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
About twice each century, a star in our galaxy explodes in a supernova. Only a few of those explosions happen close enough to Earth to be visible with the naked eye. By comparing ancient observations with today’s spacecraft data on supernova remains, scientists hope to nail down when those stars exploded. Here’s a look at eight supernovas that caught earthlings’ attention throughout history. RCW 86 (A.D. 185): Chinese and possibly Roman astronomers recorded a strange new star i ...read more
Sites of ancient conflicts reignite a debate over when members of our species first took up arms against each other. The skull, though weathered from millennia of brutal heat and scouring sands, is unmistakably human. Unmistakable, too, are the signs of a violent death: massive fractures from the blunt force of a weapon wielded by another human. The shattered cranium is one of several from a site in Kenya known as Nataruk, where, long ago, a band of hunter-gatherers met its end. Described i ...read more
Armadillos are expanding their range northward. Armadillos roamed the Western Hemisphere during the Ice Age. But by the time naturalist John James Audubon first noted their presence in 1854, the mammals had just a tiny toehold north of the U.S.-Mexico border along Texas’ hot Rio Grande Valley, with a broader range across Mexico and countries farther south. Since then, armadillos have been ceaselessly marching north and east, with scientists citing climate change as a likely factor. Th ...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
Tracing each illness back to the start of symptoms, Frankovich has managed to find clusters: groups of children from the same school or neighborhood who had all come down with the condition in the same month; individuals with a true, physical connection, like the family of three brothers Swedo had studied years before. In the course of her investigation, a host of alternate infections have emerged: not just strep, but bacterial mycoplasma, influenza, sinusitis, pneumonia and others. By 2015, Fra ...read more
10. On Saturn itself, as well as Jupiter, droplets of helium rain may fall from the gas giants’ outer layers toward the interior, according to research published in 2010 in Physical Review Letters. 11. But nowhere on Earth, Saturn or anywhere else has it rained cats and dogs. There’s a flood of theories about the origin of the popular saying, which was first recorded in the mid-17th century. 12. Some etymologists think the phrase refers to dead animals washed into the streets after a ...read more
Russian-born entrepreneur co-founded the Breakthrough science prize. Yuri Milner was pretty much destined to do something in science. Born in Moscow in November 1961, he was named after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who, about six months earlier, had become the first person to venture into outer space. Inspired by Carl Sagan and others, Milner majored in physics at Moscow State University. Then, in the middle of earning a Ph.D. in particle physics, he quit. Eventually, he started his own i ...read more
Modern Death: How Medicine Changed the End of LifeBy Haider Warraich Extreme Measures: Finding a Better Path to the End of LifeBy Jessica Nutik Zitter Two physicians, each gifted, thoughtful observers, tackle a subject that’s rarely discussed ahead of the event: death. Zitter, whose work in an Oakland ICU was the subject of the recent Netflix documentary Extremis, has a deft directness. She presents multiple perspectives — the anxious family, a confused patient, clashing opinions bet ...read more
A healthy man in his 30s starts lifting weights, and his physical condition worsens. Jay, a physician in his early 30s, was a healthy guy who ran 6 miles a day, loved nature and animals, and spent free time hiking and biking. One summer, he decided to start weight training. The problem started simply. He had finished a training session at the gym, doing upper and lower body exercises with barbells and finishing with sit-ups. A few days later, he felt more sore than usual. “My neck fee ...read more
