discoveries

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

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5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Including a potential answer to a black-hole riddle

(Newser) - Support for the single life and and (possibly) for Jesus' supposed wife make the list:
  • A Black Hole Conundrum Solved? "If you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." So says Stephen Hawking in claiming to have resolved the
...

Polio Virus Lingered in Man's Gut for Decades

And that's bad news for children of anti-vaxxers and the developing world

(Newser) - For nearly his entire life, a 29-year-old man living in the United Kingdom has had the polio virus living in his gut—where the strain has mutated from the weakened form he received in a vaccine as an infant to a much more virulent strain, according to a study published...

4 Years Later, Mystery of Knut's Death Solved

And the discovery could end up saving humans

(Newser) - The sudden death four years ago of Knut, the celebrity polar bear, shocked his fans around the world and posed a riddle for veterinarians. The 4-year-old bear died in March 2011 after suffering an apparent seizure and collapsing into his enclosure's pool in front of hundreds of visitors at...

Hubble Spots 'Butterfly' 2K Light-Years Away

It's also known as the Twin Jet Nebula, and it's pretty

(Newser) - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a space butterfly? That's essentially what the Hubble Space Telescope has captured in a new image of the Twin Jet Nebula, a shimmering planetary nebula that strongly resembles a winged insect, reports CNET . What you're actually seeing in...

Polish Officials: Nazi-Train Hunters Found 'Something'

Walbrzych officials say a military train has been found

(Newser) - Polish officials say a military train has been discovered in Walbrzych, but it's not yet clear if it's the famed Nazi gold train rumored to have vanished in southwest Poland in 1945. Walbrzych "is full of mysterious stories because of its history," says Zygmunt Nowaczyk, the...

Some People Are Born Without a 'Mind's Eye'

Aphantasia impairs one's ability to visualize

(Newser) - When science journalist Carl Zimmer wrote a 2010 article in Discover magazine about English neurologist Adam Zeman's case study of a man who couldn't visualize people or things, the professor was approached by 21 people who saw themselves in the article and wanted to learn more. Now Zeman...

What the Dust in Your House Says About You

Our dust contains, on average, 9K unique species of microbes

(Newser) - Last year, volunteers mailed in dust samples taken from above interior and exterior door frames in 1,200 homes across the US as part of a citizen science project called Wild Life of Our Homes . Now, scientists are reporting in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that our...

It's OK If Your Surgeon Is Short on Sleep

It makes no difference at all to complications rate, study says

(Newser) - Given the choice between a well-rested surgeon and one who's been up half the night, nobody in their right mind would choose the latter, but a new study says it doesn't seem to make any difference at all to their performance. Researchers looked at almost 40,000 patients...

Study: This Is the Kind of Man Who Murders His Partner

There are striking similarities among these convicts

(Newser) - The kind of man who kills his wife or family fits a pattern, and this new understanding of who commits this kind of murder could help prevent them from happening in the first place. So report Northwestern University researchers in the Journal of Forensic Sciences after interviewing and evaluating 153...

Hawking: 'Black Holes Ain't as Black as Painted'

Physicist claims to have solved the information paradox

(Newser) - "If you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out." So says Stephen Hawking in claiming to have resolved the so-called information paradox—the seemingly irreconcilable problem of two well-accepted tenets involving black holes. Quantum mechanics dictates that the information...

Scientists Discover Incredible Coral Reef

In Australia, it rivals that nation's Great Barrier Reef

(Newser) - Australia already has at least one of the natural wonders of the world in the Great Barrier Reef, but it may have just added another one more than 300 feet under the sea on the other side of the continent, Mashable reports. According to a Parks Victoria announcement yesterday, scientists...

Here's One Possible Way to ID a Psycho

Study finds those who have less empathy are less likely to 'catch' a yawn

(Newser) - A human behavior that's often contagious may provide a simple clue to whether a person is a psychopath, researchers from Baylor University have discovered, per Smithsonian . A study published in the Personality and Individual Differences journal finds that individuals with psychopathic traits—including coldheartedness, self-centered impulsivity, and "fearless...

Here&#39;s Where Single Women Outnumber Single Men
Here's Where Single Women Outnumber Single Men
and vice versa

Here's Where Single Women Outnumber Single Men

And vice versa

(Newser) - If you're a man looking for a lady, consider moving to Kershaw, Richland (South), and Calhoun counties in South Carolina, where there are 7.6 single women for every single man in the 30-39 demographic. Time went through 2011-2013 Census data to determine the ratio of unmarried ladies to...

Yes, There Is Such a Thing as a Good Cry

Crying boosts a person's mood after 90 minutes: study

(Newser) - Feeling gloomy? Shed a few tears, then wait 90 minutes, and you'll probably be in a better mood. That's the word from researchers involved in a new study out of the Netherlands that suggests crying actually boosts a person's mood, but not immediately. Scientists asked 60 participants...

'Gospel of Jesus' Wife' Mystery Has New Twist

The answer may lie in the ink

(Newser) - Since Harvard University professor Karen King first reported in 2012 her discovery of what appears to be an ancient papyrus in which Jesus is suggested to have a wife, the authenticity of the so-called "Gospel of Jesus' Wife" has been the subject of much claim and counterclaim . Even the...

Workers Removing Debris Find 18th-Century Shipwreck

Maryland wreckage appears to be a 45-foot cargo ship fastened with wooden pegs

(Newser) - A maintenance crew removing debris from under the US 50 Bridge over the Nanticoke River in Maryland last spring thought they might have hit on something special when they saw wood that looked like ship timbers. They were certainly right: Archaeologists are now confirming that it isn't just a...

Stare Into a Person's Eyes and Weird Things Will Happen

Researcher Giovanni Caputo had 20 people do the long stare

(Newser) - Want to experience LSD-like hallucinations without actually having to ingest any drugs? Try staring into someone's eyes in a dimly lit room for 10 minutes. It worked for Jenni Avins, who sat down a colleague in a supply closet, stared into her eyes, and saw her facial contours replaced...

20% of US Cancer Cases Are '2nd' Cancers

And not a recurrence or spread of an original tumor—a brand-new form of cancer

(Newser) - Second cancers are on the rise, with nearly one in five new cancer cases in the US now involving someone who's had the disease before—but when doctors talk about second cancers, they mean a different tissue type or a different site, not a recurrence or spread of the...

Mysterious Blue Clouds May Portend Disaster

Noctilucent clouds are forming in unlikely conditions

(Newser) - Like scientific mysteries? Then consider the electric-blue clouds that are becoming more common and appearing in unexpected parts of the world, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Called "noctilucent clouds" or "night-shining clouds," they were first reported above polar regions in 1885 and have appeared every summer since,...

29% of Young Americans Are Some Degree of Bisexual

British youths are even more fluid with their sexuality

(Newser) - Gay, straight, or in between? When asked to place themselves on a sexuality scale, almost a third of young Americans—and nearly half of their British counterparts—consider themselves some degree of bisexual, reports polling website YouGov , which states the results indicate an "increasingly open-minded approach to sexuality."...

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