It was called "The City of Darkness" — a place so densely constructed that light itself did not penetrate the narrow footpaths between its high rises. For several decades in the second half of the 20th century, the Kowloon Walled City — an enclave within the sprawling city of Hong Kong — was far and away the most densely populated place in the world. By the late 1980s, at least 30,000 people were living inside, in a space only 6.4 acres in size, or roughly 0.01 of a square mile.That transl ...read more

In 1978, Kathy Kleiner was asleep in her bed at the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University when serial killer Ted Bundy entered through an unlocked door. After attacking two of her sorority sisters, Bundy found Kathy's door also unlocked.Kathy survived the attack and is one of only a few Bundy survivors. When we began writing her memoir, A Light in the Dark: Surviving More Than Ted Bundy, she said she wanted to weave in as many stories about the other victims as possible.For abou ...read more

A creature that lurks in lakes and ponds, crawls up your nose and eats your brain. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? Nope, it's all too real.The organism that does all this damage is called Naegleria fowleri. Find out why this sneaky predator is alarming to both scientists and the general public.What Is Naegleria fowleri?Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba that lives in warm freshwater, such as lakes, ponds and rivers. There are many species of Naegleria, and most of t ...read more

Four hundred fifty-five million years ago, Earth was a hot place with high sea levels that had flooded many of the landmasses, including what would later become North America. This spreading ocean was exploding with new life, such as the bony-plated fish that still stand as some of the oldest-known vertebrates.When they died, some became buried in the sediment that covered the ocean floor and fossilized, to be discovered later by paleontologists living in a drier time. One such find, from ancien ...read more

Pretty much everyone knows what a phobia is: an extreme and unreasoning fear or aversion to something. While there are hundreds of known phobias, some of the most common include claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights) and aquaphobia (fear of water).But if aquaphobia is an aversion to water, then what is hydrophobia? After all, it means fear of water, too. So which term is correct?The answer, oddly enough, is both. But if you were fo ...read more

We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect — sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami and salty. But the real number is actually six, because we have two separate salt-taste systems. One of them detects the attractive, relatively low levels of salt that make potato chips taste delicious. The other one registers high levels of salt — enough to make overly salted food offensive and deter overconsumption.Exactly how our taste buds sense the two kinds of saltiness is a mystery that’s ...read more

The Science Near Me blog is a partnership between Discover magazine and ScienceNearMe.org.Humans are naturally curious, and our knack for tinkering has led to some of the world’s greatest inventions. But even if we don’t see ourselves as inventors, getting hands-on with technology, old and new, can be an enriching and educational experience (plus, it’s just plain fun!).In fact, so many people love tinkering and creating that there’s an entire culture dedicated to it, called the maker mov ...read more

People in the oldest stage of life who regularly engage in aerobic activities and strength training exercises perform better on cognitive tests than those who are either sedentary or participate only in aerobic exercise. That is the key finding of our new study, published in the journal GeroScience.We assessed 184 cognitively healthy people ranging in age from 85 to 99. Each participant reported their exercise habits and underwent a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests that were de ...read more

Caterpillars have evolved over millions of years to defend themselves against predators. Over those years of evolution, the insect larvae have split into different geneses that sport vibrant colors, mesmerizing shapes and sharp thorns of distinctive tints and sizes.Learn more about the diverse venomous caterpillars worldwide and their tactics to survive from attacking predators.Are Caterpillars Poisonous?While some caterpillars don't show spikes at all, they advertise their toxicity with their s ...read more

It can be challenging to create a treatment plan for depression. This is especially true for patients who aren’t responding to conventional treatments and are undergoing experimental therapies such as deep brain stimulation. For most medical conditions, doctors can directly measure the part of the body that is being treated, such as blood pressure for cardiovascular disease. These measurable changes serve as an objective biomarker of recovery that provides valuable information about how to c ...read more