discoveries

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

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&#39;Sweet Tooth&#39; May Be &#39;Achilles Heel&#39; of HIV

 'Sweet Tooth' May Be 
 'Achilles' Heel' of HIV 
study says
May 29, 2015 12:17 PM CDT

'Sweet Tooth' May Be 'Achilles' Heel' of HIV

Researchers block virus from feeding on sugar, starve it to death

(Newser) - Imagine you're hankering for a snack, but your refrigerator is chained up. Now imagine you're the HIV virus, and inside your fridge is the food you need to grow and spread. A new study from Northwestern Medicine and Vanderbilt University provides the chains: Researchers say they've found...

Study: Women Let Handsome Men Off Easier

Homely men who misbehave aren't given as much slack: study

(Newser) - Males wooing women can get away with acting a little creepy if they're good-looking, but the homely ones are out of luck, suggests a new study out of Eastern Kentucky University. To gauge their perceptions of men, researchers showed 170 female college students two male faces with similar features—...

Swiss Figure Out Why Their Cheese Has Holes

Lack of hay dust was causing hole shortage

(Newser) - Swiss scientists say they've solved a problem many people may not have noticed: the disappearing holes in Swiss cheese. Researchers at a government agricultural institute say that contrary to a century of scientific belief, the holes are caused by hay particles, not bacteria, and modern milking is just too...

Tattoo Risks Greater Than Thought
 Tattoo Risks 
 Greater Than 
 Thought 
study says
May 28, 2015 2:39 PM CDT

Tattoo Risks Greater Than Thought

Study: 1 in 10 have a skin reaction, and it can last for months or longer

(Newser) - A new survey of those who have gotten tattoos suggests that more people than realized suffer a nasty skin reaction as a result. NYU researchers determined that 10% of people suffer short-term complications such as a rash, infection, or swelling that last for days or weeks. But the scarier stat...

Stoned? Booze Dramatically Increases Your High

New research finds that any amount of alcohol dramatically ups THC levels

(Newser) - Marijuana and alcohol are one of the most common drug combinations implicated in car accidents, so researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse recently set out to better understand how the two interact. Reporting this week in the journal Clinical Chemistry , they found that alcohol dramatically increases TCH levels...

Scientists Find Evidence of 'History's First Murder'

Victim was bashed in head, chucked down cave shaft

(Newser) - An examination of ancient remains from a cave in Spain turned into an episode of CSI: Middle Pleistocene when scientists found evidence of what they say is the first known murder. The skull found in the "Pit of Bones" site belongs to a young adult who lived around 430,...

Study IDs Number of Drinks 'Beyond the Safe Level'

...when it comes to elderly drinkers

(Newser) - The elderly might want to lay off the alcohol, based on a new study that describes the serious consequences of just one or two drinks per day. Harvard Medical School researchers surveyed 4,466 people with an average age of 76 who also underwent heart scans, and found minimal alcohol...

Scientists Fight Skin Cancer With Herpes—Successfully

Modified virus kills cancer cells, awakens immune system

(Newser) - Adding herpes to skin cancer sounds like adding insult to injury, but researchers say that a modified version of the virus that causes cold sores has led to a major breakthrough for cancer patients. The genetically engineered virus stopped melanoma by "killing cancer cells and sparking the immune system...

Archaeologists Learn How Cannibals Prepared Flesh

Some bones appear to have been boiled with axiote or chilli

(Newser) - With evidence of cannibalism persisting throughout many eras and across many lands, scientists recently set out to determine precisely how one known group of cannibals prepared human flesh. Reporting in the journal Archaeometry , they say the remains of 18 men, women, and children dating to between 700BC and 500BC, found...

Could 'Thunder God Vine' Extract End Obesity?

Mice fed extract from Chinese plant lost weight, big-time

(Newser) - Could a Chinese plant make our lifestyle of dieting, exercise, and rampant obesity a thing of the past? Well, a new study says that mice given an extract from the plant—known as "thunder god vine"—ate as much as 80% less than their counterparts and lost 45%...

