discoveries

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

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Male Fruit Flies Get Tipsy and the Ladies Come Running

New research finds that alcohol causes males of the species to produce, emit more pheromones

(Newser) - Fruit flies—they're just like us. Meaning, booze seems to boost sexytime for the pesky insect that hovers around fermented drinks and alcohol-producing rotting fruit, but perhaps not for the most obvious reason. According to new research published last week in the Science Advances journal, female members of the...

A Day at Uranus Just Got 28 Seconds Longer

Hubble: It's 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds, which exceeds what Voyager 2 told us in the '80s

(Newser) - A day at Uranus just got a little longer. As the AP reports, scientists reported Monday that observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed it takes Uranus 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 52 seconds to complete a full rotation. That's 28 seconds longer than estimates by NASA's...

Scientists Await Blooming of a Newly Discovered Flower

Scientists are hoping for return of new flower species spotted in West Texas last year

(Newser) - Scientists who want to learn more about a tiny flower recently discovered in West Texas are hoping it will bloom again in a couple of weeks after rain finally fell in the area. Dubbed the wooly devil, the flower with furry leaves, purplish-striped petals, and pops of yellow is a...

Ancient Mass Grave May Be Only One of Its Kind

Mass grave is found during renovations of a soccer field in Vienna

(Newser) - During an otherwise routine renovation of a Vienna soccer field, construction crews unearthed a startling secret buried for centuries—a mass grave from the 1st-century Roman Empire that may be among the only ones of its kind. The remains are thought to belong to warriors who were battling Germanic tribes,...

A Shingles Vaccine Policy Paved Way for a Stunning Find

Birthdate cutoff allowed researchers to determine vaccine helps cut dementia risk

(Newser) - In late 2013, Wales changed its shingles vaccine policy: Those people born on or after Sept. 2, 1933, could receive the Zostavax shot; those born before that date could not. The Guardian reports it "created a natural experiment," and one that researchers say now indicates the vaccine does...

In a Sea of Stones, Toddler Makes an Ancient Find

3.8K-year-old amulet is linked to the Bible's Canaanites

(Newser) - A 3-year-old exploring an archaeological site in Israel last month reportedly stumbled upon an ancient treasure: an amulet dating back 3,800 years. Ziv Nitzan and her family were visiting Tel Azekah, a hill created by the layered debris of ancient settlements, when the toddler picked up the scarab amulet...

Boaty McBoatface Makes 'Remarkable' Find in Loch Ness

Robot sub discovers 1970s camera system set up to spot Nessie

(Newser) - Robot submarine Boaty McBoatface has made a surprise discovery in Scotland's Loch Ness—and though it's not Nessie herself , it is related to the rumored monster hiding in the loch's depths. The sub was recently undergoing testing for deep sea research expeditions in Loch Ness when its...

Babies Might Remember More Than We Thought

A new study reveals that infants have the ability to form memories

(Newser) - Nobody remembers their first few years of life, but that doesn't mean babies don't remember anything at all. "We have memories from what happened earlier today and ... even from a few years ago," Tristan Yates, a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia University, tells NPR . "But all...

Egypt's Latest Royal Tomb Is a Mystery

Abydos tomb, some 3.6K years old, has been stripped of identifiers of its occupant

(Newser) - Egypt has announced the discovery of its second royal tomb in the same year. Weeks after revealing the discovery of King Thutmose II's tomb , archaeologists unveiled the discovery of a looted tomb belonging to another pharaoh, who remains unidentified. The tomb was found at a necropolis in Abydos, one...

How&#39;d Iguanas Get to Fiji? Looks Like a Raft Made of Plants
Mystery of How Iguanas
Got to Fiji May Be Solved
NEW STUDY
Mar 23, 2025 1:30 PM CDT

Mystery of How Iguanas Got to Fiji May Be Solved

Research suggests lizards floated to remote islands from North America on a vegetation raft

(Newser) - Researchers have long wondered how iguanas got to Fiji, a collection of remote islands in the South Pacific. They thought maybe they'd scurried there through Asia or Australia before volcanic activity pushed Fiji far away. But new research published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

It's the 'First Material Evidence' of World's First Empire

4K-year-old cuneiform tablets reveal the bureaucratic 'spreadsheets' of Mesopotamia

(Newser) - Archaeologists say they've found "the very first material evidence of the very first empire in the world" in 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets unearthed in Iraq. More than 200 administrative tablets have been discovered in the ancient megacity of Girsu, now Tello, along with some 50 administrative seals, per...

