discoveries

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

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More Unmarried Women Over Age 35 Having Babies

But fewer unwed women overall are having kids, says CDC

(Newser) - Although the birth rate for unmarried women has been slowly declining, middle-aged American women aren't waiting to tie the knot before having kids. According to recent CDC data, birth rates for unmarried females between the ages of 35 and 39 rose a substantial 48% between 2002 and 2012, reports...

Greeks Unearth Biggest Ancient Tomb

Amphipolis site dates to time of Alexander the Great

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Greece are nearly ready to enter what they say is the biggest ancient tomb ever unearthed in the country. The tomb at the ancient site of Amphipolis in the Macedonia region, around 65 miles northeast of Thessaloniki, dates from around 300 BC—the time of Alexander the Great,...

'Evil Eye' Box Uncovered in Ancient Cemetery

Archaeologists excavate tombs from Kush kingdom in Sudan

(Newser) - People in the ancient kingdom of Kush not only believed in the afterlife, they apparently feared the evil eye—in the afterlife, LiveScience reports. Archaeologists excavating a 2,000-year-old cemetery near the Nile River in Sudan say that among many artifacts, they found a box decorated with eyes likely thought...

Older Adults Think Better in the Morning
Older Adults Think Better
in the Morning
STUDY SAYS
Aug 12, 2014 2:40 PM CDT

Older Adults Think Better in the Morning

People 60 to 82 did best on cognitive tasks before 10:30am

(Newser) - Older adults who want to take a crack at the Sunday Times crossword or try a Food Network recipe may want to do it first thing in the morning. A small study by Canadian researchers and published in the journal Psychology and Aging found that adults between the ages of...

Newborns' Brains Grow 1% a Day

Rate slows down after initial burst in early weeks

(Newser) - The first study of its kind shows that newborns' brains grow fast—figure a staggering 1% a day immediately after birth, though it slows to about half that rate by the end of three months. Using MRI scans of 87 newborns' brains, researchers discovered that the first weeks of life...

Origami Robot Can Fold Itself, Slink Off

Harvard, MIT engineers invent device made out of paper, Shrinky Dinks

(Newser) - Inexpensive robots that assemble themselves are hard to find these days. But using the ancient art of Japanese origami and a classic children's product, engineers at Harvard and MIT have created such a 'bot. A team led by a Harvard grad student built the self-folding robot shown in...

Antidepressants Change Feelings of Love

Participants taking SSRIs felt less comfortable with shared thoughts, feelings

(Newser) - People who suffer from depression but are happily in love—perhaps an odd combination—may want to think twice about popping certain antidepressants, LiveScience reports. In a new study , researchers gave two kinds of antidepressants to 192 people who were depressed but in healthy relationships for at least seven months....

Ice Age Fossils Found in Wyoming Cave

Analysis of specimens underway, and some might date back 100K years

(Newser) - It's called the Natural Trap Cave for a reason: The 15-foot-wide hole in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming is all but impossible to see until it's too late, and animals have been falling to their deaths there for eons. But what was bad news for them is great...

5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a big and poisonous jellyfish

(Newser) - A pair of surprise discoveries, one in a museum basement and the other from a plane over the desert, highlight the week's list:
  • 6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement : An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally
...

Anti-Anxiety Drug Makes Fish Live Longer
Anti-Anxiety Drug
Makes Fish Live Longer 
STUDY SAYS
Aug 8, 2014 11:30 AM CDT

Anti-Anxiety Drug Makes Fish Live Longer

Human tranquilizer makes perch aggressive but also seems to increase longevity

(Newser) - On the one hand, fish exposed to the tranquilizer oxazepam when it seeps into their waters kind of become jerks, reports a study in Nature . On the other hand, this same drug, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety and insomnia in human adults, apparently helps them live longer, reports Nature...

Why Fake Smiling Is a Bad Idea

Trying to mask unhappiness might make you unhappier, study says

(Newser) - If you're subscribing to the old adage of "grin and bear it" to mask negative emotions, you're not doing yourself any favors—we're simply not that easily fooled. Researchers say that over time, fake smiling can actually cause people to associate smiling with feeling unhappy, and...

Hope for 'Butterfly' Kids Thanks to New Treatment

Their rare genetic disorder can cause severe blistering all over the body

(Newser) - When Elisa McCann was born 18 months ago, her parents knew something was wrong. Their third child had blisters everywhere on her body within her first day of life, and doctors quickly diagnosed a rare genetic disorder called epidermolysis bullosa (EB), reports Today . In kids with the condition, who are...

Giant New Jellyfish Has No Tentacles

Keesingia gigas has potentially deadly sting

(Newser) - A huge new species of jellyfish discovered off western Australia looks a bit like a plastic bag—but one that can deliver a potentially lethal sting. Keesingia gigas is as long as a human arm, though bizarrely, none of the specimens caught or photographed appear to have any tentacles, the...

6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement

It had been uncatalogued since 1930 expedition in modern-day Iraq

(Newser) - An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally has an ID: It's a 6,500-year-old man newly nicknamed Noah, reports Philly.com . Historians didn't figure it out until a project to digitize the museum’s collection revealed that...

Sandstorms Reveal Ancient Designs in Peru Desert

Pilot spots newly exposed Nazca lines

(Newser) - Sandstorms in Peru have revealed mysterious designs believed to have been etched into the desert thousands of years ago. The newly exposed geoglyphs, discovered last week by a pilot flying over the region, include a snake nearly 200 feet long as well as a bird and some llama-like creatures, reports...

Daily Aspirin Cuts Cancer Risk, but...
 Daily Aspirin 
 Cuts Cancer 
 Risk, but... 
study says
Aug 6, 2014 6:15 AM CDT

Daily Aspirin Cuts Cancer Risk, but...

Concerns remain about side effects, including bleeding

(Newser) - Researchers in Britain are trumpeting the benefits of taking aspirin daily following a new investigation that suggests it could cut the risk of certain cancers. Data from 200 studies indicates that bowel, esophageal, and stomach cancer cases and deaths could drop 30% to 40% if people took the drug every...

'Hobbit' Found Decade Ago Not New Species

The skull appears to belong to an individual with Down Syndrome

(Newser) - When a skull and several bone fragments were discovered in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004, one scientist called it "the most important find in human evolution for 100 years." The discoverers hailed it as a previously unknown and extinct human species, which they...

Mystery of China's Terracotta Army Solved

Scientists finally figure out what binding material was used

(Newser) - Every member of First Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Terracotta Army—thousands of replicas of Chinese imperial guards rendered in clay around 221 BC—is unique and incredibly realistic, which is why they've fascinated researchers since they were discovered in 1974. Now, scientists in China say they’ve peeled back...

Here's How We Quickly Judge Human Faces

Features lead to assumptions about character, study says

(Newser) - Have masculine or feminine features? A big smile? Characteristics like these, it seems, are central to our snap judgements of people's faces. Using a computer model, researchers have figured out how different features affect our first impressions, the BBC reports. The system is based on 1,000 pictures of...

Couples' Memories Become Intertwined

Their stories are more detailed when they work together: study

(Newser) - Couples may be able to remember together what the individual partners can't. Though studies have in the past suggested that collective recall doesn't work as well as individual, long-term relationships may provide an exception to the rule, io9 reports. In a new study, couples were in many cases...

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