discoveries

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

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Coming Soon: Melt-Resistant Ice Cream

Also ice-crystal-resistant, to boot

(Newser) - Soon, you may be able to enjoy an ice cream cone without having to worry about sticky fingers. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Dundee have discovered that a naturally occurring protein, known as BslA, can be used to make melt-resistant ice cream, ABC News reports....

Doctors Make Nasty Find in Guy Constipated for 10 Years

His colon had swelled to twice its normal size

(Newser) - Know anyone who's had constipation for 10 years? Hopefully not, but just in case: A guy in China with that very condition just went to the hospital, where doctors found an 11-pound stool lodged in his colon, Fox News reports. Doctors at Second People’s Hospital in Chengdu, China,...

'Important Part' of WWII History Found 80 Feet Below

'It's a really very, very exciting discovery,' says dive team leader

(Newser) - The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a chain of almost entirely uninhabited islands, atolls, and shoals that stretch across some 1,250 miles of the Pacific. Amid that large expanse has slumbered what's considered the largest shipwreck to have occurred in the islands: the Mission San Miguel, a naval tanker...

There Is One Proven Way to Prevent a Hangover

Neither water nor fatty foods appear to make a difference

(Newser) - Bad news for those who like to imbibe copious amounts of alcohol. The only proven way to prevent a hangover is to, well, imbibe smaller amounts of alcohol. Researchers tested various hangover "cures" on 826 Dutch students and found that neither drinking water nor eating fatty foods will "...

Daydreaming May Be Why Neurotics Are So Creative

So, does this explain Woody Allen?

(Newser) - Is there a reason neurotic people tend to be bigger worriers but also more creative than the rest of us? A newly published theory says yes, and it has to do with daydreaming. Neurotics—famous ones include Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, and, of course, Woody Allen—get anxious and obsessed...

Watching 5 Hours of TV a Day Could Kill You
 Watching 5 Hours of TV 
 a Day Could Kill You  
study says
Aug 30, 2015 5:50 AM CDT

Watching 5 Hours of TV a Day Could Kill You

That level of viewing can increase likelihood of deadly blood clots six-fold

(Newser) - Here's a study to make you get off the couch. Researchers from Japan's Osaka University found that watching more than five hours of TV a day can make you six times more likely to suffer a fatal blood clot, the Telegraph reports. The study, presented to the European...

What Marijuana May Do to Sperm

Nothing good...

(Newser) - Smoking pot could damage your semen quality, or so suggests a new study out of Denmark. Some 1,215 Danish men ages 18 to 28 were asked about their drug use over the past three months and provided a semen sample. The researchers found a correlation between men who smoked...

For Better Sex, Split the Childcare
Study: Parents Who Do This Have Better Sex Lives
in case you missed it
Aug 29, 2015 11:17 AM CDT

Study: Parents Who Do This Have Better Sex Lives

The happiest couples tend to evenly divide many child-related duties

(Newser) - Couples who manage to evenly divide child care duties tend to have higher-quality relationships, as well as sex lives. This is the takeaway from a new study being presented to the American Sociological Association in Chicago this week. Researchers interviewed nearly 500 heterosexual couples with kids and found that when...

How Birth Order May Affect Your Weight
How Birth Order May
Affect Your Weight
study says
Aug 29, 2015 8:50 AM CDT

How Birth Order May Affect Your Weight

First-born sisters tend to be heavier as adults

(Newser) - Attention, big sisters: First-born women are more likely to be overweight or obese than their younger sisters, a new study suggests. The Washington Post reports that researchers at the University of Auckland looked at 13,406 pairs of Swedish sisters and found the older sibling was 29% more likely to...

Why the US Leads the World in Mass Shootings
 Why the US 
 Leads the World 
 in Mass Shootings 
in case you missed it
Aug 29, 2015 7:00 AM CDT

Why the US Leads the World in Mass Shootings

'American Dream' plays a role, researcher says

(Newser) - High gun ownership rates and high rates of mass shootings might seem like an obvious connection, but University of Alabama researcher Adam Lankford says his study is the first to show empirical evidence that the aforementioned ownership rate "is the strongest predictor of [a country's] number of public...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a potential answer to a black-hole riddle

(Newser) - Support for the single life and and (possibly) for Jesus' supposed wife make the list:
  • A Black Hole Conundrum Solved? "If you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." So says Stephen Hawking in claiming to have resolved the
...

Polio Virus Lingered in Man's Gut for Decades

And that's bad news for children of anti-vaxxers and the developing world

(Newser) - For nearly his entire life, a 29-year-old man living in the United Kingdom has had the polio virus living in his gut—where the strain has mutated from the weakened form he received in a vaccine as an infant to a much more virulent strain, according to a study published...

4 Years Later, Mystery of Knut's Death Solved

And the discovery could end up saving humans

(Newser) - The sudden death four years ago of Knut, the celebrity polar bear, shocked his fans around the world and posed a riddle for veterinarians. The 4-year-old bear died in March 2011 after suffering an apparent seizure and collapsing into his enclosure's pool in front of hundreds of visitors at...

Hubble Spots 'Butterfly' 2K Light-Years Away

It's also known as the Twin Jet Nebula, and it's pretty

(Newser) - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a space butterfly? That's essentially what the Hubble Space Telescope has captured in a new image of the Twin Jet Nebula, a shimmering planetary nebula that strongly resembles a winged insect, reports CNET . What you're actually seeing in...

Polish Officials: Nazi-Train Hunters Found 'Something'

Walbrzych officials say a military train has been found

(Newser) - Polish officials say a military train has been discovered in Walbrzych, but it's not yet clear if it's the famed Nazi gold train rumored to have vanished in southwest Poland in 1945. Walbrzych "is full of mysterious stories because of its history," says Zygmunt Nowaczyk, the...

Some People Are Born Without a 'Mind's Eye'

Aphantasia impairs one's ability to visualize

(Newser) - When science journalist Carl Zimmer wrote a 2010 article in Discover magazine about English neurologist Adam Zeman's case study of a man who couldn't visualize people or things, the professor was approached by 21 people who saw themselves in the article and wanted to learn more. Now Zeman...

What the Dust in Your House Says About You

Our dust contains, on average, 9K unique species of microbes

(Newser) - Last year, volunteers mailed in dust samples taken from above interior and exterior door frames in 1,200 homes across the US as part of a citizen science project called Wild Life of Our Homes . Now, scientists are reporting in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that our...

It's OK If Your Surgeon Is Short on Sleep

It makes no difference at all to complications rate, study says

(Newser) - Given the choice between a well-rested surgeon and one who's been up half the night, nobody in their right mind would choose the latter, but a new study says it doesn't seem to make any difference at all to their performance. Researchers looked at almost 40,000 patients...

Study: This Is the Kind of Man Who Murders His Partner

There are striking similarities among these convicts

(Newser) - The kind of man who kills his wife or family fits a pattern, and this new understanding of who commits this kind of murder could help prevent them from happening in the first place. So report Northwestern University researchers in the Journal of Forensic Sciences after interviewing and evaluating 153...

Hawking: 'Black Holes Ain't as Black as Painted'

Physicist claims to have solved the information paradox

(Newser) - "If you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." So says Stephen Hawking in claiming to have resolved the so-called information paradox—the seemingly irreconcilable problem of two well-accepted tenets involving black holes. Quantum mechanics dictates that the information...

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