discoveries

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

Stories 3581 - 3600 | << Prev   Next >>

Porn Doesn't Desensitize Guys, Cause ED: Study

If anything, porn-watchers responded 'more strongly'

(Newser) - There's been a lot of talk in recent years about porn wreaking all sorts of havoc in the bedroom, including desensitizing guys to sexual stimuli and causing erectile dysfunction. Researchers at UCLA and Concordia University put this link between a man's erectile function and his porn-watching habits to...

Scientists: Cervantes' Lost Remains Are Found

But his bones may be impossible to identify

(Newser) - The lost remains of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes may have finally been found nearly 400 years after the writer's death—and a year after experts began searching for them. Experts working at Madrid's Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians used ground-penetrating radar among other technology to identify...

'Yeti' Hairs Came From Bear—but Which Kind?

Scientist's theory of an undiscovered polar bear is challenged by new results

(Newser) - Research led by an Oxford scientist has suggested there could be something to legends of the yeti, even if it's not quite the creature legends would suggest. Bryan Sykes has argued, based on genetic analysis, that two hair samples collected by yeti enthusiasts in the Himalayas could indeed point...

Finally: Why the Mile High City Is So High Up
Why 'Mile-High City'
Is So High Up
study says
Mar 16, 2015 7:20 PM CDT

Why 'Mile-High City' Is So High Up

It has to do with water from millions of years ago

(Newser) - What makes the High Plains so darned high? Well, geologists say, maybe the Earth just got lighter and floated up like a plank of wood for millions of years. In the journal Geology , experts say water beneath the Western US may have infiltrated an area of the continental plate and...

Ring Links Vikings to Ancient Islam

Colored-glass ring is inscribed with either 'to Allah' or 'for Allah'

(Newser) - Those Vikings really got around: Not only did they land in North America long before 1492, they may have visited the Islamic world as well. As possible evidence, researchers say a ring from a ninth-century Viking woman's grave looks exceptionally Islamic, Science News reports. The silver ring was first...

Archaeologists Uncover 'Mask Unlike Any Other'

Larger-than-life bronze mask depicts ancient god of shepherds

(Newser) - An ancient god has resurfaced in Israel thanks to what archaeologists say is a one-of-a-kind discovery. University of Haifa researchers were digging at what's believed to be an ancient basalt armory outside Sussita—which the Jerusalem Post reports was once the Roman city of Antiochia Hippos—when a ball...

Inside Solar System's Biggest Moon: an Ocean

Jupiter's Ganymede may hold more water than Earth

(Newser) - Where there is water, there could be life, NASA scientists say—and they have found evidence of a vast amount of water on Ganymede, Jupiter's biggest moon and the biggest moon in the solar system. Ganymede is the only one known to have its own magnetic field, and Hubble...

Why Dreams Fuel So Many Religions

 Why Dreams Fuel 
 So Many Religions 
study says
Mar 15, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

Why Dreams Fuel So Many Religions

And why "hearing voices" may not mean a person is ill

(Newser) - Religions throughout the world—and throughout history—have put dreams at the center of their belief systems, and researchers say there's a good reason for that. We do much of our intense dreaming during REM sleep, when the highly active brain acts almost like it's awake, writes Ross...

Actually, Liberals May Be Happier Than Conservatives

It's just that conservatives say they're happier: study

(Newser) - Who's happier, the left or the right? Years of research would say the latter—but a new series of studies is challenging the notion that conservatives are the more cheerful ones, the New York Times reports. The new research, published in Science , finds that while conservatives say they're...

Rumor Leads to Library&#39;s Priceless Coin Trove
Professor Looks Into Rumor, Finds Priceless Coin Trove
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 15, 2015 7:58 AM CDT

Professor Looks Into Rumor, Finds Priceless Coin Trove

Coins had sat in university archives for 80 years

(Newser) - In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the swashbuckling professor tells his students that "70% of all archaeology is done in the library"—but at the University at Buffalo, it turned out to be 100% for assistant classics professor Philip Kiernan. He followed up on a rumor about...

