discoveries

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

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Cystic Fibrosis Patients Live Longer in Canada
Cystic Fibrosis Patients
Have a Big Edge in Canada
new study
Mar 16, 2017 12:28 PM CDT

Cystic Fibrosis Patients Have a Big Edge in Canada

They live about 10 years longer than in the US

(Newser) - Canadians with cystic fibrosis live 10 years longer than their US counterparts, and health insurance is likely a big reason, new research suggests. The death rate in Canada was 44% lower than among Americans on Medicare and Medicaid, and 77% lower than Americans with no insurance, the New York Times...

Spiders Eat More Meat Than All the Planet's Humans Do

As much as 800M tons, compared to 400M

(Newser) - When it comes to eating meat, spiders do their share—and then some. Zoologists at the University of Basel in Switzerland and Lund University in Sweden report in the journal the Science of Nature that, according to their calculations, spiders kill between 400 million and 800 million tons of prey...

Experiment Still (Literally) Shocking 50 Years Later

Re-creation of famous Milgram trial shows subjects will still shock people when told

(Newser) - The Milgram experiment was a famous '60s study in which researchers tested subjects' obedience to authority by ostensibly having them administer electric shocks to unseen partners at the researchers' encouragement—a way to see why atrocities were carried out by Germans "just following orders" during the Holocaust. When...

New Habit of Humpbacks Puzzles Researchers

Scientists have spotted them in groups as big as 200 for first time

(Newser) - Humpback whales, which humans have long observed to be solitary creatures, are gathering in large groups to feed, and it's kind of astounding the scientists who study them. Typically living alone or in pairs, a group of 10 to 15 is considered big, but research crews have now spotted...

Beneath the Muck: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including one about ancient aspirin

(Newser) - A mammoth, royal statue in an unlikely spot and a new way of thinking about how creatures evolved to walk on land were among the discoveries of the week:
  • Surprise Find Beneath a Cairo Slum : Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a massive statue in a Cairo slum that may be
...

'Impressive Find' Made in Mud of Cairo Slum

Newly discovered statue may depict Ramses II

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a massive statue in a Cairo slum that may be of pharaoh Ramses II, one of the country's most famous ancient rulers, reports the AP. The colossus, whose head was pulled from mud and groundwater by a bulldozer, is around 26 feet high and...

The Real Reason Fish Grew Legs
The Real Reason
Fish Grew Legs 
new study
Mar 9, 2017 12:03 PM CST

The Real Reason Fish Grew Legs

Study: Big eyes came first, then limbs evolved to catch prey they were seeing

(Newser) - Some 385 million years ago, our watery ancestors evolved into land mammals, their fins slowly evolving into limbs. But a new study out of Northwestern suggests that when it comes to fish evolution, it all comes down to the eyes. Fish could see far better above the water line, and...

Neanderthals Used Aspirin, Too
Neanderthals Used Aspirin, Too
new study
Mar 9, 2017 10:57 AM CST

Neanderthals Used Aspirin, Too

Plaque on their teeth reveals their dietary and medical ways

(Newser) - Scientists are thrilled to have discovered a gross buildup on a few fossilized teeth, and with reason. Not only were they able to discern the three Neanderthals' diets (two ate primarily meat, one primarily plants), they're also feasting their eyes on prehistoric microbiomes that are shedding more light on...

Matt Damon Was Right: Potatoes Can Grow on Mars
Matt Damon Was Right:
Potatoes Can Grow on Mars
new study
Mar 9, 2017 10:12 AM CST

Matt Damon Was Right: Potatoes Can Grow on Mars

Which could also have implications for our changing climate

(Newser) - If you've seen The Martian, you might think it's totally possible to grow potatoes on Mars. You just might be right. In the film, Matt Damon plays fictional NASA astronaut Mark Watney, a stranded botanist who survives on the Red Planet by growing the hardy tubers. Now, real-life...

