discoveries

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

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Jupiter's Red Spot Isn't What We Thought It Was

Researchers re-create phenomenon in lab

(Newser) - Scientists have made their own version of Jupiter's Great Red Spot in a lab, and it suggests that the spot's cause is very different from what's been postulated. An existing theory holds that the spot is the result of chemicals underneath the planet's clouds. But following...

Tiny Ice Age Babies Open 'Windows' to Ancient Alaska

Girls, possibly twins, buried 11.5K years ago in central Alaska

(Newser) - One summer 11,500 years ago, two baby girls, possibly twins, were buried in an Ice Age village in central Alaska—one about 5 weeks old and the other a fetus, possibly a stillborn. Today, the girls' remains are the oldest in the North American arctic, Smithsonian reports. Archaeologists recently...

Chewing on Ice Better Than Sex (for Some)

Ice may offer mental boost for pagophagia sufferers

(Newser) - If you need coffee as a morning pick-me-up, you're not alone. If you need to chomp through a cup of ice, you're also not alone—but there are fewer people like you. Such ice-eaters may suffer from pagophagia (a compulsive craving for ice) that could be caused by...

St. Francis Manuscripts Leaving Italy After 700 Years

Medieval artifacts are bound for US

(Newser) - When Francis of Assisi went blind after living a life of poverty, he penned his inspiring "Canticle of the Sun," Catholic Online notes. Now the manuscript that contains that writing, as well as 12 other medieval manuscripts, are heading to the US after a 700-year stay in Italy,...

Insects Once Ruled the World
 Insects Made History 
 400M Years Ago 
study says
Nov 9, 2014 4:30 PM CST

Insects Made History 400M Years Ago

They were first to grow wings, rule the skies

(Newser) - Want human beings to feel a massive ego-boost? Then look elsewhere, because a ground-breaking study published by Science finds that insects ruled the Earth about 400 million years ago and grew wings long before any other animal, reports Heritage Daily . They cropped up as plants began diversifying, in fact, and...

Your Weird Sex Fantasies Are Probably Really Vanilla

Research finds humans experience 'wide range of erotic fantasies'

(Newser) - Some might be shy about admitting weird sexual fantasies, but 1,516 participants did just that for a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine —and most of their fantasies aren't that weird at all. There's a wide spectrum of them, and most folks fall well within...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a rodent with superhero senses

(Newser) - An incredibly old turtle and one of the most annoyingly popular songs of the 1990s make the list:
  • 'Punxsutawney Phil on Steroids' Is Unearthed : A beefy rodent with superhero sight and ultra-sensitive hearing? Meet the "humongous" 20-pound Vintana sertichi, a mammal fossil from the dinosaur era recently found
...

King-Protecting 'Witchmarks' Uncovered in Home

Though King James I never made it to the Knole estate in Kent

(Newser) - Most old homes bear normal signs of wear and tear. The strange gouge marks beneath the floorboards of "one of Britain's most important historic houses," however, tell a pretty interesting story, the Independent reports: They were intended to guard King James I from witches and other evil...

Eggs' Shape May Have Helped Birds Outlive Dinosaurs

Study suggests differences played a role

(Newser) - So why did birds survive the mass extinction that wiped out their dinosaur relatives? A new study suggests that the shape of their eggs played a role, reports the BBC . Scientists aren't sure exactly what that role was, but they do know that eggs of survivor birds were shaped...

Amphibious 'Sea Monster' Made the Move to Water

Ancient ichthyosaur reveals missing link to evolutionary record

(Newser) - Scientists have found a real, not-live "sea monster" they say finally fills an evolutionary gap between sea and land dwellers around the time of the dinosaurs. Cartorhynchus lenticarpus—imagine a dolphin with huge flippers and a short snout—made waves in what is now China 248 million years ago,...

'Punxsutawney Phil on Steroids' Is Unearthed

'Vintana sertichi' dwarfed other mammals of its day

(Newser) - Back in the dinosaurs' day, mammals were the size of mice. But towering above them was one beefy rodent that one scientist calls "Punxsutawney Phil on steroids"—with super senses to boot. The 20-pound Vintana sertichi was accidentally found in a giant slab of sandstone in Madagascar, reports...

Male Hummingbirds Stab Each Other in the Throat for the Ladies

Scientists say males use their long, sharp beaks as weapons in mating ritual

(Newser) - Bigger is better if you're a male hummingbird. Scientists have discovered that males grow longer, sharper beaks than females as they age—which they then use to stab each other in the throat during an elaborate mating ritual, according to research carried out by University of Connecticut scientists. The...

Scientists Puzzled by Huge Sunspot

Magnetic burst deemed 'too complicated for us' to grasp

(Newser) - Scientists scratched their heads this week over a massive sunspot, partly because it posed no threat to human civilization. The burst of solar magnetic activity, one of the biggest on record, whipped up powerful flares but didn't spew coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can bring down Earth's power...

Hiker Stumbles Onto 90M-Year-Old Turtle

Experts then dig it up for museum display

(Newser) - What looked like a pile of weirdly gray rocks was actually something far more significant: a fossil dating back to the dinosaurs, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports. Jeff Dornbusch, a museum volunteer, noticed the gray mound while hiking in New Mexico's brown desert landscape more than ten years ago,...

Scientific Study Determines Catchiest Hit Song Ever

UK study participants recognized Spice Girls' 'Wannabe' in just 2.29 seconds

(Newser) - What makes that earworm an earworm? Musicologists at the University of Amsterdam recently set out to find out, collecting data from 12,000 participants who listened to a random selection from 1,000 hit singles in the UK dating back to the 1940s. The results were unveiled at the Manchester...

Old Stone Circles Baffle Archaeologists

"Big Circles" in Jordan date back at least 2K years

(Newser) - Archaeologists have snapped aerial photos of ancient stone circles as part of an ongoing effort to figure out why the structures exist, LiveScience reports. The images (taken in Jordan and viewable here ) show that 10 of the 11 structures are roughly 1,300 feet in diameter, but their purpose...

Sleeping With 20+ Women Cuts Guys' Cancer Risk

Possibly because of frequent ejaculation

(Newser) - One defense against prostate cancer may be promiscuity. A study of men in Montreal finds that those who'd slept with more than 20 women had a 28% lower risk of prostate cancer than did men who'd had sex with just one woman, CBS News reports. As for virgins,...

70-Year First? Gray Wolf Spotted in Grand Canyon

Conservationists trying to confirm multiple sightings

(Newser) - There's a new visitor roaming the Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim, and it's not exactly the fanny-pack-wearing/Nikon-toting variety: As National Geographic reports, wildlife officials are scrambling to confirm multiple sightings of a "wolf-like animal" that's believed to be a gray wolf—if it is,...

Scientists Spot Elusive Fanged Deer

Kashmir musk deer identified in Afghanistan for first time since 1948

(Newser) - A deer with fangs: It sounds made-up, and scientists hadn't seen one in Afghanistan since 1948. But researchers have found that the musk deer still exists in the country's Nuristan Province. In fact, they've spotted the creatures five times: a male three times, a female and a...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a revelation that might predict how you vote on Election Day

(Newser) - A possible piece of Amelia Earhart's plane and a centuries-old virus found in an unsavory place make the list:
  • Is This a Piece of Amelia's Plane? : A team that's been investigating the disappearance of Amelia Earhart says it identified a piece of metal retrieved in 1991 as
...

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