science

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Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
study says
Aug 16, 2015 7:54 AM CDT

Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia

Researchers in new study think pollution and pesticides play a role

(Newser) - Could pollution be to blame for why dementia is killing more people and being diagnosed earlier than ever? That's the theory being floated by researchers involved in a study of patients in 21 countries from 1989 to 2010. The Smithsonian reports that while dementia is typically associated with people...

Scurvy: Horrific as It Was Deadly for Sailors

The 'plague of the sea' was not a pleasant way to go

(Newser) - A ship's chaplain in the 1740s wrote of sailors' gums that would grow out of control until they protruded from the mouth and rotted away, leaving a horrific case of bad breath, the BBC reports. So it turns out that not only was scurvy once incredibly dangerous, it was...

Earth's Prime Meridian Is Now Mostly Marked by a Trash Can

Science explains how the important longitudinal line moved 334 feet

(Newser) - Don't tell the swarms of tourists paying nearly $15 to pose with one leg on either side of the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, but Earth's true prime meridian actually passes through a park approximately 334 feet to the east near a trash can....

Scientists Discover Venomous Frogs— the Hard Way

One gram of frog's venom is enough to kill 80 humans

(Newser) - Miss Piggy's split with Kermit wasn't the only painful frog-related news this week. Researchers have released their findings on the world's first known venomous frogs, whose abilities were only discovered when one of them stung a researcher's hand, leaving him with what a colleague calls...

Meet World's New Horrifying Fish

New species of anglerfish discovered at nearly 5K feet in the Gulf of Mexico

(Newser) - It seems like every time humans venture to the ocean's depths, they return with a terrifying new type of fish; and the recently discovered Lasiognathus regan is certainly no exception. CNN describes the new species of anglerfish as looking like a "hunchbacked, rotting, old shoe with spikes, a...

'Mystery Shipwreck' Spotted Off US Coast

Scientists stumble on wreck in deep Atlantic waters

(Newser) - A newly discovered shipwreck off the North Carolina coast may show first-hand how Americans conducted business before the Civil War, the Washington Post reports. Marine scientists who stumbled on the find say it includes glass bottles, red bricks, ship timbers, a metal compass, an unglazed pottery jug, and an iron...

Everything You Need to Know About the Third Nipple

A BBC report breaks down the latest on 'supernumerary nipples'

(Newser) - Ah, the mysterious third nipple. Why do some people have one, and how do they form? At the BBC , Jason Goldman reports that while some have considered the "supernumerary nipple" a fault of the evolutionary process, similar to wisdom teeth or the tailbone, recent research shows that extra-nipple formation...

No, Not Every Snowflake Is Unique

Chemistry teacher builds graphic that shows 35 different types

(Newser) - When there's a lot of snow out there, you can either make a snowman, a snow angel, or just X-ray the snowflakes. And if you do the latter, you can figure out how many different designs snowflakes take. Chemistry teacher and blogger Andy Brunning has created this graphic , which...

'Unicorn Deer' Found on 2 Continents

Hunters shoot unusual creatures in Slovenia, Washington state

(Newser) - You can start believing in magic again, because not only are fanged deer real, it turns out unicorns are, too. Well, sort of. In August, a hunter shot an elderly roe deer bearing a single, centered antler in the forests of Slovenia, reports National Geographic . It's not uncommon to...

'Punxsutawney Phil on Steroids' Is Unearthed

'Vintana sertichi' dwarfed other mammals of its day

(Newser) - Back in the dinosaurs' day, mammals were the size of mice. But towering above them was one beefy rodent that one scientist calls "Punxsutawney Phil on steroids"—with super senses to boot. The 20-pound Vintana sertichi was accidentally found in a giant slab of sandstone in Madagascar, reports...

Ig Nobel Prizes Honor Research on Pork and Poop

Annual ceremony celebrates the year's wackiest scientific pursuits

(Newser) - More than 1,000 people gathered at Harvard's Sanders Theatre yesterday to celebrate the 24th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, which includes such traditions as throwing paper airplanes and seeing who wins a date with a Nobel laureate. But the real treat is the science itself—which, in addition...

