This article contains affiliate links to products. Discover may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.Is your body too hot to sleep? You’re not alone. In fact, studies have shown that up to 41% of all people are hot sleepers. Turns out that the brain can’t regulate body temperature during REM sleep, and allowing the sleeping environment to become too warm (or cold) can disturb slumber during that stage. And while according to research, it helps to set the thermos ...read more

Much of the coverage of the wildfire that destroyed the Maui city of Lahaina on Aug. 8 labels it the deadliest wildfire “in modern American history” or “in America in over a century.” With 115 people known dead and dozens still missing, it’s hard to grasp what a worse fire could look like.But on the evening of Oct. 8, 1871, the deadliest wildfire in recorded world history burned through 1.5 million acres of northern Wisconsin. By the next day, the booming town of Peshtigo had been anni ...read more

In our fast-paced modern lives, we are increasingly encouraged to stop and focus on the present. And there are tangible advantages.Studies on the effects of mindfulness and meditation — practices that gear people’s cognitive capacities towards the present moment — have pointed to reduced stress, increased focus and less emotional reactivity.As a result, mindfulness has become a billion-dollar industry that promises to alleviate all manner of psychological ills.However, Anna-Lisa Cohen, a p ...read more

When and where did our ancestors first fashion footwear? We cannot look to physical evidence of shoes for the answer, as the perishable materials from which they were made would no longer be evident. Ichnology, the study of fossil tracks and traces, can help to answer this unresolved question through a search for clear evidence of footprints made by humans who were shod – that is, wearing some kind of foot covering.But this is no simple endeavour, as our research team from the Cape south coas ...read more

Research involving human embryos is famously difficult and fraught with ethical quandaries, but a new synthetically derived model could open new doors in the study of infertility and birth defects.The model comes from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and follows years of research by labs around the world into producing a similar clump of cells. The team led by professor Jacob Hanna claims that their latest iteration is the most advanced so far and contains all the hallmarks of a human ...read more

Alzheimer’s takes a toll on its patients. As the disease progresses, a person’s personality deteriorates, and so, too, does their judgement, their memory, and their motor skills. But a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia affects much more than the individual who is diagnosed. That’s because the disease fosters feelings of fear and loss for the family, friends, and loved ones who witness its destruction, while also causing concerns for those same individuals about their own futures with the ...read more

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has brought us marvelous images of whirlpool galaxies, supernovas and even questionable space phenomena. But building and getting the device operational was an incredible feat of science, involving hundreds of people from all around the world and three space agencies.What Is the James Webb Space Telescope? The telescope isn’t on this planet — it orbits the sun. The JWST was launched on December 25, 2021, at 7:20 a.m. EST. In total, it weighs more than 1 ...read more

In 1914, the biggest story in newspapers across the U.S. was the world war that had recently broken out in Europe with a big question mark hanging over whether the U.S. would take part. The same story dominated the U.S. newspapers in 1915, 1917 and 1918. But in 1916, another story captured the attention of the American public, one that is much less well known today.In that year, the U.S. Army entered Mexico in pursuit of a Mexican paramilitary force that had attacked the town of Columbus in New ...read more

In recent years, scientists have puzzled over a particular class of transients – bursts of intense X-rays and light shot from distant galactic centers. Now, astronomers have discovered a new X-ray transient and are offering an explanation for these outbursts. The new find – located at the center of a galaxy some 500 million light-years away – is early fruit for a new transient detection system that feeds off data produced by the Swift Observatory X-ray telescope.What Are Transients?Astrono ...read more