discoveries

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

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Pests Evolve to Eat Corn Designed to Kill Them
Pests Evolve to Eat Corn
Designed to Kill Them
in case you missed it
Mar 22, 2014 7:00 PM CDT

Pests Evolve to Eat Corn Designed to Kill Them

Corn rootworm is once again making a dent in farmers' crops

(Newser) - A hungry pest known as the western corn rootworm is gradually developing a resistance to genetically modified crops engineered to kill it, reports Nature . Entomologists say they're discovering more and more of the beetles that show no ill effects after chowing down on fields of Bt corn—so named...

How a Sea Snake That Can&#39;t Drink Seawater Survives
How a Sea Snake That Can't Drink Seawater Survives
new study
Mar 22, 2014 8:22 AM CDT

How a Sea Snake That Can't Drink Seawater Survives

Study finds they can just go months without drinking anything

(Newser) - Just one species of sea snake lives in the open ocean, even giving birth there—yet it can't drink seawater. Scientists have been puzzled at just how the yellow-bellied sea snake survives, National Geographic explains. Now, they've learned that it simply doesn't have to drink for months...

New Anti-Obesity Weapon: Tequila?
 New Anti-Obesity 
 Weapon: Tequila Plant? 
in case you missed it
Mar 22, 2014 7:44 AM CDT

New Anti-Obesity Weapon: Tequila Plant?

Agave sugar eyed as potential sweetener

(Newser) - The plant tequila is derived from could play a role in fighting obesity, and it doesn't involve getting people so drunk they forget to eat, researchers say. Natural sugars found in agave appear to protect mice against obesity and type 2 diabetes, Fox News reports. The sugars, known as...

Newly Created Drug Has 100 Times Morphine's Power

It's still in experimental stage, and makes use of snail venom

(Newser) - Move over, morphine. Someday, we may be turning to carnivorous snails for our pain-killing needs, a study suggests. Australian researchers have found that a drug made using venom from ocean-dwelling cone snails may be 100 times as powerful as top painkillers morphine and gabapentin, which are currently used to ease...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a fearsome dinosaur nicknamed the 'chicken from hell'

(Newser) - A revelation that the nose knows way more than we thought and a big find about the first trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang highlight the list:
  • Human Nose Can Detect a Trillion Odors : Prior to this week, the official scientific answer
...

Human Nose Can Detect 1 Trillion Odors

Some people can sniff far less, and others far more, say researchers

(Newser) - Prior to today, the official scientific answer to the question, "How many scents can the human nose detect?" was a measly 10,000. But now, thanks to a new study in Science , the answer is 1 trillion, give or take. Researchers had long assumed that the first number, based...

New Dinosaur Was 'Chicken From Hell'

Tough, 10-foot beast roamed western US

(Newser) - Col. Sanders' nightmare come true? Researchers say a new species of dinosaur unearthed in the US was a bit like a chicken—a 10-foot tall, 550-pound chicken that could rip your head off. The dinosaur, which lived around 66 million years ago, has been nicknamed the "chicken from hell"...

Women Disproportionately Affected by Alzheimer&#39;s
Women Disproportionately Affected by Alzheimer's
study says
Mar 19, 2014 1:59 PM CDT

Women Disproportionately Affected by Alzheimer's

They're more likely to suffer from it and act as caregivers: study

(Newser) - A new study finds that women are more likely than men to be affected by Alzheimer's disease—both as patients and as caregivers. Three out of five people living with Alzheimer's are women, and women over age 65 have a one-in-six chance of getting the disease—compared to...

Earth Once Slammed by 'Double Impact'

Scientists: Asteroid, moon made impact at same time 458M years ago

(Newser) - Around 15% of near-Earth asteroids are binaries—an asteroid with an orbiting "moon" sometimes nearly as big as itself—but what happens when a binary slams into our planet? The answer, at least some of the time, is the creation of two huge craters, and Spanish researchers believe they...

Skeleton Yields Oldest Known Case of Cancer

Disease killed man 3.2K years ago

(Newser) - Scientists hope the skeleton of a very sick man from 3,200 years ago will give new clues to the evolution and causes of cancer. The remains found in an ancient Sudanese tomb bear traces of what is believed to be the oldest case of metastatic cancer ever found, reports...

