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

Nothing ages worse than the Facebook post you made 16 years ago. While those posts or photos may have been trendy or show how you were feeling at the time, more often than not, you’re likely going to cringe or even feel shame when revisiting the memory.As it turns out, the twinge of shame from regretting a social media post is common. According to a 2015 YouGov survey, 57 percent of Americans report regret over a post or text they’ve made on social media, with 16 percent regretting a post as ...read more

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), often referred to as "zombie deer disease," has been steadily spreading through deer populations across North America for decades. This fatal neurological disease, a prion-based affliction similar to mad cow disease, causes infected animals to waste away, lose coordination, and display eerie, zombie-like symptoms. But could this deadly disease one day make the jump to humans? While no human cases of CWD have been confirmed to date, growing concerns over its spread ...read more

The annual dog costume contest was beginning at my block party. I popped out of my house without my hearing aids and cheered on the winners, a husky dressed as a bumble bee and a labradoodle in a wizard’s robe.   Afterward, I chatted with a few friends until one admitted she could barely hear me. I live in a quiet world, and without my hearing aids in, I tend to be even more soft-spoken. It was a good reminder that I needed to wear my hearing aids.I’m not the only one who needs a reminder ...read more