discoveries

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

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Eye Exercises Can Reduce Our Natural Blind Spots
Eye Exercises Can Reduce Our Natural Blind Spots
NEW STUDY
Sep 6, 2015 2:05 PM CDT

Eye Exercises Can Reduce Our Natural Blind Spots

And, that's great news for people losing their vision

(Newser) - Your blind spot could shrink using simple exercises, say researchers who think they could help prevent blindness and possibly even restore sight to those who've lost it. All humans have blind spots due to the lack of photoreceptors where the optic nerve passes through the retina. But we don'...

A Small Shock Could Zap Your Motion Sickness
A Small Shock Could Zap Your Motion Sickness
NEW STUDY
Sep 6, 2015 7:50 AM CDT

A Small Shock Could Zap Your Motion Sickness

Scientists think they could eradicate travel misery within a decade

(Newser) - Motion sickness is, some scientists think, caused by conflicting messages that our ears and eyes send to our brain when we are in motion. In three out of 10 of us, it can be downright debilitating, resulting in cold sweats, dizziness, severe nausea, and more. But now researchers at Imperial...

New Device Pumps Life Into 'Dead' Hearts

It could raise the number available for transplant by a third

(Newser) - The number of hearts available to thousands of Americans requiring a transplant every year could increase by up to 30% if a new piece of medical technology developed in Massachusetts is approved for use in the US, the MIT Technology Review reports. TransMedics' Organ Care System—known as "heart...

Here&#39;s Why Your Cat May Not Care When You Leave
Here's Why Your Cat May
Not Care When You Leave
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Sep 6, 2015 6:29 AM CDT

Here's Why Your Cat May Not Care When You Leave

New study shows domestic cats don't show signs of secure attachment to humans

(Newser) - There are a lot of cats in the United States. Perhaps close to 95 million live with us as pets, reports the Times-Picayune . But does our affection for these feline friends move in just one direction? New research in the journal PLoS One suggests that domesticated cats are more independent...

Divers Risk Lives to Find the World's Deepest Cave

Team hopes to prove Czech cave bests current record holder in Italy

(Newser) - Polish divers are putting their lives on the line to prove an underwater cave in the Czech Republic is the deepest in the world—hundreds of feet lower than depths survivable by humans, National Geographic reports. Krzysztof Starnawski, leader of the dive team, has been exploring the Hranická Propast cave...

Alcoholics' Cure? 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including an explanation of why your cat could take you or leave you

(Newser) - A possible breakthrough on the alcohol abuse front and "green" coffee make the list:
  • Could This Discovery End Alcoholism? : Texas A&M scientists say a cure for alcoholism could be on the horizon thanks to new brain research. It centers on a dopamine receptor that, once activated by alcohol,
...

Why This Swipe at a Drone Says a Lot About Chimps

Tushi planned and executed her attack, say researchers

(Newser) - A chimpanzee that famously knocked a flying drone out of the air with a stick earlier this year wasn't reacting out of fear or annoyance but rather executing a pre-planned and deliberate attack. That's according to a new study in Primates . "This episode adds to the indications...

Got the Blues? You're Less Likely to See This Color

Sad people less likely to identify colors on blue-yellow axis: study

(Newser) - Got the blues? You probably aren't seeing blues clearly. That's the takeaway from a new study that finds how a person views the color blue may actually depend on mood, reports Medical Daily . Not all colors were affected in the same way. Researchers at the University of Rochester...

Insurer Announces Major HIV Breakthrough

Daily pill prevented HIV infection for all patients in new study

(Newser) - Big news in the fight against HIV: Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco's biggest private insurer, says that over a 32-month period, not a single one of its clients taking Truvada contracted HIV. Truvada is the name of the daily pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, pill that the CDC recommended for use...

Could This Discovery End Alcoholism?
 Could This 
 Discovery End 
 Alcoholism? 
NEW STUDY
Sep 3, 2015 12:57 PM CDT

Could This Discovery End Alcoholism?