Boy With Metal Detector Hits WWII-Era Jackpot

Danish teen and dad find German WWII fighter plane, remains of pilot

(Newser) - Young boys tend not to forget fantastical stories told by their grandpas, especially if those stories involve downed World War II fighter planes. Klaus Kristiansen of Denmark apparently couldn't get the tale his own grandfather had told him out of his head—that an aircraft had crashed behind their...

Americans Getting Fatter, Ditching Diets
Americans Getting Fatter,
Ditching Diets
new study
Mar 8, 2017 10:59 AM CST

Americans Getting Fatter, Ditching Diets

'Socially acceptable body weight is increasing,' say researchers

(Newser) - Despite a steady rise of obesity rates, fewer overweight Americans are trying to drop extra pounds, new research shows. "Socially acceptable body weight is increasing," the scientists write in JAMA . They theorize that as individuals see more overweight people around them, they become less "motivated to lose...

A Hurricane Damaged His Floor, Revealed Bit of History

Remains of some of America's first colonists possibly found in St. Augustine

(Newser) - Florida's St. Augustine was founded decades before Jamestown and Plymouth, and now the remains of some of those very first American colonists have likely been found. Credit Hurricane Matthew , reports First Coast News : After the hurricane descended on the city in October, David White decided to redo the resulting...

Scientists: We Know Why Sheep Get Sexed Up in Winter

Scientist figure out how melatonin levels affect breeding

(Newser) - "Why do sheep get frisky in winter?" isn't the beginning of a bad joke, but rather the question that jump-started a joint study by researchers at the University of Nottingham and the University of Bristol. The Guardian reports that scientists may now have an answer, one that could...

Underwater Video From 2013 Ended Up Being a Big Deal

The whales filmed were actually True's beaked whales

(Newser) - A group of students got an unforgettable science lesson in May 2013—but just how unforgettable is only now coming to light. While on an expedition in the Azores some 950 miles west of Portugal, as many as four beaked whales surfaced and spent about 10 minutes near a small...

Ancients' Skulls Pose a Puzzle for Our Family Tree

They're not quite Neanderthal and not quite Homo sapien

(Newser) - First, back in 2007, they found tools. Then, a bone. Now archaeologists who've continued to return to the same dig in Lingjing, China, report in the journal Science that they've unearthed more than 40 separate skull fragments to pull together two partial skulls that date back 100,000...

Chemical Used to Kill Lice Linked to Kids' Bad Behavior

Study on pyrethroids is 'cause for concern,' says a child psychiatrist

(Newser) - Here's something else not to like about lice, mosquitoes, and fleas. An insecticide used to kill them—pyrethroids—might be linked to behavior issues in children as young as 6, a French study suggests. The researchers, noting the effects the chemical had on the nervous systems of insects, wondered...

Gross Pools: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a surprising find about elephant sleep

(Newser) - An alarming find related to urine in pools tops this week's list of the most interesting discoveries:
  • Scientists Confirm Worst Fears About Pee in Pools : Attention swimmers: Researchers have finally figured out how much pee is in our pools, and the results are a little gross. A team testing
...

Woman Found Buried With Husband's Heart on Her Coffin

In a 'phenomenon that had until now not been noted'

(Newser) - Love never fails, and now researchers say they've discovered a burial ritual ostensibly designed to allow a couple's love to persist forever. Reporting in the journal PLOS One , they say that French noblewoman Louise de Quengo, who died at the age of 65 in 1656, was buried in...

Researchers Tracked Wild Elephants' Sleep. It Was Awful

Average of 2 hours a night, and periods as long as 46 hours with no sleep

(Newser) - The sample size was small—and so were the findings. Researchers asked the question "Does large body size make elephants the shortest mammalian sleepers?" and sought to answer it in the wild, in a departure from most previous related research, which involved elephants in captivity. After tracking two wild...

Scientists Claim Discovery of World's Oldest Life

But not everyone is convinced

(Newser) - Researchers say they've found fossilized bacteria that may date back to shortly after the formation of the Earth (geologically speaking, anyway), the New York Times reports. They published their findings Wednesday in Nature . The rocks were collected in 2008 from the Nuvvuagittuq geological formation in Canada. The rocks are...

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