LabX Media Group has acquired Discover magazine and its comprehensive digital platform, DiscoverMagazine.com, from Kalmbach Media Co. The addition of Discover to LabX’s portfolio strengthens its position as a leading voice in science and research media, bringing one of the most recognized science publications into its family. "We’re excited to bring Discover into LabX Media Group," said LabX Media Group President Bob Kafato. “This acquisition aligns with our mission to provide insightful, ...read more

To paraphrase Joyce Kilmer, you’ll never see an article as lovely as a tree, but this one should inspire you to go out and not only see trees, but help scientists working to understand and protect them. You’ll track down endangered trees for TreeSnap; monitor urban trees for ISeaTree; learn about trees with the Girl Scout Tree Promise project; spy on woodpeckers making their homes in trees with Woodpecker Cavity Cam; and help NASA and the GLOBE program discover how much carbon trees are capt ...read more

We all know what happens when we assume. Turns out that saying rings true for the folks who thought they understood the nature of the Pompeii residents killed in 79 C.E. after Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried, then preserved their bodies in ash.The conventional wisdom held that Pompeii’s residents were wealthy Romans — either on holiday or enjoying their second home. That notion appears to be very, very wrong, according to a study in Current Biology.DNA Shows Diverse BackgroundsResearchers ex ...read more

The planet Jupiter has no solid ground – no surface like the grass or dirt you tread here on Earth. There’s nothing to walk on, and no place to land a spaceship.But how can that be? If Jupiter doesn’t have a surface, what does it have? How can it hold together?Even as a professor of physics who studies all kinds of unusual phenomena, I realize the concept of a world without a surface is difficult to fathom. Yet much about Jupiter remains a mystery, even as NASA’s robotic probe Juno begin ...read more

Life in the digital world can be rewarding. It’s convenient to order groceries for pickup, share photographs or music, and keep in touch with family and friends, no matter the distance. However, it can also be draining. The feeling of being constantly “on” and productive has driven people to reconsider their balance in the saturated digital world.More than 70% of American adults are concerned about how technology affects their mental health and personal relationships. This worry is reinfor ...read more

It’s important to use the right words when writing about writing.Scholars studying the history of it distinguish between pre-writing symbols used to mark objects and more precise marks that establish an exact correspondence between sign and sound; script and language are not the same thing.A new study in Antiquities illustrates the transition from printed symbol to written word — a metamorphosis that lead author Silvia Ferrara, a philology researcher from the University of Bologna calls “f ...read more

While there are hundreds of adorable animals across the globe, Discover Magazine narrowed this list down to 20 of the cutest animals that exist today. From cuddly rodents to happy amphibians to waddling birds, enjoy these delightful animals. 1. Red Panda(Credit: seaonweb/Shutterstock) Native to the eastern Himalayas, red pandas are more closely related to raccoons than the giant panda. Although these forest dwellers have extremely cute faces, their colorful facial markings have a purpose — hel ...read more

For thousands of years, gazing upward was how astronomers studied the sky above. On a clear night, several planets in our solar system were visible without a telescope. However, as telescopes increased in sophistication, astronomers discovered more planets, confirming the eight in our solar system. As technology continues to progress, though, could we uncover a new one? Astrophysicists don’t know if there are undiscovered planets in our solar system, but new technologies are enabling researche ...read more

By some estimates, about 3,000 dead satellites are orbiting Earth, and around 34,000 pieces of space junk have been left behind by humans. Wherever humans go, we always leave a trace.  And it’s an even bigger problem in space because it takes much longer to decompose and does nothing but muck up the place, says Jack Gabit, an associate professor of physics at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. As humans go back to the moon and aim to travel to Mars, the more people that visit space, t ...read more

Some of the most famous and best-preserved dinosaur fossils were thought to have been suspended in time due to a massive volcanic event like the Mt. Vesuvius eruption that literally froze Pompeii in stone.But the cause of those dinos’ demise was likely much more mundane — collapsing animal burrows, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Incredibly Preserved FossilsTwo perfectly articulated skeletons of the sheep-size dinosaur Psittacosaurus, found in Chin ...read more