discoveries

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

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Scientists Unravel a Famous Painting&#39;s Magic
Scientists Unravel
a Famous Painting's Magic
in case you missed it
Oct 13, 2024 3:55 PM CDT

Scientists Unravel a Famous Painting's Magic

Brains of viewers of 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' light up as eyes bounce between focal points

(Newser) - Neuroscientists may have figured out why some viewers of Johannes Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring" become so entranced upon seeing it—especially the original. In their study, researchers had volunteers look at five paintings, as well as reproductions of the same paintings, while wearing contraptions that mapped...

Scientists: Brain Has Built-In Waste Removal System

Cleaning process could get rid of cellular trash that can build up, lead to dementia

(Newser) - A unique peek inside the human brain may help explain how it clears away waste like the kind that can build up and lead to Alzheimer's disease. Brain cells use a lot of nutrients, which means they make a lot of waste. Scientists have long thought the brain has...

Real Explanation of &#39;Longevity&#39; Is Often a Letdown
Real Explanation of 'Longevity'
Is Often a Letdown
new study
Oct 12, 2024 10:00 AM CDT

Real Explanation of 'Longevity' Is Often a Letdown

Researcher chalks it up to mistaken records or simple lying

(Newser) - Certain regions of the world are known as "blue zones" because of their long-lived inhabitants. Is it the diet? The climate? The good vibes? Turns out, it might simply be lousy record-keeping or outright fraud, reports NPR . The story cites the work of Saul Justin Newman, a research fellow...

Breakdancer Developed &#39;Cone Head&#39; After Years on the Mat
Breakdancers' Odd
Risk: a 'Cone Head'
CASE STUDY
Oct 11, 2024 10:05 AM CDT

Breakdancers' Odd Risk: a 'Cone Head'

Researchers say Danish man's 20 years of breakdancing gave him one

(Newser) - The Paris 2024 Olympics allowed breaking —or breakdancing, as the oldsters used to call it—making it a joyful international competition. But Danish researchers have released a case study of a longtime fan of the street dance who developed an odd injury after years of head spins. The new...

Scientists Say They've Invented a Better Suture

Material generates an electric field when stretched

(Newser) - Scientists say a new kind of surgical stitch they have developed is as strong as traditional stitches and turns one downside of sutures into a plus. Too much movement can be a problem with ordinary stitches, but the sutures developed by a team of researchers in China generate an electric...

This Ancient Giant Bug Grew to 8 or 9 Feet

Scientists use fossils, CT scans to re-create head of Arthropleura insect

(Newser) - As if the largest bug to ever live—a monster nearly 9 feet long with several dozen legs—wasn't terrifying enough, scientists could only just imagine what the extinct beast's head looked like. That's because many of the fossils of these creatures are headless shells that were...

Lung Cancer Patients Benefit From &#39;Golden Age&#39; of Research
On Lung Cancer Front,
an 'Amazing' Development
NEW STUDY
Oct 8, 2024 3:14 PM CDT

On Lung Cancer Front, an 'Amazing' Development

Drug combination found to bring longer control to patients with EGFR mutation

(Newser) - Lung cancer kills 1.8 million people every year, making it the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. With advances in precision medicine, however, doctors are helping prevent even more deaths, including with a drug combination just approved by the FDA in August. The results of a phase 3 trial...

From One Ancient Seed, a Biblical Plant Has Sprung
From One Ancient
Seed, a Biblical
Plant Has Sprung
NEW STUDY
Oct 8, 2024 12:43 PM CDT

From One Ancient Seed, a Biblical Plant Has Sprung

Scientists say the plant that sprouted may have had a medicinal purpose in long-ago times

(Newser) - A seed unearthed in the '80s in a cave in Israel's Judean Desert has produced a tree that scientists say hails from biblical times—and that could boast medicinal powers mentioned in the Good Book itself.
  • The planting: According to research published last month in the Communications Biology
...

US Navy's 'Ghost Ship of the Pacific' Is Found

USS Stewart was deliberately sunk off California in 1946, ending a 'globe-spanning odyssey'

(Newser) - The only US Navy destroyer captured by Japanese forces during World War II has been found in a deep, watery grave off the coast of California. The USS Stewart was stationed in Manila in 1941 to help repel Japanese attacks after the one on Pearl Harbor. But after it was...

At Bottom of Lake Michigan: Dozens of Massive Craters

Researchers say they'll be exploring the possible sinkholes 'for years to come'

(Newser) - NOAA researchers were conducting a sonar survey of the lakebed in the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary (WSCNMS) in 2022 when they noticed strange, circular blobs. Around the same time, shipwreck hunter Brendon Baillod spotted dozens of "irregular shapes" at the bottom of Lake Michigan some 14 miles...