Blocking D1 receptors in brain blocks alcohol cravings: study

(Newser) - Scientists say a cure for alcoholism could be on the horizon thanks to the remarkable discovery of neurons in the brain that play a role in whether one glass of wine turns into a bottle. Texas A&M researchers explain the part of your brain known as the dorsomedial striatum...

How Your Coffee Grounds Can Help Save the World

Heating used grounds with potassium hydroxide enables methane storage

(Newser) - As if coffee isn't amazing enough already. A team of researchers—who, yes, got the idea over a cup of coffee—are reporting in the journal Nanotechnology that soaking spent coffee grounds in potassium hydroxide and then heating the grounds in a furnace creates a material that can store...

Earth Has 3T Trees —and That's Not Good

Study shows Earth has lost nearly half its trees since farming began

(Newser) - Congratulations, environmentalists, tree-huggers, and people who enjoy breathing oxygen: the Earth has seven times more trees—approximately 3 trillion—than previously estimated, according to a new study in Nature . Scientists from around the world created the first "data-driven global tree census" by combining satellite images with tree counts from...

Unsheared Sheep So Wooly He Nearly Died

Overgrown Aussie sheep wouldn't have survived summer

(Newser) - It was the most massively overgrown sheep anybody had ever seen—and the biggest challenge of Ian Elkins' career. When animal authorities in Canberra found and rescued the wandering sheep, they called for help and the four-time Australian Shearing Championship winner answered, the Guardian reports. Elkins says he sheared a...

Tech Could Help Seniors' Brains Stay Young

According to a new study

(Newser) - Teaching mom and dad to use Facebook and Instagram may make you want to yank out your hair, but it could help keep parents mentally fit as they age, according to new research out of Austria. People over the age of 50 scored better on cognition tests in 2012 than...

How Old Is Your Heart? Odds Are It's Older Than You

Half of Americans have hearts that are at least 5 years older than their age

(Newser) - With one-third of Americans obese, the US now ranks 30th in the world for life expectancy, the New York Times noted earlier this year. So it may not come as a surprise that roughly half of Americans have hearts that are at least five years older than their actual age....

Backyard Dig Yields Live Cannonball

In New Jersey

(Newser) - The Atlantic City bomb squad was dispatched to a southern New Jersey home over the weekend after a man dug up a live cannonball in his backyard. Police say the Lower Township man was digging behind his West Bates Avenue home when he discovered the explosive Saturday. Police say the...

World's Oldest Wooden Statue Twice as Old as Pyramids

New dating puts Shigir Idol at 11K years old, 1.5K years older than thought

(Newser) - When scientists first tried in 1997 to date the famous Shigir Idol wooden sculpture —originally found in a Siberian peat bog in 1890—radiocarbon dating suggested the art was so old the findings were widely disputed. Now, armed with better tech, scientists turned to one of the world's...

Scientists Study Lost Site of Largest Native American Massacre

Cavalrymen killed at least 250 Shoshone men, women, children in Idaho in 1863

(Newser) - By the end of that frigid day in January 1863, the blood of at least 250 men, women, and children stained the ground in Idaho. But rather than occupying a dark place in American history, the victims of the nation's single largest Native American massacre—Shoshone Indians slaughtered in...

Study of Rare, Terrible Brain Disease Yields Huge Find

Multiple system atrophy quickly destroys the brain

(Newser) - Multiple system atrophy, or MSA, is a rare and horrible disease that will destroy your brain and inevitably kill you, and the study of it has now yielded a major breakthrough in our understanding of brain diseases. Researchers have discovered that MSA is caused by a prion, a kind of...

First Big Predator Was 'Angry' Water Bug

You wouldn't want to swim with 'Pentecopterus decorahensis'

(Newser) - Earth's first big predatory monster was a weird water bug as big as Tom Cruise, newly found fossils show. Almost half a billion years ago, way before the dinosaurs roamed, Earth's dominant large predator was a sea scorpion that grew to 5 feet 7 inches, with a dozen...

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