discoveries

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

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Tongue-Rolling Myth Totally 'Debunked'

Biologist John McDonald aims to set the record straight

(Newser) - For anyone who can still proudly recall one factoid learned in high school biology—that the ability to roll one's tongue is genetic—bad news: You learned it wrong. John McDonald, an evolutionary biologist, is out to debunk what he calls a myth about the genetic roots of tongue-rolling,...

Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
study says
Aug 16, 2015 7:54 AM CDT

Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia

Researchers in new study think pollution and pesticides play a role

(Newser) - Could pollution be to blame for why dementia is killing more people and being diagnosed earlier than ever? That's the theory being floated by researchers involved in a study of patients in 21 countries from 1989 to 2010. The Smithsonian reports that while dementia is typically associated with people...

How Astronomers Confirmed the Universe Is Dying

 How Astronomers 
 Confirmed the 
 Universe Is Dying 
in case you missed it
Aug 15, 2015 6:25 PM CDT

How Astronomers Confirmed the Universe Is Dying

First, you need some really big telescopes

(Newser) - How does one confirm that the universe is slowly dying? For starters, you use "as many space and ground-based telescopes as we could get our hands on." That according to Simon Driver, a principal investigator with the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) project. Driver explains that the group...

Scurvy: Horrific as It Was Deadly for Sailors

The 'plague of the sea' was not a pleasant way to go

(Newser) - A ship's chaplain in the 1740s wrote of sailors' gums that would grow out of control until they protruded from the mouth and rotted away, leaving a horrific case of bad breath, the BBC reports. So it turns out that not only was scurvy once incredibly dangerous, it was...

Study: Your Butt Doesn&#39;t Make You Attractive

 Study: Your Butt 
 Doesn't Make 
 You Attractive 
in case you missed it
Aug 15, 2015 11:31 AM CDT

Study: Your Butt Doesn't Make You Attractive

Or, at least, not your butt alone

(Newser) - Your shapely derriere alone isn't what makes you attractive, or so suggests a new study. "Most previous work on attractiveness focused on the effect of isolated features," explains Canada's Queen's University professor Nikolaus Troje. As he and two German researchers explain in a study published...

Divers Run Into Mysterious, Giant, Jellylike &#39;Thing&#39;

 Divers Run Into 
 Mysterious, Giant, 
 Jellylike 'Thing' 
in case you missed it
Aug 15, 2015 7:25 AM CDT

Divers Run Into Mysterious, Giant, Jellylike 'Thing'

One expert says it could be a giant mass of tens of thousands of squid eggs

(Newser) - When Lutfu Tanriover went on a deep-sea dive off the coast of Turkey in early July, he wasn't prepared for what he and his fellow divers encountered 72 feet below the surface: a gelatinous, see-through blob the size of a car that he nicknamed "The Thing," the...

Found Inside Home Set for Demolition: Entire Log Cabin

Texas developer, town trying to figure out how to preserve it

(Newser) - It's not unusual for developers to find relics of the past tucked inside the walls of home they're getting ready to tear down, but this particular discovery has stopped demolition in its tracks for now. It's a log cabin dating back to around 1850s and thought to...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a possibly huge find in King Tut's tomb and a presidential scandal

(Newser) - A potential bombshell discovery related to King Tut is among the week's top disocveries:
  • Could This Be the World's Greatest Archaeological Find Ever? A University of Arizona archaeologist thinks so. Nicholas Reeves says he believes Queen Nefertiti's remains may be buried in the tomb of her stepson,
...

To Lose Weight, Play Tetris?
 To Lose Weight, Play Tetris? 
new study
Aug 14, 2015 9:55 AM CDT

To Lose Weight, Play Tetris?

The game reduces cravings by an average 20%, a study finds

(Newser) - Are food cravings growing your waistline? Don't fret: just play Tetris. In what might just be the best news you read all day, a new study published in Addictive Behaviors finds playing Tetris for just 3 minutes reduces cravings by an average 20%. And that doesn't just apply...