Your Sunscreen Probably Doesn&#39;t Work
 Your Sunscreen 
 Probably Doesn't Work 
NEW REPORT
May 24, 2015 8:26 AM CDT

Your Sunscreen Probably Doesn't Work

80% offer 'inferior protection' or contain harmful ingredients: report

(Newser) - Surprisingly few Americans lather on sunscreen while enjoying the sunshine (a recent study found just 14% of men and 30% of women regularly put it on before going in the sun for more than an hour), but what's even more concerning is that those who do probably aren't...

Will You Die Young? Answer May Be in Your Grasp
Will You Die Young? Answer May Be in Your Grasp
NEW STUDY
May 24, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

Will You Die Young? Answer May Be in Your Grasp

Grip better than blood pressure at predicting health risks: study

(Newser) - Perhaps palm readers are on to something. A massive study of some 140,000 people aged 35 to 70 in 17 countries finds the palms of a person's hands may be better than blood pressure at indicating their risk of heart attack, stroke, or an early death. Specifically, researchers...

Study May Solve Riddle of Ancient City&#39;s Downfall
 Study: What May 
 Have Doomed 
 America's 'First City' 
in case you missed it
May 23, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

Study: What May Have Doomed America's 'First City'

Massive floods may have led to demise of Cahokia, site of modern St. Louis

(Newser) - For Native Americans living in the 12th century, Cahokia was the place to be. Now researchers think they've uncovered a major reason why the hub located near what is now St. Louis disappeared—massive flooding of the Mississippi River. Researchers dug up soil samples from two local lakes and...

Workers Stumble on 2K-Year-Old Marvel in Jerusalem

Ancient aqueduct worked 'intermittently' until last century, experts say

(Newser) - Workers constructing a sewer line in East Jerusalem last month discovered a 2,000-year-old water-supply system that—think about this—worked fairly well until the last century, LiveScience reports. The 13-mile long Lower Aqueduct, which was fed by a spring south of Bethlehem and runs through four modern-day Jerusalem neighborhoods,...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including snakes with ankles and unsettling news from the panda world

(Newser) - The happiest kids in the world and pot-stunted short guys make the list:
  • If You're Short (and Male), Your Bong May Be to Blame : If you smoked marijuana as a prepubescent boy, you may have lost 4 inches or so of height. Researchers studied growth hormone levels in the
...

Coffee&#39;s Latest Claim to Fame: Erection Aid
Coffee's Latest Claim
to Fame: Erection Aid
NEW STUDY
May 22, 2015 2:35 PM CDT

Coffee's Latest Claim to Fame: Erection Aid

Study finds less impotence in caffeine consumers

(Newser) - Coffee, what can't you do? It's been suggested the beverage may be able to lower your risk for multiple sclerosis , melanoma , and retinal degeneration , among other things. Now it appears the brewed beverage might also help men who are suffering from a decidedly sensitive issue: erectile dysfunction. A...

A Schooner Sails the World, Makes Amazing Discoveries

Evidence for 10 times more plankton species than known

(Newser) - From 2009 to 2013, the 110-foot schooner Tara sailed around the world, collecting plankton samples from more than 200 sites, some as deep as 6,500 feet down in the ocean, Science magazine reports. Fighting volatile weather, funding issues, and even the threat of pirates, the Tara expedition team still...

Scientists Find First Evidence of Dinosaurs in Wash. State

80M-year-old femur belonged to a theropod

(Newser) - It appears that around 80 million years ago, a theropod dinosaur roughly the size of a transit bus died near the sea and was jostled by waves, and at some point part of its femur became wedged into a rocky outcrop alongside clam fossils in Washington state's San Juan...

Snakes Used to Have Ankles

 Snakes Used to Have Ankles 
study says
May 20, 2015 2:04 PM CDT

Snakes Used to Have Ankles

Ancestor likely had little toes, too

(Newser) - Scientists have created the most comprehensive family tree of snakes to date, and the ancestor at the very top looked different than the snakes we know today in one noticeable way: It "had tiny hind limbs, with complete ankles and toes," says a Yale researcher in a post...

Evolution Has Seriously Failed Giant Pandas

Gut bacteria reveals they were designed to eat meat, not bamboo

(Newser) - Pandas have been munching on bamboo for 7 million years and exclusively for 2 million years, so it was a big surprise when researchers analyzed 121 fecal samples from 45 giant pandas and found gut bacteria not at all designed to process the animals' food of choice. Though pandas developed...

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