discoveries

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

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This Massive Site Might Just Put Stonehenge to Shame

Archaeologists excavating henge 10 times larger than its neighbor

(Newser) - You think Stonehenge is impressive? Archaeologists in Britain are excavating a monument ten times larger than the iconic structure, though it appears to the naked eye to be little more than farmland. A henge is a circular earthwork, and the one in question is Marden Henge, which sits a few...

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...

Horses and Humans Share Lots of Looks

Researchers have observed 17 distinct facial expressions in horses

(Newser) - Scientists at the University of Sussex have taken a long, hard long at our equine pals and determined that horses have 17 distinct looks of their own. Some 15 hours of observing natural behavior in 86 horses, ranging in age from four weeks to 27 years and spanning several breeds,...

Bonobos Have This in Common With Human Babies

They too use identical noises that function in various contexts

(Newser) - Humans aren't the only species to speak baby talk, apparently. A new study published in the journal Peer J finds our closest living relatives communicate using high-pitched calls or "peeps" strangely similar to the sounds made by human babies before they can talk. Researcher Zanna Clay of the...

Age-Old Mystery About the Human Eye May Be Solved
Age-Old Mystery About the Human Eye May Be Solved
NEW STUDY
Aug 4, 2015 8:16 AM CDT

Age-Old Mystery About the Human Eye May Be Solved

We can see a single candle flame from 1.6 miles away, say astronomers

(Newser) - The power of human eyesight is often debated with a single question: How far can the human eye see a single candle flame? A quick Google search turns up guesses ranging from three to 30 miles, but no one has tried to find out for certain—partly because of the...

Archaeologists Find the Gate to Goliath's Hometown

The city entrance is one of the largest ever found in Israel

(Newser) - An archaeological dig now in its 20th year has uncovered the entrance gate to Gath, the ancient Biblical city of the Philistines and onetime home of the giant Goliath. Before the king of Damascus destroyed it in 830 BCE, Gath was the largest city in the land for hundreds of...

DC Is Sinking, Literally
 DC Is Sinking, Literally 
in case you missed it
Aug 2, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

DC Is Sinking, Literally

Slow-moving process will make rising sea levels even worse, say geologists

(Newser) - It sounds like a metaphor but is geological reality: Washington, DC, is sinking. In fact, researchers led by a team at the University of Vermont predict that the ground will drop another six inches by the end of the century, reports UPI . The cause isn't man-made: It's the...

Archaeologists Find Historic Synagogue Ruined by Nazis
 Archaeologists Find 
 Historic Synagogue 
 Ruined by Nazis 
in case you missed it
Aug 2, 2015 6:31 AM CDT

Archaeologists Find Historic Synagogue Ruined by Nazis

Remnants found beneath a school in Lithuania

(Newser) - The Great Synagogue of Vilna dated all the way back to the 1600s and was what the Jerusalem Post calls one of "the most historic and treasured landmarks of European Jewry." But that synagogue, in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, was all but destroyed by the Nazis during...

Ancient Cat Paw Prints Found on Roman Roof Tile

They did what they wanted 2K years ago, too

(Newser) - It's now a safe bet that people have been swearing at cats for 2,000 years. Officials at the Gloucester City Museum in England have found an ancient roof tile with the telltale paw prints of a feline being somewhere it wasn't supposed to be, reports the Telegraph...

What You Earn Is Tied to How You Drink

 What You Earn Is 
 Tied to How You Drink 
in case you missed it
Aug 1, 2015 11:53 AM CDT

What You Earn Is Tied to How You Drink

The wealthy and most educated are most likely to drink alcohol

(Newser) - Overall, roughly two in three Americans drink alcohol—which has been true historically since 1939. But dig a little deeper and drinking habits vary widely among some Americans, particularly between those who are wealthy (eight in 10 drink) and those who are not (only five in 10 do), reports Gallup...

Napoleon's Nemesis: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries

Including a new mandate on how much water to drink

(Newser) - A "bombshell" about Jamestown and a slowly sinking DC make the list:
  • How a Neurosurgeon Brought Down Napoleon : As Napoleon Bonaparte's forces moved toward Moscow in the autumn of 1812, Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov burned his own city, fled east, and left Moscow open to invaders. But what
...

Study: 'Golden Wolf' Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

We just thought it was the African golden jackal

(Newser) - Africa, home to the Ethiopian wolf and the gray wolf, can now lay claim to the African golden wolf—the first new species of canid (which also encompasses jackals, foxes, and coyotes) to be discovered in 150 years, reports National Geographic . The new species has long been misunderstood to be...

NASA Baffled by Red Arcs on Saturn Moon

New images reveal unusual marks on Tethys

(Newser) - Scientists are baffled after sighting several large, reddish arcs across the surface of one of Saturn's moons. The markings on Tethys are a few miles wide and several hundred miles long, per NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory . The images were taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, and while photos it...

Study: Climbing a Tree Is Good for Your Brain

And the researchers looked at 55-year-olds, not 5-year-olds...

(Newser) - If you're quick to dismiss climbing a tree as child's play, a study out of the University of North Florida might go far in changing your mind. The study focused on "proprioceptively dynamic activities," that is, ones that involved proprioception and a second factor (like locomotion...

Study Tries to Figure Out If Hamsters Can Be Happy

Using sugar and quinine

(Newser) - A new study in the oft-overlooked field of hamster research tries to get at that nagging question: Can hamsters be happy? Two researchers with Liverpool John Moores University found that hamsters, like other animals, may exhibit judgment bias, according to Phys.org , which boils that down to the idea that...

Greenland's Vikings Weren't Farmers, They Were Walrus Hunters

They apparently had a lucrative ivory trade going on: researchers

(Newser) - For a long time, scientists wondered why Vikings settled in Greenland as farmers, since livestock doesn't thrive there and the growing season is truncated, notes Hakai Magazine . But while speculation as to why they eventually abandoned the island territory range from climate change to soil erosion , researchers now think...

Wrecked Suitcase Found Near Possible MH370 Debris

Reports say gardener on Reunion Island found badly damaged valise

(Newser) - One of the biggest aviation mysteries of all time may be one step closer to being solved after what could be debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 washed ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean. Now reports from a French-language news site say that a gardener on Reunion Island...

How a Neurosurgeon Brought Down Napoleon

Russian general's remarkable brain surgery saved his life, resulted in visionary strategy

(Newser) - As Napoleon Bonaparte's forces moved toward Moscow in the autumn of 1812, Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov burned his own city, fled east, and left Moscow open to invaders. But what some supposed were the actions of a madman instead proved visionary, as Napoleon's troops couldn't handle the...

7 Things to Know About the Possible MH370 Clue

Investigators have found a number on the part

(Newser) - Air safety investigators have a "high degree of confidence" that aircraft debris found in the western Indian Ocean is of a wing component unique to the Boeing 777, the same model as the Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared last year, a US official said yesterday. Air safety investigators—one...

Rio's Olympic Waters Contaminated With Human Feces

AP investigation: Brazil's waters haven't been cleaned up, are beyond toxic

(Newser) - Athletes competing in next year's Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an AP investigation has found. An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously...

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