Messages Sent From Brain to Brain Over 5K Miles
Messages Sent From Brain
to Brain Over 5K Miles
in case you missed it
Sep 7, 2014 7:27 AM CDT

Messages Sent From Brain to Brain Over 5K Miles

First-of-its kind experiment relays 'hola' and 'ciao' from India to France

(Newser) - A team of neuroscientists tapped into brain-wave-reading gear, binary code, and the Internet to transmit thoughts from a subject in India to three human "receivers" in France—about 5,000 miles away, reports Popular Science . The four participants, ages 28-50, were hooked up to equipment that looked like it...

Octopus Love Involves Strangulation, Cannibalism

Scientists observe one killing, eating her partner

(Newser) - Some guys fall asleep after a little love-making. But if you’re a male octopus, that nap can be more like eternal rest. Two scientists have detailed how carnal relations between a lady octopus and her lover can prove fatal for the male, especially if he’s not that well-endowed,...

Ancient Meteorite Unlocks Space Puzzle

'Mysterious object' found in Swedish limestone quarry

(Newser) - Almost 500 million years ago in the Ordovician Period, two large bodies in the asteroid belt collided. Two asteroids, or an asteroid and a comet, blew apart and their debris and dust fell to Earth. One of these large bodies was the source of all the L-chondrite meteorites that have...

5 Terms Scientists Wish You'd Stop Screwing Up

There are times when scientists are speaking a different language than the rest of us

(Newser) - Ah, science. It's ever-present in our pop-culture, and its words and phrases have become part of our everyday vernacular. There's just one problem: Scientists mostly can't stand it, because we mostly get everything wrong. Io9 asked some scientists which misuses drive them the most crazy. Here are...

Giant Moths Descend on Malaysia

Though alarming, moth swarms not dangerous

(Newser) - To some they represent the souls of dead relatives, to others they are beautiful pollinators, but to many they are just plain creepy. What are they? Giant Lyssa Zampa moths, swarms of which have descended on Malaysian homes and even a football match, the BBC reports. “The moths are...

Found in University Basement: 250 Corpses

Department director resigns over gross debacle

(Newser) - It seems journalists with Spain's El Mundo have stumbled onto Frankenstein’s laboratory. "This is not Auschwitz in 1942. Neither Srebrenica ... nor Rwanda," as El Mundo puts it. No, it’s the basement of the Anatomy and Embryology Department at Madrid's Complutense University, where the body...

Remarkable Find: an Underwater 'Graveyard'

Science gets its first view of giant sharks and rays being devoured

(Newser) - Marine biologists have gotten a grisly treat courtesy of remotely operated vehicles surveying the seafloor off Angola for the oil and gas industry: For the first time, the carcasses of large fish—a whale shark and three mobulid rays—and the feeding frenzy they create have been filmed. The researchers...

Newly Found Plant Eats Nickel
 Newly Found Plant Eats Nickel 
May 12, 2014 10:13 AM CDT

Newly Found Plant Eats Nickel

It has big potential in green technology

(Newser) - A newly discovered plant from the Philippines has an unusual appetite—for nickel. In a press release on the find, researchers explain Rinorea niccolifera is a nickel hyperaccumulator, meaning it can absorb up to 18,000 parts per million of the metal in its leaves. That's a "normally...

Majority of Americans Doubt the Big Bang

 Majority of Americans 
 Doubt the Big Bang 
in case you missed it
Apr 26, 2014 1:11 PM CDT

Majority of Americans Doubt the Big Bang

Poll shows 51% Americans unsure

(Newser) - Americans aren't really sold on scientific consensus. A new AP-Gfk poll finds that while the public generally believes scientists on issues of personal health—just 4%, for example, doubt that smoking causes cancer—there's widespread doubt on bigger picture subjects. A slim majority (51%) said they doubted the...

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