10. The grunt work of metabolic processes is done by enzymes. These proteins act like crowd control, ensuring molecules reacting catabolically or anabolically are where they need to be.
11. The enzymes themselves are constantly losing stability and being replaced, which means metabolism is a product of … metabolism. Whoa.
12. Metabolic diseases, which are typically genetic, cause the body to produce one or more enzymes insufficiently or not at all. Metabolic syndrome (MetS), however, is a ...read more
Commercial overfishing damages fish populations, marine habitats and ecosystems — consequences that also affect people who depend on the ocean for food and work. So Google collaborated with nonprofits Oceana and SkyTruth to create Global Fishing Watch, an interactive map that, through both satellite and land-based tracking technology, gives a near real-time look at commercial fishing across the globe. The watchdog tool can show several layers of data, including current fishing activity (wh ...read more
The full text of this article is available to Discover Magazine subscribers only.
Subscribe and get 10 issues packed with:
The latest news, theories and developments in the world of science
Compelling stories and breakthroughs in health, medicine and the mind
Environmental issues and their relevance to daily life
Cutting-edge technology and its impact on our future
...read more
5&8: Young kids are pretty good at respecting authority, but new research claims that by just age 5, they’re already standing up to the man, as it were. And by age 8, they’re rooting for the underdog when they realize the balance of power is off.
34%: Speaking of power, a seven-year study of people in their 60s found that stressful, high-demand jobs can be good for you if you have control over your workflow: Those with high-demand, high-control jobs saw a 34 percent decrease in t ...read more
One woman was all that stood between thalidomide and America.
The president was beaming. The woman beside him — a brunette wearing proper gloves and hat — also smiled, shyly. She was tall, her dark hair lightly streaked with gray. This was the hero who saved the United States from the tragedy of thalidomide, a drug often prescribed to pregnant women that could result in serious birth defects such as short, flipper-like arms and legs. The year was 1962, and in a ceremony in the W ...read more
Retraction Watch reports on three scientific papers (1,2,3) that have been retracted or deleted after I reported that they were plagiarized.
Neuroskeptic became suspicious about the three unrelated papers – about food chemistry, heart disease, and the immune system and cancer – after scanning them with plagiarism software. After alerting the journals, two issued formal retractions for the papers – but neither specifies plagiarism as the reason.
These three retractions represe ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Brandies, such as cognac, are renowned for colors, flavors and aromas that require years to achieve. But scientists in Spain have used ultrasound could to cut the time needed for such spirits to mature down to days.
Brandies, stemming from the Dutch brandewijn, or “burned wine,” are powerful alcoholic spirits distilled from wines or other fermented fruit juices. One brandy connoisseur of note, the poet Samuel Johnson, noted that “claret is the ...read more
(Credit: jannoon028/Shutterstock)
Political polls may have taken a beating in the last presidential election, but we shouldn’t count them out quite yet.
After President Donald Trump, who was predicted to lose the election by a wide margin, emerged victorious from the 2016 presidential race, stories about polls were thrown into the “fake news” shredder. Although the fault may have lain with how we interpret them, polls lost a significant amount of hard-earned trust in the eyes ...read more
