science

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What Astronaut Scott Kelly Will Do as Soon as He Lands

His record-breaking trip was amazing

(Newser) - Scott Kelly has been hurtling through the cosmos on the International Space Station for nearly a year (340 days to be exact—a record), but on Tuesday, the NASA astronaut and his partner, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, will finally head home. ScienceAlert has the emotional video of Kelly handing the...

Scientists: There May Be a Giant 9th Planet Past Pluto

Sorry, Pluto—'Planet 9' may be more of a 'massive perturber' than you

(Newser) - Pluto is gonna be PO'd. While the dwarf planet tries to fight its way back into the good graces of Those Who Deem What Counts as a Planet, another icy orb even further out may snatch that designation first. Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology say a giant...

Science Students Have Bad News for Cinderella, Superman

Physics don't support either of them, apparently

(Newser) - Sorry Cinderella, you never would have married the handsome Prince. And Superman? Bringing Lois Lane back from the dead would have destroyed all life on Earth. These are among the hard-bitten conclusions students reached in an online physics journal—and not only because writing about imaginary characters is fun, National ...

Soak Up Sunlight: It's the Year's Shortest Day

The winter solstice is here

(Newser) - Mondays always feel longer, but that's not the only reason today may be dragging. Yes, it's the winter solstice, meaning Northern Hemisphere residents will be tilted as far from the sun as they will be all year—so it's also the shortest day and the longest night,...

A Sophomoric Prank Lurks on the Periodic Table

Check out the abbreviation for plutonium

(Newser) - There’s nothing funny about plutonium. After all, it’s the stuff that makes nuclear weapons go boom. Nonetheless, the man credited with discovering the element named for the dwarf planet Pluto did manage to use the occasion to sneak a little levity onto the periodic table of elements, National ...

Scientists Test Best Cheese for Grilled Cheese Sandwich

It's all about how casein proteins clump together when cheese melts

(Newser) - Looking for the perfect cheese for the ultimately gooey, perfectly melted grilled cheese sandwich? Good news: Scientists with the American Chemical Society have put out a three-minute video from the society's "Reactions" series on YouTube all about that very subject. And the winners are ... gouda, gruyére, or...

Scientists Create Artificial Skin That Mimics Human Touch

It could be big news for people with prosthetic limbs

(Newser) - Pretty soon, you won't be able to hide your limp handshake from someone with a prosthetic arm. At least that's the hope of the team of researchers at Stanford University who developed artificial skin that can sense touch. Engadget describes the team's invention—published Thursday in Science...

Pee Theory, Stung Penis Win Ig Nobel Prizes

'Huh?' you may ask, in every language

(Newser) - If you're willing to let a bee sting every part of your body in the name of science, you may have what it takes to win an Ig Nobel Prize. The annual awards ceremony for "improbable research" was held last night, the BBC reports, and a Cornell University...

Americans Have Big Gaps in Their Knowledge of Science

Only 6% got all 12 questions right in basic quiz

(Newser) - Most Americans have a good grasp of some areas of scientific knowledge but are relatively clueless on others, according to Pew Research Center analysis based on a quiz that you may wish to try out here before reading on—and if you get a perfect score, congratulate yourself on being...

STEM Shocker: Intel Drops Science Contest

Company has been supporter of prestigious high school competition since 1998

(Newser) - "Wanted: Respected corporation with deep pockets and deep roots in the STEM arena to take over prestigious science and math competition." That's basically the ad the Society for Science and the Public now has to place to replace Intel, which has announced it will no longer sponsor...

Here's What Caused Earth's First Mass Extinction

Let's see what happened to the docile Ediacarans

(Newser) - Biologists have long debated how the planet's first mass extinction took place 540 million years ago. Was it a huge meteorite or terrifying volcanic eruption, typical of Earth's other mass extinctions? Nope, per a recent paper that says it offers the first "critical test" of the theory...

Whistled Language Brings Surprising Brain Discovery

People must use both sides of their brain to understand it, a first

(Newser) - The rapidly disappearing "bird language" that is spoken—or whistled, actually—by about 10,000 residents in the mountains of Turkey is changing the way scientists think about language and the brain. The left hemisphere has always been dominant when interpreting language, be it spoken, written, signed, or even...

World's '1st Flower' Dates Back 130M Years

The oldest known flowering plant, found in Spain, was aquatic

(Newser) - The world's oldest known flower dating back 130 million years is an aquatic species called Montsechia found fossilized in limestone deposits in Spain. But it wouldn't necessarily be recognized as a flower today, given it didn't boast petals or nectar-producing structures. "The fruit contains a single...

Pope Blamed Jews for Medieval Quake That Moved River

Magnitude-5.8 quake put Po River where it is today

(Newser) - When an earthquake struck Italy in 1570, Pope Pius V blamed the destruction on God's supposed wrath against the Jews. Less predictably, the quake also shifted the course of Italy's longest river by 25 miles. The magnitude-5.8 quake struck near the northern city of Ferrara in 1570,...

Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia
study says
Aug 16, 2015 7:54 AM CDT

Modern Malady May Be Behind Rise in Dementia

Researchers in new study think pollution and pesticides play a role

(Newser) - Could pollution be to blame for why dementia is killing more people and being diagnosed earlier than ever? That's the theory being floated by researchers involved in a study of patients in 21 countries from 1989 to 2010. The Smithsonian reports that while dementia is typically associated with people...

Scurvy: Horrific as It Was Deadly for Sailors

The 'plague of the sea' was not a pleasant way to go

(Newser) - A ship's chaplain in the 1740s wrote of sailors' gums that would grow out of control until they protruded from the mouth and rotted away, leaving a horrific case of bad breath, the BBC reports. So it turns out that not only was scurvy once incredibly dangerous, it was...

Earth's Prime Meridian Is Now Mostly Marked by a Trash Can

Science explains how the important longitudinal line moved 334 feet

(Newser) - Don't tell the swarms of tourists paying nearly $15 to pose with one leg on either side of the prime meridian at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, but Earth's true prime meridian actually passes through a park approximately 334 feet to the east near a trash can....

Scientists Discover Venomous Frogs— the Hard Way

One gram of frog's venom is enough to kill 80 humans

(Newser) - Miss Piggy's split with Kermit wasn't the only painful frog-related news this week. Researchers have released their findings on the world's first known venomous frogs, whose abilities were only discovered when one of them stung a researcher's hand, leaving him with what a colleague calls...

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...

'Mystery Shipwreck' Spotted Off US Coast

Scientists stumble on wreck in deep Atlantic waters

(Newser) - A newly discovered shipwreck off the North Carolina coast may show first-hand how Americans conducted business before the Civil War, the Washington Post reports. Marine scientists who stumbled on the find say it includes glass bottles, red bricks, ship timbers, a metal compass, an unglazed pottery jug, and an iron...

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