Hurricane Helene Deaths Won&#39;t Stop for 15 Years
Hurricane Helene Deaths
Won't Stop for 15 Years
new study
Oct 2, 2024 12:15 PM CDT

Hurricane Helene Deaths Won't Stop for 15 Years

Study finds a staggering number of excess deaths happen in years after a tropical cyclone

(Newser) - Hurricane Helene's death toll has been rising for a week. It won't fully stop for 15 years, or so suggests a study published Wednesday in Nature . The New York Times describes the findings as so staggering to the researchers that they spent years checking their math. What they...

Scientists Unravel Why Everest Keeps Growing
Scientists Unravel Why
Everest Keeps Growing
new study
Sep 30, 2024 1:50 PM CDT

Scientists Unravel Why Everest Keeps Growing

The merging of two ancient rivers set off an ecological chain reaction, study says

(Newser) - Scientists and those adept at trivia contests can tell you that Mount Everest stands at 29,032 feet. Give it enough time, however, and that answer will tick higher, and a new study in Nature Geoscience sheds new insight into why, reports the Guardian . It has to do with the...

Want to Slow Down the Aging Process? Take a Trip
Odd Bonus of Travel:
It May Slow Aging
NEW STUDY
Sep 30, 2024 4:00 AM CDT

Odd Bonus of Travel: It May Slow Aging

Study suggests positive travel experiences put the brakes on physical entropy

(Newser) - An unexpected perk of travel? It may also involve a side trip to the fountain of youth. That's what a new theoretical study out of Australia's Edith Cowan University published in the Journal of Travel Research suggests. Per the Washington Post , the study sought to see what effects...

Researchers 'Surprised' at 'Period Poverty' Among Youth

New study: 1/3 of teens, young adults can't access tampons, pads, other menstrual products

(Newser) - The Parents portal recently called it "the one back-to-school item teens shouldn't have to buy"—and while many agree that kids should have easy access to period products (think tampons, maxi pads, menstrual cups, etc.), a significant number of them don't. Citing new research from...

What Scientists Learned From 3.6K-Year-Old Cheese
World's Oldest Cheese
Has Secrets to Tell
NEW STUDY
Sep 26, 2024 11:27 AM CDT

World's Oldest Cheese Has Secrets to Tell

Analysis of 3.6K-year-old cheese reveals spread of kefir bacteria from China's Xinjiang region

(Newser) - In the 1990s, archaeologists peered into the graves of 3,600-year-old mummies in a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region and found a strange substance smeared on their heads and necks. It turned out to be the oldest cheese ever found, and it's taught researchers quite a bit...

Franklin Expedition Captain Was Eaten by the Crew
Franklin Expedition Captain
Was Eaten by the Crew
NEW STUDY
Sep 25, 2024 11:35 AM CDT

Franklin Expedition Captain Was Eaten by the Crew

Jawbone traced to James Fitzjames shows cut marks indicating cannibalism

(Newser) - James Fitzjames, captain of the HMS Erebus, penned the last known message from Sir John Franklin's doomed expedition to the Northwest Passage. The June 1847 note told of the polar explorer's death, bringing the number of dead to 24. The remaining 105 sailors—forced to abandon Franklin's...

Years Before Physics Theory Emerged, Van Gogh Painted It
Modern-Day Physicists Marvel
at Van Gogh's Eye
new study
Sep 23, 2024 10:15 AM CDT

Modern-Day Physicists Marvel at Van Gogh's Eye

The Starry Night accurately depicts the flow of energy

(Newser) - In the 1940s, a Russian mathematician named Andrey Kolmogorov laid out an important law of fluid dynamics that explains how energy moves through air and water, per Smithsonian Magazine . But if "Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence" sounds a little dense, you could instead cast a glance at Vincent Van...

That Dog Walk Could Send You to the ER

Injuries on such strolls have been on the rise over the past 2 decades, for kids and adults

(Newser) - The cuddles. The loyalty. The worshipful eyes. There's a lot of joy in having a dog, not the least of which is heading out for a brisk walk—and therein lies a peril some dog people should pay more attention to. Over the past 20 years, injuries related to...

Do Your Kids Glare at Their Plate? It May Be in the Genes

Researchers say picky eaters may be more nature than nurture

(Newser) - Have a fussy young eater at home, or know someone who does? Many parents will vouch that their own kids are similarly finicky when mealtime rolls around, and now new research suggests that pickiness may be genetic—meaning refusing to consume one's broccoli or glass of milk may be...

Black Hole Jets Shoot Plasma for 23M Light-Years

Porphyrion jets are the longest ever seen

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a record-breaking pair of jets streaming from a black hole in a distant galaxy. The jets shooting hot plasma are the largest ever spotted—about as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined up end-to-end, the AP reports. The discovery, made using images from a European radio...

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