Scientists Revive 1,500-Year-Old Life Form

Moss dating back to Roman Empire easily returns to life

(Newser) - Have a craving for 1,500-year-old moss? Just dig some up from Antarctic permafrost, expose it to light and healthy temperatures, and presto, you've got moss, National Geographic reports. Scientists from Britain did just that, marking the first time a multicellular organism that old has regenerated so easily. In...

Scientists Make Key Big Bang Discovery

Researchers detect gravitational waves for the first time

(Newser) - A dizzying scientific achievement: Astronomers have gotten a look back at what one scientist calls "the beginning of time ... the universe at the very beginning." That is, they've detected gravitational waves that could be the first direct evidence that within a fraction of a trillionth of a...

Mercury Is Getting Smaller
 Mercury Has Been Shrinking 
Mar 17, 2014 4:23 AM CDT

Mercury Has Been Shrinking

Slow cooling has created stunning features

(Newser) - The solar system's smallest planet is getting even smaller, but there's not much danger of Mercury disappearing completely: The planet has shrunk as many as 8.6 miles in diameter over the last 4 billion years, according to new research , making its current diameter roughly 3,032 miles....

Blarney Stone Mystery Solved
 Blarney Stone Mystery Solved 
Mar 17, 2014 2:14 AM CDT

Blarney Stone Mystery Solved

It's not a chunk of Stonehenge, tests reveal

(Newser) - Ireland's famous Blarney Stone isn't a slice of Stonehenge, part of Robert the Bruce's "Stone of Destiny," or anything else more exotic than local limestone, researchers say. The stone reputed to give those who kiss it the "gift of the gab" has been revealed...

Scholar Finds 9 More Dead Sea Scrolls
 Scholar Finds 9 More 
 Dead Sea Scrolls 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 16, 2014 7:01 PM CDT

Scholar Finds 9 More Dead Sea Scrolls

Experts will unravel, analyze the tiny parchments

(Newser) - They may be small, but they're still Dead Sea Scrolls—and no one knows what they contain. An Israeli scholar has discovered nine tiny parchments amid the thousands of world-famous scrolls and scroll fragments that date back to the second century BCE, the Times of Israel reports. Dr. Yonatan...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including yet another find about the intelligence of elephants

(Newser) - A famous conqueror's assist from Mother Nature and an intriguing "hell diamond" from deep in the Earth are on the list :
  • Genghis Khan Owes His Empire to … Rain : Turns out, Genghis Khan had a secret weapon that helped him create his empire in the 13th century. Tree-ring
...

There&#39;s Some Science Behind the 5-Second Rule
There's Some Science
Behind the 5-Second Rule
new study
Mar 14, 2014 11:59 AM CDT

There's Some Science Behind the 5-Second Rule

You're safest if carpet was involved, says study

(Newser) - The five-second rule: old wives' tale or science? According to a professor of microbiology at Birmingham, England's Aston University , the answer is ... it depends on whether you're in your bedroom or kitchen. Anthony Hilton and his biology students looked at two types of bacteria (E. coli and Staphylococcus...

'Hell Diamond' Signals Vast, Deep Water Deposit

Earth's mantle may have as much water as the oceans

(Newser) - A huge "wet zone" hundreds of miles beneath the surface of the Earth could hold as much water as all the oceans put together, according to researchers analyzing a mineral from deep in the mantle. The water is "not a Jules Verne-style ocean you can sail a boat...

Genghis Khan Owes His Empire to ... Rain

Study: Unusual 15-year stretch created grasslands for his army

(Newser) - Scientists who study tree rings for a living have discovered that central Mongolia had an usually warm and wet spell from 1211 to 1225. This would probably remain of note only in tree-ring-studying circles if not for one other thing: Those dates happen to coincide with the rise of none...

How Volcanoes Can Save Life, Too

Study suggests they protected Antarctic bugs and plants during ice ages

(Newser) - Volcanoes are usually in the news for their destructive power , but a new study suggests they've got some protective power to boast of as well. Scientists think that bugs and plants have survived Antarctica's ice ages only because they found warmth near live volcanoes, reports AFP . They did...

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