discoveries

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

Stories 261 - 280 | << Prev   Next >>

Rock Slab Found in 1900 Now Hailed as 'Treasure Map'

Researchers believe the Saint-Bélec slab points to Bronze Age burial sites in France

(Newser) - There's no bright red "X" marking the spot where treasure can be found. Still, archaeologists believe they've found a "treasure map" in the form of a 4,000-year-old rock slab whose engraved markings match natural features in France's westernmost Brittany region. The large stone, known...

We Have Our First Clue From 2K-Year-Old Vesuvius Scroll

Luke Farritor of University of Nebraska-Lincoln nabs Vesuvius Challenge's 'first letters' prize

(Newser) - Artificial intelligence and two students half a world apart have deciphered the first word from ancient scrolls that were turned to charcoal and buried for nearly 2,000 years following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Discovered in the 18th century in a luxury villa in Herculaneum, the carbonized...

New Clue Found in Mystery of Long COVID
New Clue Found in Mystery
of Long COVID
new study
Oct 16, 2023 2:11 PM CDT

New Clue Found in Mystery of Long COVID

Virus remnants in the gut might crimp the production of serotonin

(Newser) - A new study appears to shed light on the vexing medical mystery of long COVID , with a reduction in serotonin levels in patients seen as a key component. If the research published in Cell holds true, it suggests that some people might be able to take medication to boost the...

Goalies Process the World Differently


Goalies
Sense
the World
Differently
new study
Oct 14, 2023 4:15 PM CDT

Goalies Sense the World Differently

Study suggests they synthesize competing senses better than the rest of us

(Newser) - Goalies see the world differently than the rest of us, a new study suggests. Or more to the point, they process the world differently. The study in Current Biology finds that goalkeepers—in this case, soccer goalies, though the principle would apply to other sports—are unusually adept at taking...

Faced With Unwanted Mating, Female Frogs Fake Death
Faced With Unwanted Mating,
Female Frogs Fake Death
NEW STUDY
Oct 13, 2023 10:37 AM CDT

Faced With Unwanted Mating, Female Frogs Fake Death

'Surprising' behavior thought to help females escape from potentially deadly 'mating balls'

(Newser) - European common frogs often mate in what's called a "mating ball." In an attempt to reproduce, males seek out and cling to outnumbered females, even those already singled out by other males, in a potentially deadly struggle. As Science reports, females risk injury or drowning if unable...

Tree Rings Reveal Biggest Solar Storm Ever
Tree Rings Reveal
Biggest Solar Storm Ever
NEW STUDY
Oct 12, 2023 10:19 AM CDT

Tree Rings Reveal Biggest Solar Storm Ever

We hope to avoid another Miayake Event like this one, dated to 14.3K years ago

(Newser) - Scientists have found evidence of the largest solar storm known to date, one of such power that it would devastate life as we know it if we were to feel the effects today, per the BBC . The team analyzed slices of ancient trees undergoing the fossilization process on the eroded...

Secretive Mona Lisa Gives Up a Secret
Secretive Mona Lisa
Gives Up a Secret
Oct 11, 2023 12:00 PM CDT

Secretive Mona Lisa Gives Up a Secret

Da Vinci gave the masterpiece her own distinctive chemical signature

(Newser) - The Mona Lisa has given up another secret. Using X-rays to peer into the chemical structure of a tiny speck of the celebrated work of art, scientists have gained new insight into the techniques that Leonardo da Vinci used to paint his groundbreaking portrait. The research, published Wednesday in the...

Vegetarianism Could Be in Your Genes
Researchers Find 3 Genes
Linked to Vegetarianism
NEW STUDY
Oct 9, 2023 4:42 PM CDT

Researchers Find 3 Genes Linked to Vegetarianism

'A lot of people who want to be vegetarian are perhaps not able to'

(Newser) - A love of lentils could be something passed down through the generations, according to researchers who compared the genes of 5,000 vegetarians to those of more than 320,000 others. Their study, published in the journal PLOS One last week, found that three genes had a strong link to...

Gold Coins May Have Been Hidden Before 1692 Massacre
Coins May Have Been
Hidden Before 1692 Massacre
new study
Oct 9, 2023 11:28 AM CDT

Coins May Have Been Hidden Before 1692 Massacre

Archaeologists find small pot filled with them in Scotland

(Newser) - It appears that Alasdair "Maclain" MacDonald saw trouble coming and stashed away some coins under a fireplace. More than 330 years later, Scottish archaeologists suggest they've found them, reports Live Science . A member of a University of Glasgow team found a small pot filled with the coins inside...

Physics Says They Shouldn&#39;t Exist. Yet Here They Are
Webb Telescope Makes
'Baffling' Discovery
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 7, 2023 12:10 PM CDT

Webb Telescope Makes 'Baffling' Discovery

Scientists announce discovery of planet-sized objects unexplained by existing theories

(Newser) - The James Webb Space Telescope has shown us the most distant black holes known to exist , new exoplanets , possible planets in the making —and now, planet-sized objects previously unknown and unaccounted for by existing theories. Nearly 150 planet-like "Jupiter Mass Binary Objects," or JuMBOs—far too small...