Yes, Broken Hearts Do Kill People
Yes, You Can Die
of a Broken Heart
Mar 14, 2015 6:30 PM CDT

Yes, You Can Die of a Broken Heart

But broken heart syndrome rarely proves fatal

(Newser) - Breakups usually hurt, but does anyone really "die of a broken heart"? Apparently so, though fatal cases are rare and it's mostly women with prior health risks who die for lost love. "The loss of a mate and stress of being alone results in a manifestation...

World&#39;s Oldest Mummies Are Turning to Jelly
World's Oldest Mummies
Are Turning to Jelly
in case you missed it
Mar 14, 2015 10:50 AM CDT

World's Oldest Mummies Are Turning to Jelly

Experts find rising humidity destructive to Chile's Chinchorro mummies

(Newser) - For millennia, Chile's man-made Chinchorro mummies, the oldest in the world, have remained in roughly the same stable condition—the result of a sophisticated mummification process that dates back 7,000 years. Now, they're turning to "black ooze," LiveScience reports. Researchers say that over the last...

Mummy-Mia! 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including an unexpected find atop a volcano and a device to help the blind 'read' text

(Newser) - The world's oldest pretzel and a study that discourages you from telling kids they're super-special make the list:
  • New Finger Device Helps Blind 'See' and Hear Writing : MIT researchers have created a prototype of a finger-mounted device that uses a camera to scan text, which is then
...

Top Contender for Life Outside Earth: a Saturn Moon

Enceladus has a warm ocean, hydrothermal activity

(Newser) - Thanks to the Cassini spacecraft, we already knew that one of Saturn's moons has a big ocean . Now things have gotten more interesting on Enceladus. It turns out that the ocean is not only warm, it seems to have the same kind of hydrothermal activity going on as oceans...

Study Has Bad News for Teen Potheads

It finds a link between daily use in teens, reduced-term memory in adulthood

(Newser) - Marijuana may be 114 times less deadly than alcohol , but that doesn't mean it's without its negative consequences, per a study published today in the journal Hippocampus . Northwestern University researchers found that former teen potheads—more technically, those who lit up daily for roughly three years—had a...

Archaeologists Uncover World's Oldest ... Pretzel

250-year-old treat among burnt breakfast found in Bavaria

(Newser) - Archaeologists digging in Germany's state of Bavaria probably weren't expecting to find a snack. But that's exactly what turned up last summer at a site in Regensburg on the Danube River, a location that had previously given up the remains of some gallows and a 1,200-year-old...

Your Memories of 9/11 Might Be Wrong

Researchers find discrepancies in personal 'flashbulb' recollections

(Newser) - Quick, where were you when you heard about the 9/11 attacks? Who were you with? If you're like most people, you've got answers at the ready. But as it turns out, there's a decent chance your answers are wrong, reports Time . That's the upshot of a...

Scientists Unlock Key of Octopus's Blue Blood

New research could explain why they'll thrive in warming Antarctic waters

(Newser) - Unlike human royalty, a species of octopus that thrives in frigid Antarctic waters has actual blue blood, and scientists think they've figured out its advantage: The key is a blue-hued protein called hemocyanin—which Phys.org notes is comparable to hemoglobin in vertebrates, and which distributes oxygen throughout the...

How Chameleons Really Change Their Color
 How Chameleons Really 
 Change Their Color 
NEW STUDY
Mar 11, 2015 4:14 AM CDT

How Chameleons Really Change Their Color

New study finds it isn't just pigments

(Newser) - Chameleons may not be the only creatures on the planet capable of shade shifting, but they're probably the best at it—panther chameleons in particular. They can go from green and blue hues to yellow and red ones in a matter of minutes, and scientists say they now think...

A New Way for the Blind to Read

Finger-worn device from MIT translates text to speech in real time

(Newser) - A new invention could help blind people "read" books and other written text without the need for Braille. MIT researchers have created a prototype of a finger-mounted device that uses a camera to scan text, which is then converted to speech in real time. "For visually impaired users,...

Stories 3581 - 3600 | << Prev   Next >>
Most Read on Newser