5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including an ancient Tibetan canyon and one way that beer beats coffee
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 29, 2014 5:30 AM CST
5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week
File photo.   (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Even more secrets from the intriguing Antikythera Mechanism make this week's list:

  • Ancient Canyon Found Buried Deep in Tibet: A deep canyon lies alongside the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, and its discovery has upended how geologists believe the Himalaya's gorges came to be.
  • Here's Why We Spill Coffee More Than Beer: Scientists say that the bubbles in beer make it less likely that you'll spill your Coors than a cup of joe. It seems the foam absorbs the energy of the moving liquid. And, yes, there could actually be practical applications.

  • Jeweled Mummy Found Under Collapsed Roof: Archaeologists found the mummy of an aristocratic Egyptian woman who died 4,000 years ago. The roof of her tomb had collapsed, and a boulder had hidden her coffin all these years. Thus, researchers found some interesting jewelry.
  • Vultures' Guts Are Filled With Poison: Why don't vultures keel over when they eat decaying roadkill? Researchers who examined the birds thought they'd find a lot of bacteria in their stomachs, and they did—but those bacteria happen to produce deadly toxins and cause infections in humans. Scientists have a theory why the vultures seem unaffected.
  • Antikythera Mechanism Gives Up More Secrets: The ancient calculator apparently used to predict eclipses and planet positions thousands of years ago may have been created even earlier than thought: It used a Greek "Babylonian-style arithmetical scheme" instead of trigonometry. We may also have some clues as to where it was made.
Click to read about more discoveries. (More discoveries stories.)

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