discoveries

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

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

He Was Thrown in a Well 800 Years Ago. Now He's Out

Medieval text logged his fate, and scientists think they've identified his remains in Norway

(Newser) - An ancient Norse text retelling the raid on a castle makes a passing reference to someone who didn't live to tell the tale: "They cast a dead man into a well, and then filled it up with stones," reads the 800-year-old Sveriss Saga. Now, scientists say they...

Researchers Find Ancient Surprise About Carbs
Researchers
Find Ancient
Surprise
About Carbs
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 26, 2024 6:00 AM CDT

Researchers Find Ancient Surprise About Carbs

Our ability to digest them predates agriculture, may have played a role in bigger brains

(Newser) - Our love of carbs goes so far back that it predates the first humans, a new study suggests. What's more, our ability to digest carbohydrates—as opposed to the protein in meat—may have played a more important role than thought in the development of bigger brains, reports CNN...

In Mountains Along Silk Road, 'an Amazing Treasure Trove'

Lost high-altitude cities suggest medieval trade routes were more complicated than we knew

(Newser) - An archaeologist says "the history of Central Asia is now changing" with the discovery of two lost medieval cities, some three miles apart, in the mountains along the Silk Road, per the BBC . The Silk Road was a series of trade networks stretching from China to Venice, through which...

Former Nvidia Worker Makes Big Mathematical Find

Luke Durant says search for largest prime number shows GPUs can be used for more than AI

(Newser) - A researcher who used to work as a programmer for Nvidia has found the largest known prime number—and if he printed it out, it would be as long as 26 Bibles. The number—2 to the 136,279,841st power minus 1—contains 41,024,320 decimal digits, beating...

Ancient Meteorite Was a &#39;Fertilizer Bomb&#39;
Ancient Meteorite
Was a 'Fertilizer Bomb'
NEW STUDY
Oct 22, 2024 8:34 PM CDT

Ancient Meteorite Was a 'Fertilizer Bomb'

Researchers believe meteorite 3.26B years ago aided development of early life

(Newser) - The meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs was an insignificant chunk of rock compared to a monster that slammed into the Earth billions of years earlier, creating enough heat to boil off the top layer of the oceans, researchers say. The meteorite, known as S2, was up to 200 times...

Giant Fish Thought to Be Extinct Has Been Rediscovered

'Symbol of the Mekong region' has been spotted three times in the last few years

(Newser) - A huge fish in the Mekong River once thought to be extinct has been spotted three times in recent years. "The giant salmon carp is like a symbol of the Mekong region," says Chheana Chhut, a researcher at the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Phnom Penh,...

Metal Detector Went Crazy, Found 2.5K Ancient Coins

And the stash is now worth $5.58M

(Newser) - Adam Staples knew he'd found something when his metal detector let out a beep. Soon "it was just 'beep beep, beep beep, beep beep,'" he recalls. In a farmer's field in southwest England, Staples and six friends had found a hoard of more than...

Answer to Our Lithium Demand May Lie in Arkansas
Answer to Our
Lithium Demand
May Lie in Arkansas
NEW STUDY
Oct 22, 2024 10:10 AM CDT

Answer to Our Lithium Demand May Lie in Arkansas

New research shows the state could have up to 19M tons buried in Smackover Formation area

(Newser) - The International Energy Agency has predicted that demand for lithium could grow by 40 times by 2040, and one US state in particular may be the solution to that demand. Researchers say that Arkansas could have between 5 million and 19 million tons of the chemical element, used in batteries...

Potential Depression Remedy: Brain Stimulation at Home

Study suggests patients can wear device to deliver a weak current

(Newser) - A new study suggests that people suffering from a bout of clinical depression might someday don a headset and administer a light electrical current to their brain to ease symptoms. Researchers say a clinical trial involving more than 170 people in the US and UK showed promise toward that end,...

Untouched Tomb to Tell Secrets of Mysterious Petra
At Petra, 'a Discovery of
Historic Proportions'
in case you missed it
Oct 19, 2024 6:00 AM CDT

At Petra, 'a Discovery of Historic Proportions'

Untouched tomb containing 12 skeletons could reveal secrets of the ancient site

(Newser) - One of the Seven Wonders of the World is still giving up its secrets. In what's being called "a discovery of historic proportions," researchers working around the Treasury monument in Petra, Jordan, have unearthed a tomb containing a dozen skeletons, apparently undisturbed for the past 2,000...

Viking Burial Ground Yields Clues to 10th Century

More than 50 skeletons in Denmark are incredibly well-preserved

(Newser) - In a village in central Denmark, archeologists made a landmark discovery that could hold important clues to the Viking era: a burial ground, containing some 50 skeletons. "This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved," says archeologist...

A Big First: Communication Through Dreams

REMspace suggests people could accomplish real-life tasks, like starting a kettle, while asleep

(Newser) - A California-based sleep research startup believes the next groundbreaking advancement for humanity will be in accomplishing real-life tasks while asleep. And as it works toward that goal, REMspace is heralding a remarkable achievement: the first communication between two dreaming people, per Interesting Engineering . On Sept. 24, researchers observed two sleeping...

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
...

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