded by smaller ones

(Newser) - Predicting earthquakes is all but impossible, but a new study is being hailed as an important first step. The takeaway: Big quakes are preceded by smaller ones, reports the Los Angeles Times . Researchers took advantage of a new technique developed to find previously undetectable "microquakes," some as small...

&#39;Monster Penguin&#39; Once Lived in New Zealand
There Was Once
a Penguin the
Size of an Adult Human
study says
Aug 14, 2019 4:29 PM CDT

There Was Once a Penguin the Size of an Adult Human

The 'monster penguin' was about a foot taller than an emperor penguin, lived in New Zealand

(Newser) - Scientists in New Zealand said Wednesday they've found fossilized bones from an extinct monster penguin that was about the size of an adult human and swam the oceans some 60 million years ago. They said the previously undiscovered species is believed to have stood about 5 feet 2 inches...

Pompeii Gives Up a 'Sorcerer's Treasure Trove'

So much for good-luck charms

(Newser) - There was perhaps no better place for good-luck charms than Pompeii circa AD79. Too bad they didn't quite work. Archaeologists combing the ancient Roman city discovered dozens of charms within a "sorcerer's treasure trove," encased in hardened volcanic material from Mount Vesuvius' eruption that year, per...

Giant Parrot 'Squawkzilla' Is a First-of-Its-Kind Find

Extinct bird was more than half the height of an average human

(Newser) - Researchers believe they've found the largest known parrot to ever inhabit our planet, and it just happens to be about twice the size of the parrot it now dethrones. While the critically endangered kakapo of New Zealand can weigh close to 8 pounds, Heracles inexpectatus weighed an estimated 15....

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