5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a possible key to better sleep and big news about the brontosaurus
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2015 5:29 AM CDT
5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week
Come back to us.   (Shutterstock)

A preschool paleontologist and a Shakespearean announcement make the list:

  • 4-Year-Old's Big Find in Texas: a Dino: For 4-year-old Wylie Brys, a chance dig in the dirt behind a Texas shopping center led to a giant discovery: the fossil of what could be a 100-million-year-old dinosaur. Scientists from SMU helped extract the fossil this week, seven months after Wylie's find, and they think it could be that of a rare land-dwelling nodosaur. Wylie's dad reveals how the pint-sized paleontologist made his find.
  • The Brontosaurus Is Back, Study Says: New research suggests the Brontosaurus really did exist, some 112 years after scientists declared the opposite was true. After an "exhaustive" study, British and Portuguese paleontologists say the Brontosaurus merits its own genus after all—and they use those iconic necks to back their claim.

  • Creepy Doodles Emerge From Medieval Text: "The Black Book of Carmarthen" was compiled around 1250, but someone may have added drawings and poems after it was completed—and then someone else may have erased those additions. While perusing its old pages with an ultraviolet light, University of Cambridge experts uncovered additional lines of verse and "quite creepy" artwork. Check out what they've found so far.
  • Did Science Just Find a New Shakespeare Play?: The authorship of Double Falsehood has long been the subject of debate, alternately attributed to the Bard, Lewis Theobald, and John Fletcher. Texas researchers are now pretty sure Shakespeare penned this one, based on the personality profiles they worked up on each writer. Whether they're correct or not, it's a fascinating granular study of words and language.
  • Can't Sleep? Switch Glasses: A study out of Switzerland shows that teens who wore orange-tinted glasses got significantly more sleepy at bedtime than those who didn't, lending credence to the idea that so-called "blue blockers" keep out the blue light that emits from our electronic devices and messes up sleep-inducing melatonin levels. And that's not the only technology that could help us get better shut-eye.
Click to read about more discoveries. (More discoveries stories.)

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