The world of wine is complex. But there are a few simple things you can do to up your skills. (Credit: nd3000/Shutterstock) Only 256 people in the world can call themselves Master Sommeliers: experts at tasting, describing and selling wine. They’re so rare because each sip of wine is a perceptual puzzle: Over 25 different taste and smell variables (sweetness, acidity, texture, finish, etc.) define each wine. But you don’t have to be a super-taster or super-smeller to become a ...read more

One Polish town has seen an unlikely string of female births stretching for nearly a decade. (Credit: Omar Lopez/Unsplash) The tiny Polish village of Miejsce Odrzanskie has become the unlikely source of international media attention over the past fortnight as a result of what the New York Times called “a strange population anomaly”. It has now been almost a decade since the last boy was born in this place, with the most recent 12 babies all having been girls. The mayor of the r ...read more

I was 14 years old when I first saw Saturn through a telescope, its rings glowing a vibrant yellow-orange. In that moment, the seemingly two-dimensional landscape of Earth’s surface was irreversibly transformed. From then on, I was hooked on the night sky. I was no longer just a kid from suburban Ohio, I was a resident of a vast cosmos waiting to be explored. Who knew that you could just walk into a backyard and look up, with a modest telescope, and unlock the secrets of the universe? ...read more

The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875-1961) was one of the best-known psychologists of the 20th century. He introduced such famous concepts as introverted and extraverted personalities, and the idea of the psychological 'complex'. Today, Jungian or analytical psychology retains an active community. But a recently published Open Letter from a number of prominent Jungians points to troubles within the fold. The letter acknowledges that Jung's writings contained racism, and apologizes for ...read more

Beta Pictoris c, the large planet in the foreground of this artist’s concept, orbits the star Beta Pictoris much more closely than Beta Pictoris b, which is a similarly massive planet located farther out in the system. (Credit: P. Rubini/A.M. Lagrange) The Beta Pictoris system swirls with activity — a dusty disk of debris, comets falling toward the central star, and at least one giant planet. And now, astronomers have uncovered evidence for yet another planetary Goliath, some nine ...read more

(Credit: Shutterstock) The roots of mental illness are still a mystery. But researchers think our mental health is shaped by a combination of factors, like genetics, our developmental environment and our life experiences. But there’s one factor that scientists say may have gone unnoticed. It appears that where we live, and how polluted it is, can increase our likelihood of developing a mental illness. That's according to a new large-scale population study published in PLOS Bi ...read more

Medications for better sleep are ubiquitous. But they're no cure-all. (Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock) The importance of a good night’s rest cannot be overstated. Poor sleep is linked to all-cause mortality, which means getting too little or too much sleep are “significant predictors of death,” according to a 2010 meta-analysis study. But good sleep is increasingly a privilege, as stress, workloads and the trappings of a modern lifestyle squeeze out valuable shut- ...read more

(Credit: Olena Yakobchuk/Shutterstock) If you've ever wondered how likely you are to die in the next five to 10 years, scientists may now have an answer for you. Researchers identified 14 molecules in blood that are associated with dying from any cause. They say a score based on the molecules can predict one’s risk of death. But the ominous foretelling is not all bad. Scientists say it may encourage lifestyle interventions and help with treatment decisions. “The association of ...read more

Skeleton Lake, formally known as Roopkund Lake, sits at more than 16,000 feet above sea levels in the Himalayas. (Credit: Atish Waghwase) At the mysterious Skeleton Lake in northern India, the dead are talking, revealing surprises through centuries-old DNA. And it's not what anyone expected. New research suggests the site is not the scene of a single natural disaster that killed hundreds, as once thought. Skeleton Lake's emerging truth is far more mysterious. The human bones littering its ...read more

A warm bath before bed can help you get to sleep, research shows. (Credit: MyImages - Micha/Shutterstock) About 30 percent of Americans have trouble sleeping. Shahab Haghayegh, a University of Texas biomedical engineer, was one of them. Sleep eluded him. “I always had a hard time fall[ing] asleep,” he told Discover via email.  Over the counter medications like the hormone melatonin and Unisom, a sedating anti-histamine, can help people get to sleep. But the medicines aren& ...read more