discoveries

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

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Killer Finds: 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including mushroom-powered phones and the missing piece of an ancient poem

(Newser) - A long-awaited Mars announcement and some new lines to a very old story make the list:
  • Scientists Uncover Missing Piece to Ancient Poem : In 2011, a professor was examining 90 clay tablets for sale when he suddenly told the director of Iraq's Sulaymaniyah Museum to pony up the money
...

Stop &#39;Phubbing&#39; Your Significant Other

 Stop 'Phubbing' Your 
 Significant Other 
NEW STUDY
Oct 2, 2015 8:58 AM CDT

Stop 'Phubbing' Your Significant Other

'Phone snubbing' could be harming your love life: researchers

(Newser) - Cellphones may offer the ultimate communication convenience, but they could also be sabotaging our romantic relationships—via users who "phub" (phone snub) their partners, a new study finds. The study in the January 2016 issue of Computers in Human Behavior found that 46% of respondents reported feeling phubbed by...

App Allows Others to Rate You Like a Restaurant

And Peeple isn't sitting well with everyone

(Newser) - Your reputation may be about to get a lot more public. New app Peeple, launching in November, will let users 21 or older review basically anyone—friends, coworkers, exes, you name it—as long as they use their real name. You can't opt out and anyone with your cell...

Talking to a Shrink May Not Work as Well as You Think

Publication bias keeps out negative results in efficacy calculations: researchers

(Newser) - No one is denying that talking things out with a therapist can be helpful for those with depression. But, like antidepressants, psychotherapy's usefulness may be overstated, researchers say, per the New York Times —by as much as 25%, finds a study in PLOS One . "This doesn't...

Scientists Uncover Missing Piece to Ancient Poem

Offers new details of Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh

(Newser) - When a man arrived at Iraq's Sulaymaniyah Museum offering to sell 80 to 90 clay tablets in 2011, it was Farouk Al-Rawi's job to study them. The professor at SOAS, University of London, found a few fakes in the mix, but spent much of his time examining a...

Expert: Lost Photo Shows Jesse James and His Killer

Forensic artist Lois Gibson says she's 'positive it's Jesse James'

(Newser) - Few photos have been found of notorious outlaw Jesse James. Even fewer show James and his assassin Robert Ford—but one has apparently just been authenticated. Lois Gibson, a forensic artist with the Houston Police Department, says an undated tintype photo shared with her shows James seated next to Ford,...

How Portobello Mushrooms May Power Your Phone

Their porous structure is key

(Newser) - It isn't happening just yet, but a new scientific paper shows that it's possible, and perhaps even advantageous, to make batteries out of organic biological materials that have the added benefit of being cheap, environmentally friendly, and easy to produce, reports CNET . Engineers at the University of California,...

Doing Dishes Relieves Stress— If You Do It Right

Mindfulness can be achieved through the most mundane everyday activities

(Newser) - Washing the dishes can be a calming activity, and not just because it's repetitive. Reporting in the journal Mindfulness , Florida State University researchers say that those who do it mindfully (i.e., really smelling the soap, sensing the water temperature) enjoy increased feelings of inspiration and decreased nervousness. Not...

Painting Looted by Nazis Turns Up in Ohio Home

Portrait of a Young Man was returned to Poland last week

(Newser) - A nearly 300-year-old painting stolen from Poland's National Museum by the Nazis during WWII was found in July hanging in an Ohio family's home, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Krzysztof Lubieniecki's Portrait of a Young Man is believed to have been looted by Nazi troops—like 70% of...

Try This Sit-Stand Formula for Every 30 Minutes at Work

Is this the secret for keeping your desk job from killing you?

(Newser) - By now, it's been thoroughly reported that sitting too much at work can kill you, increasing your risk of everything from cancer to diabetes. But standing too much isn't any better, potentially leading to varicose veins, back problems, and more. Now, one ergonomics professor says he's figured...

IKEA Furniture Is Tricky for Robots, Too
 IKEA Furniture Is 
 Tricky for Robots, Too 
study says
Sep 30, 2015 12:36 PM CDT

IKEA Furniture Is Tricky for Robots, Too

But researchers are determined to get a robot to put together an entire chair

(Newser) - Most humans find IKEA furniture assembly infuriatingly difficult ... and it turns out robots aren't much better at the task. In a new study out of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, researchers find that "fine robotic assembly, in which the parts to be assembled are small and fragile...

Pulled From SC River: 3 Civil War Cannons

Archaeologists say they were dumped off Confederate warship in Pee Dee River

(Newser) - Over the past two decades, Bob Butler has dived down to the bottom of South Carolina's Pee Dee River and discovered not one (in 1995), not two (in 2006), but three (final one in 2013) Civil War-era cannons he says were dropped off a Confederate warship, the State reports....

Recent Grads Who Think Degree Was Worth It: Just 38%

But there is one thing that makes a big difference

(Newser) - Just 38% of recent college graduates (from 2006 on) "strongly agree" that their education was worth its price, a new Gallup-Purdue Index study finds, and 8% felt strongly that it wasn't worth it. The number rises to 50% for all college graduates (more than 30,000 total) who...

There's Arsenic in Your Red Wine

But levels aren't dangerous if considered alone

(Newser) - Red wine may help fight cancer , but it may also help bring about the disease if you don't watch your intake and diet. Scientists tested 65 US wines and found all but one contained arsenic in levels that exceed the 10 parts per billion permitted in drinking water, according...

Test Can Detect Every Virus to Afflict Humans, Animals

Even uncommon viruses and ones present in low levels: scientists

(Newser) - A new test developed by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis may prove an invaluable aid to doctors who can't figure out what's wrong with their patients. The test, described in a study in the Genome Research journal, is able to detect, all at...

Your Essence Is Rooted in Your Character, Not Intellect

Who we are may have more to do with what we stand for than what we know

(Newser) - In an attempt to begin to tackle the age-old question of what shapes one's identity, researchers at Duke and the University of Arizona surveyed the caregivers of those with different neurodegenerative diseases to see which ones seemed most likely to strip away the essence of a person. Reporting in...

Study Reveals Way to Get Kids to Eat Veggies

What they're paired with makes a big difference

(Newser) - Researchers from Texas A&M may have found an easier way to get kids to eat their vegetables than trying to convince them Spider-Man actually got his powers from green beans: Just pair veggies with other foods they don't like that much. The Washington Post reports nine out of...

This Trippy Creature Is World's First Glowing Turtle

It's the first known example of biofluorescence in reptiles

(Newser) - "I've been [studying turtles] for a long time, and I don't think anyone's ever seen this," sea turtle expert Alexander Gaos tells National Geographic . "This is really quite amazing." Gaos is referring to video footage showing a hawksbill sea turtle glowing neon red...

Radar to Join Hunt for Nefertiti's Tomb

Egypt OKs technology to scan King Tut's tomb for signs of missing queen's

(Newser) - The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry granted preliminary approval for non-invasive Japanese radar to verify a theory that Queen Nefertiti's crypt may be hidden behind King Tut's 3,300-year-old tomb. A security clearance for the radar's use will probably be obtained within a month, said ministry rep Mouchira Moussa,...

Polish Army Swoops In on Nazi 'Gold Train' Site

Explosives, radiation experts assessing site to rule out possible dangers

(Newser) - The world has been hearing about the Nazi gold train for weeks, and we may finally be getting closer to a confirmation or denial. The Polish army has converged upon the southwestern Poland site where the train could be located, with explosives, chemical, and radiation experts making sure there's...

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