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Use Venomous Mating Strategy
Male Blue-Lined Octopuses
Paralyze Females to Mate
new study
Mar 16, 2025 11:30 AM CDT

Male Blue-Lined Octopuses Paralyze Females to Mate

They use 'high-precision bite' to inject neurotoxin before mating

(Newser) - Female black widows sometimes eat their mates after copulation. Female praying mantises are known for biting off the male's head. Scientists now say male blue-lined octopuses avoid a similar fate because of an aggressive defensive measure: They bite the larger females and inject them with venom near the aorta...

This May Be the First Evidence of Narwhals Playing
The Narwal's
Signature Tusk
May Be Multipurpose
NEW STUDY
Mar 13, 2025 9:23 AM CDT

The Narwal's Signature Tusk May Be Multipurpose

It could have uses in foraging and play, in addition to mating

(Newser) - What is the point of a narwhal's signature tusk, which is actually just one, long spiraled tooth? The answer may be multifaceted, according to new research. Prior research indicates the lengthy tooth, rarely seen in females, is a sexual display, used to communicate a male's fertility —the...

Archaeologists Found the Head in 1927. Now, the Body

Buddha torso found in Cambodia's ancient Angkor temple complex

(Newser) - Archaeologists in February unearthed a torso of a Buddha statue at Cambodia's ancient Angkor temple complex—essentially completing a puzzle that's been nearly a century in the making. The AP reports the nearly 4-foot-tall torso, which is thought to date to the 12th or 13th century, was uncovered...

Shipwreck Discovery Gave Him 'Chills'

Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the Great Lakes

(Newser) - Twenty years before the Titanic changed maritime history, another ship touted as the next great technological feat set sail on the Great Lakes. The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the lakes. Built to break speed records, the 300-foot freighter dubbed "the inland...

128 New Moons Nearly Double Saturn&#39;s Tally
We Have a New
'Moon King'
Mar 12, 2025 11:07 AM CDT

We Have a New 'Moon King'

Discovery of 128 Saturn moons brings planet's total to 274

(Newser) - Move over, Jupiter: Saturn is the new "moon king," with 274 planetary satellites in orbit, almost half of which were only just discovered. As of 2023, Jupiter was considered the leader among moon-hosting planets in the solar system with 92 confirmed, compared to Saturn's 83. Jupiter now...

We Underestimated the Megalodon
We Underestimated
the Megalodon
NEW STUDY
Mar 11, 2025 1:16 PM CDT

We Underestimated the Megalodon

Extinct shark could've been as long as 2 school buses, as heavy as a blue whale

(Newser) - It hasn't been easy forming a picture of the megalodon , a massive shark that dominated the oceans millions of years ago, because fossil finds include only teeth and vertebrae . But researchers in 28 countries now believe they have a good idea of what the shark looked like after comparing...

Archaeologists: This Is &#39;Holy Grail Stuff&#39;
Archaeologists: Canoe
Find Is 'Holy Grail Stuff'
in case you missed it
Mar 8, 2025 11:30 AM CST

Archaeologists: Canoe Find Is 'Holy Grail Stuff'

Traditional 'waka' on Chatham Island could be 'one of the most important finds of all time in Polynesia'

(Newser) - A father-son duo on Chatham Island, 500 miles east of New Zealand, stumbled upon a find so rare, archaeologists describe it as "holy grail stuff." Vincent Dix and his son Nikau initially planned to build a coffee table from planks of wood found flowing out of a washed-out...

Bone Tools Came 1.2M Years Before Homo Sapiens
Bone Tools Came
1.2M Years Before
Homo Sapiens
NEW STUDY
Mar 6, 2025 8:15 AM CST

Bone Tools Came 1.2M Years Before Homo Sapiens

Early humans carved hand axes from hippo, elephant leg bones 1.5M years ago

(Newser) - Early humans were regularly using animal bones to make cutting tools 1.5 million years ago, reports the AP . A newly discovered cache of 27 carved and sharpened bones from elephants and hippos found in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge site pushes back the date for ancient bone tool use by...

Researchers Predict Next Ice Age, With a Catch
Researchers Predict
Next Ice Age—With a Catch
new study
Mar 3, 2025 10:37 AM CST

Researchers Predict Next Ice Age—With a Catch

It should happen in 10K years, but our warming temperatures are likely to delay it

(Newser) - Researchers say they have for the first time cracked the code on how to determine when ice ages come and go—and their formula suggests the next one should arrive in 10,000 years, reports USA Today . But there's a catch: Our warming temperatures make it "very unlikely"...

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