French Baron's Long-Lost Ship Possibly Found —Off Israel

Baron de Rothschild shipped materials to his glass factory in Tantura from France

(Newser) - A mysterious, century-old shipwreck found 40 years ago off Israel's coast has been tentatively revealed to be a priceless find: the long-lost ship of a French baron, say Haifa University archaeologists. Baron Edmond James de Rothschild—who moved raw materials from France to a glass factory he constructed in...

Missing for 14 Years, a $15M Picasso Returns Home

La Coiffeuse will be given the French government after its discovery in NY

(Newser) - A stolen painting by Pablo Picasso is back in the hands of the French government 14 years after it vanished from a Paris museum. The 1911 work La Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser) was discovered in December in a FedEx package sent to New York from Belgium. Though the package said it...

Robot Mowers Coming to a Lawn Near You

FCC approves automated device from makers of Roomba

(Newser) - Having a Roomba mow your lawn may not be too far off after an FCC decision yesterday. iRobot's robotic mower received the go-ahead from the communications agency—a big step toward US sales, reports Reuters . The company says its device communicates wirelessly with stakes in the user's yard...

DNA Tells Tale of a President's Scandalous Affair

Warren Harding did father Nan Britton's child: AncestryDNA

(Newser) - Her 1927 tell-all book describing an affair with America's 29th president—and claiming him as the father of her child—propelled Nan Britton to the title of Warren G. Harding's most famous mistress . But as Britton only revealed the relationship after Harding's death and said she'd...

Want Good Mental Health? Get Religion
 Want Good 
 Mental Health? 
 Get Religion 
NEW STUDY
Aug 13, 2015 8:14 AM CDT

Want Good Mental Health? Get Religion

Joining a religious organization has a bigger impact than volunteering or sport

(Newser) - Attending a church, synagogue, or mosque may be better for one's mental health than engaging in sports, furthering one's education, or volunteering. So say researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus MC, who studied the effects of these four types of activities on the mental health...

Want to Get Out of Debt? Study Finds Best Way to Do It

Your approach to debt relief may be all wrong

(Newser) - You're staring down a $600 credit card bill and $60,000 in student loan debt: Which do you tackle first? Conventional wisdom says whichever has the higher interest rate. A new study out of Texas A&M says ignore those rates—and start with that credit card bill. It...

New 'Romantic' Octopus Wows Scientists

Larger Pacific Striped Octopus shares some human habits

(Newser) - The octopus already is an oddball of the ocean. Now biologists have rediscovered a species of that eight-armed sea creature that's even stranger and shares some of our social and mating habits. Biologist Rich Ross and colleagues studying a batch of octopuses from Central America found the critters just...

Scientists Learn Why Labor Contractions Grow Stronger

They call the phenomenon 'hypoxia-induced force increase'

(Newser) - The general course of child labor is well documented, but many mysteries—such as what starts labor in the first place—persist. Now scientists at the University of Liverpool say they've discovered what causes contractions to strengthen during labor, even though the tightening uterine muscle squeezes blood vessels, thereby...

Phoenix Is Slowly Sinking

 Phoenix Is Slowly Sinking 
NEW STUDY
Aug 13, 2015 3:03 AM CDT

Phoenix Is Slowly Sinking

Subsidence can't be stopped, researchers say

(Newser) - Researchers say that while there's no need for residents of Phoenix to panic, parts of their city are slowly and unstoppably sinking into the ground. Land subsidence caused by the extraction of huge quantities of groundwater over the decades is to blame, and the Arizona State University researchers say...

Medieval Mystery Sword Inscription Baffles Experts

The 13th century River Witham sword bears a long message

(Newser) - World, can you help us decipher a medieval sword inscription? That sums up the British Library's announcement about a blade discovered in an English river in 1825, LiveScience reports. The so-called River Witham sword—a 13th-century object now on display at the library—bears a message along its 38-inch...

Parenthood More Depressing Than Death of Spouse

German study gives us the bad news

(Newser) - Why do so many people in the developed world stop having children after their first? That's the question researchers set out to answer in a study recently published in Demography . According to their findings, having a child made the majority of participants more unhappy than the death of a...

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