Research Shows Why Some Colds Seem to Last Weeks
Research Shows
Why Some Colds
Seem to Last Weeks
new study
Oct 6, 2023 2:40 PM CDT

Research Shows Why Some Colds Seem to Last Weeks

Like COVID, other respiratory infections and their effects can linger

(Newser) - As far as acute respiratory infections go, lingering symptoms aren't just for COVID-19, researchers have found. "Long colds" and their symptoms can last more than four weeks, according to a study published Friday in the Lancet's EClinicalMedicine journal. "Our findings may chime with the experience of...

Winning a Nobel Isn&#39;t Necessarily Good News
Winning a Nobel Isn't
Necessarily Good News
new study
Oct 2, 2023 11:05 AM CDT

Winning a Nobel Isn't Necessarily Good News

Study suggests that scientists who get one might then have a reduced impact on their field

(Newser) - Nobel season has begun, with the award for medicine having been doled out Monday morning. Winners get $1 million and serious bragging rights should they be so inclined. You might also think the prize translates into the winning scientists going on to have huge impacts in their field, but a...

A Find Like This Comes &#39;Once in a Generation&#39;
A Find Like This Comes
'Once in a Generation'
in case you missed it
Oct 1, 2023 7:00 AM CDT

A Find Like This Comes 'Once in a Generation'

Long-lost work by old master Artemisia Gentileschi rediscovered in palace storage

(Newser) - England's King Charles I owned seven paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi, a 17th-century Italian artist born to a father who associated with the famous realist painter Caravaggio. She is now considered "one of the finest artists of her era, up there with Caravaggio," per ARTNews , but unfortunately for...

Another Strike Against Sitting Too Much: Dementia Risk

New study raises a warning for those 60 and older who sit for 10 or more per day

(Newser) - Researchers have been warning for a while that sitting for most of the day is not good for our physical health. A new study in JAMA suggests it may specifically hurt our brain health, too. Researchers found that people 60 and older who sat for 12 hours a day or...

Scientists Make a Key Antimatter Discovery
Decades of Work End in
Major Antimatter Discovery
new study
Sep 27, 2023 1:18 PM CDT

Decades of Work End in Major Antimatter Discovery

Scientists determine it does respond to gravity by falling

(Newser) - Earth and all the other planets are made of matter—and at the time of the Big Bang, matter and its opposite, antimatter, were created in equal amounts. In our current world, antimatter is all but impossible to find, making a big discovery regarding it equally big news. The finding...

Its Name Is Methuselah. That's Oh-So-Appropriate

This Australian lungfish lives up to its name

(Newser) - Methuselah isn't a hyperbolic name for one Australian lungfish at Steinhart aquarium in San Francisco. She was known to be incredibly old, as her documented life began in 1938, when she was one of 232 fish transported via steamship from Australia to the US. Now a new study indicates...

Melting Ice Coughs Up 3K-Year-Old Arrow, Good as New

Scientists race to recover artifacts uncovered by climate change before they're spoiled

(Newser) - If anyone else had come upon the wooden arrow with feather fletching and a quartzite tip, they might have thought it was new. But as the New York Times reports, glacial archaeologist Espen Finstad immediately suspected the arrow he found this month in the Jotunheimen mountains of eastern Norway was...

Oldest Wood Structure Is a Surprise to Researchers
'When I First Saw It,
I Thought This Can't Be Real'
in case you missed it
Sep 24, 2023 2:50 PM CDT

'When I First Saw It, I Thought This Can't Be Real'

Oldest known wood structure found to predate modern humans by almost 200K years

(Newser) - Archaeologists have uncovered what is thought to be the world's oldest known wood structure, whose estimated age suggests woodworking is at least 175,000 years older than our species. A research team discovered five very old pieces of wood in waterlogged sediment near Zambia's Kalambo Falls in an...

Motherhood May Bring On Interesting Quirk
Motherhood
May Bring On
Interesting Quirk
new study
Sep 23, 2023 3:00 PM CDT

Motherhood May Bring On Interesting Quirk

Study finds that new moms see faces in inanimate objects more than others

(Newser) - All those Instagram posts of wall sockets that look like faces might have a target audience, according to a study in Biology Letters . Researchers from Australia's University of Queensland and the University of the Sunshine Coast investigated whether the human tendency to perceive faces in inanimate objects, known as...

A Pair of Overlapping Logs May Be a Remarkable Find

Simple log structure may be the oldest example of early humans building with wood

(Newser) - Researchers have uncovered a simple structure from the Stone Age that may be the oldest evidence yet of early humans building with wood. The construction is basic: a pair of overlapping logs, fitted together with a notch. It's nearly half a million years old and provides a rare look...

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