discoveries

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

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Culprit Found in 13th-Century Eruption That Rocked Earth

Polar traces indicate Indonesian volcano

(Newser) - An eruption in 1257—the biggest in the last 3,700 years—was so vast that it left its mark at opposite ends of the Earth and exacted a profound short-term impact on the climate, including a "year without a summer." Its chemical signature appears in Arctic as...

Tiny Sea Louse Has Extra Body Clock

One for night and day, and the other for the tides

(Newser) - The speckled sea louse may be only 5mm long, but it's got something you don't: an extra body clock. Like humans and other creatures, the sea louse has one body clock that follows the circadian rhythms of night and day. But scientists have found the first molecular proof...

Photo Proof: Eagle Attacks Deer
 Photo Proof: 
 Eagle Attacks Deer 
in case you missed it
Sep 28, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Photo Proof: Eagle Attacks Deer

And the eagle wins

(Newser) - Researchers studying Siberian tigers in Russia came across a strange thing in the woods: the carcass of a deer in the snow—but no sign of any tracks from the predator that killed it. A review of film in a nearby camera trap solved the mystery: It shows dramatic images...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

From pirate booty off Massachusetts to a wild nature photo

(Newser) - Neat fact of the week: There's only one authenticated pirate ship wreck in US waters ... and there may actually be pirate booty languishing there as well.
  • There's Sunken Treasure Off Massachusetts : The Whydah sank in 1717, along with riches plundered from 50 other ships. Barry Clifford actually located
...

Big Find Atop French Alps: Jewels

Best guess is that the treasure is from a decades-old plane crash

(Newser) - A very honest mountain climber in the French Alps has stumbled upon an amazing find: a small box crammed with emeralds, sapphires, and other gems, reports the AP . The loot has been valued at about $330,000, but the anonymous climber handed it over to police upon his descent from...

Island Born by Quake Releasing Mystery Gas

Could be methane, could be something else

(Newser) - Tuesday's earthquake in Pakistan gave rise to an island roughly half a mile off the coast; yesterday, locals set off to explore it, and what they describe is an oval-shaped mass no more than 300 feet long—which is emitting some kind of flammable gas. Journalist Bahram Baloch tells...

For Moms, Smell of Newborns Is Like a Drug

Study shows that mothers' brains light up with pleasure at the scent

(Newser) - The smell of a newborn isn't just a pleasant sensation for moms—it might be closer to an addiction, a new study suggests. Montreal researchers found that when women who had given birth recently smelled an infants' pajamas, their brains' reward circuits lit up, reports LiveScience . The dopamine surge...

Moon Maybe Not as Old as Previously Thought

New research suggests it's 100M years younger

(Newser) - No wonder the moon has such a youthful complexion (well, it vaguely resembles a teenager's spotty face)—new research suggests it isn't quite as old as previously thought. The standard theory was that the moon formed some 4.56 billion years ago, after another planet slammed into Earth....

6 Missing for Decades Found in Oklahoma Lake
6 Missing for Decades
Possibly Found in Okla. Lake
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 22, 2013 11:18 AM CDT

6 Missing for Decades Possibly Found in Okla. Lake

Lingering mysteries may have been solved at Oklahoma's Foss Lake

(Newser) - Two mysteries, one 43 years old, the other a half-century, may have been solved—accidentally. The Elk City Daily News reports that Oklahoma authorities testing out new sonar technology at Foss Lake earlier this month stumbled upon two cars about 12 feet below the surface. The Oklahoma State Bureau of...

Oops: How the US Almost Nuked Itself
 Oops: How 
 the US Almost 
 Nuked Itself 
in case you missed it
Sep 21, 2013 7:00 AM CDT

Oops: How the US Almost Nuked Itself

Bombs fell over North Carolina in 1961: book

(Newser) - The author of Fast Food Nation is offering a little reminder of the danger of nuclear weapons: If things had gone just a little differently, the US could have blown up North Carolina—and taken much of the East Coast out too, thanks to the fallout. In 1961, Eric Schlosser...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

For starters, earth gets an evacuation date

(Newser) - This week's discoveries include an evacuation date of sorts for planet Earth and a guy whose gut brews its own beer:
  • Scientists Find Deadline for Evacuating Earth : In a new study, scientists forecast that rising temperatures will someday make our dear planet completely uninhabitable. But we've got a
...

Scientists Discover New Legless Lizards

And nope, they are not snakes

(Newser) - You may think the pictures look like snakes or worms, but they're not: Those are legless lizards, four new species of which were discovered in California recently. Unlike snakes, the lizards spend most of their lives underground, in an area about the size of a small table, LiveScience reports—...

Female Slave Who Penned 1850s Novel Identified

Professor says Hannah Bond wrote 'The Bondwoman's Narrative'

(Newser) - A long-running literary mystery may have been solved: The Bondwoman's Narrative was published to much acclaim in 2002, but it was no modern work—the novel was believed to have been written in the 1850s by a female slave using the pseudonym Hannah Crafts. But who that author truly...

Archaeologists May Have Found Town Named in Bible

Jesus was said to have sailed to Dalmanutha

(Newser) - Sometimes, archaeologists discover a sweater ; other times, they uncover entire towns. The latter turns out to be the case in Israel, where a town has been found—and it could be one mentioned in a well-known Bible story. LiveScience reports that it was found along the northwest side of the...

Scientists Create World's Thinnest Glass—by Mistake

Find sheds light on its makeup, and qualifies for Guinness book

(Newser) - It's another one of those chance scientific breakthroughs: Scientists from Cornell and Germany have created the thinnest glass known to man entirely by accident, reports LiveScience . Just how thin? A hard-to-fathom 2 atoms thick, which means you'll need an electron microscope to check it out, notes RedOrbit . The...

Archaeologists Make Grisly Find in Ancient Maya City

Mass grave bolsters belief that the Maya dismembered

(Newser) - The discovery of a mass grave is by its nature a gruesome find, but what researchers uncovered in the ancient Maya city of Uxul in present-day Mexico is that to the extreme. University of Bonn archaeologists on Tuesday announced that they have found a 1,400-year-old grave containing the dismembered...

Divers Finally Get to Explore 'Blue Hole' Mystery Cave

New Mexico site has been sealed for nearly 40 years

(Newser) - The last divers to venture into an underwater cave known as the "Blue Hole" in New Mexico were from the state police in 1976, and they were there to retrieve the bodies of two young divers who died while exploring. Upon exiting, the police divers sealed the opening with...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Newly surfaced Nazi files and a 'shrinking' mountain make the cut

(Newser) - This week, we got some Nazi mysteries resolved and learned that it will take a few less steps to climb the continent's highest peak:
  • Missing Nazi File Surfaces, Answers Question s: A dossier containing documents believed to have been drawn up by Nazi Germany's Deputy Fuehrer Rudolf Hess
...

Biologists Discover Gears in Insect's Legs

It's the only animal known to have them

(Newser) - We're pretty sure the ancient Greek mechanics who invented the gear weren't copying the Issus coleoptratus, but if they'd had an electron microscope, they could have. In a paper published this week in Science, a pair of biologists reveal that young specimens of these relatively common bugs...

Nation's Highest Peak Gets a Little Shorter

New mapping downgrades McKinley by 83 feet

(Newser) - The tallest peak in North America is a smidge shorter than thought: Mount McKinley is actually 20,237 feet high, down 83 feet from the previous measurement of 20,320, reports the News-Miner of Fairbanks. The new figure has nothing to do with shifting plates or melting glaciers, it's...

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