Science from Newser

Some of Earth's Oldest Water Found

Kate Seamons — Sun, 19 May 2013 08:02:35 CDT

"Old" might not top the list of the adjectives you'd use to describe water, but that could very well change after reading this story: Scientists say they've found water whose age clocks in at no less than 1.5 billion years, making it the oldest cache to have ever been...

Student Hit by Flesh-Eating Bacteria Gets Bionic Hands

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:23:37 CDT

A Georgia woman who lost both hands, her left leg, and her right foot after contracting a flesh-eating disease has been fitted with prosthetic hands. Aimee Copeland, 25, has been fitted with a pair of hands with 24 programmable functions that will improve her dexterity. She got the "i-limbs" from...

Moon Smash Could Be Seen From Earth

John Johnson — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:23:32 CDT

If you happened to be glancing skyward the night of March 17 and noticed a bright flash on the moon, NASA has your explanation: A meteor slammed into it, reports National Geographic . A 90-pound rock hit the moon at 56,000mph, creating an explosion 10 times brighter than any previously...

Bad at Math? Consider a Zap to the Brain

Evann Gastaldo — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:45:35 CDT

Terrible at math? No worries, it's nothing that a little electrical stimulation can't help. Researchers from the UK and Austria found that transcranial random noise stimulation ( Popular Science describes it as "a painless zap to the brain") helped subjects to learn arithmetic more quickly—and they retained their edge...

New in Factory Farming: Exploding Poop Foam

Arden Dier — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:52:20 CDT

The latest thing out of industrial agriculture isn't too appetizing: Burbling up from the manure pits beneath factory hog farms is an oozing substance that's charmingly being dubbed "poop foam"—and it's un-charmingly explosive, reports Mother Jones . The ooze is wreaking havoc on large hog farms, trapping the toxic gases...

Planet-Hunting Kepler Craft Has Big Setback

John Johnson — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:45:05 CDT

It seems like NASA is announcing the discovery of a new Earth-like planet every few weeks—like so , and so , and so —but those days might be over for a long while. Not that there aren't more discoveries to make, it's just that the spacecraft responsible for them has a...

Human Stem Cells Made From Cloned Embryos

John Johnson — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:29:03 CDT

Scientists have made a long-sought—and controversial—breakthrough: They created stem cells from cloned human embryos for the first time, reports AP . In theory, the development by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University means that doctors might someday be able to grow tissue from an ailing patient's own DNA,...

How to Measure Success of Arab Revolution: Leopards

John Johnson — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:55:06 CDT

Need a tangible way to gauge the success of the Arab Revolution in coming years? Thomas Friedman suggests keeping an eye on the Arabian leopard. He's visiting Yemen, where the government is trying to protect the fast-disappearing cat. "If you visit Yemen in five years and hear that the Arabian...

Lost 'White City' May Lie Hidden in Rainforest

John Johnson — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:03:33 CDT

A little of bit of high tech may have found what 16th-century conquistadors could not: the legendary Ciudad Blanca, or White City, of Honduras. Archeologists think they've spotted the ruins of some kind of metropolis hidden by the Mosquitia rainforests, reports LiveScience . They won't know for sure until they start...