The first woolly mammoths were warm, but the last woolly mammoths were warmer. In fact, a paper published in Current Biology states that the most famous features of the woolly mammoths, including their fluffy fur, intensified throughout their 700,000-year stint in Siberia.Love Dalén, one of the authors of the paper, poses with the Yuka mammoth, whose genome was included in the analyses. (Credit: Ian Watts)Woolly, Woolly, Woolier The token trait of the woolly mammoth, its fur, allowed the specie ...read more

If you regularly ignored a playground’s monkey bars, seesaw and slide — and instead made a beeline straight to the merry-go-round — you’re likely familiar with the intoxicatingly dizzy feeling that accompanies a good spin session.The light-headedness may come with a touch of vertigo, causing the world to tilt around you, or even bring on feelings of sudden elation. Sufi whirling dervishes take advantage of these effects, in fact, as a form of meditation and to induce spiritual experience ...read more

Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor in the solar system, has for a long time remained shrouded in a cloud of mystery — literally. The planet is ensconced in a thick, dense carbon dioxide atmosphere that obstructs our direct view of its surface.Recently, however, planetary scientists have made new discoveries about the geography of Venus, which suggest the planet has at least 85,000 volcanoes on its surface (and potentially even more smaller volcanoes). The research is bringing us closer to u ...read more

In Liu Cixin’s famous science fiction series The Three Body Problem, human beings make first contact with the Trisolarans – an alien civilization incapable of deception or lying because they broadcast their thoughts. This ability creates a deep mistrust of human beings on behalf of the Trisolarans, as our thoughts and agendas are private to our own subjective reality. Human beings have no foolproof way to know if someone is telling the truth. Sometimes our intuition can give us clues; strang ...read more

People stop their cars simply because a little light turns from green to red. They crowd onto buses, trains and planes with complete strangers, yet fights seldom break out. Large, strong men routinely walk right past smaller, weaker ones without demanding their valuables. People pay their taxes and donate to food banks and other charities.Most of us give little thought to these everyday examples of cooperation. But to biologists, they’re remarkable — most animals don’t behave that way.“E ...read more

Bronze Age humans, 3,000 years ago, got high on hallucinogenic plant alkaloids so powerful and dangerous that even psychedelic users of today avoid them, according to a new study. The humans may have had out-of-body experiences or thought they were growing fur or feathers as a result of consuming the anticholinergic substances atropine or scopolamine. Symptoms would have started more mildly with dilated pupils, dry skin and a racing heart. As the trip set in, the user would have experienced full ...read more

Vestigial structures are body parts that we've evolved to no longer need. The natural selection process dictates that we keep the traits that continue to serve a purpose while the others become functionless or degenerate. Here are five vestigial body parts.  1. AppendixIn humans, this organ dates back almost 80 million years and helped by our ancestors to digest tough plants and vegetables. Located in the lower right part of the intestine, the appendix is approximately 3.5 inches long and les ...read more

[embedded content]Male fiddler crabs attract mates by waving around comically oversized pincers, the same ones they use to threaten other potential suitors. Male elk leech calcium from their very bones to grow antlers that weigh as much as coffee tables. There are countless other examples of big horns and big swagger: The African Buffalo, the Striped Love Beetle, the Capra Ibex.Isn't there an easier way for sex relations to sort themselves out in the animal kingdom?Such horns and claws, accordin ...read more

This story appeared in the May 2020 issue and was published on the web on April 17, 2020. Subscribe to Discover magazine for more stories like this. The article has since been updated. Powerful Facts About Trees You Never Knew 1. I think that I shall never see an organism as vital as a tree. Without these woody, perennial members of the plant kingdom, we might still be squirming around the seafloor.2. About 400 million years ago, early trees transformed terrestrial environments by reducing atmo ...read more

Isabelle Lousada was in her early 30s when she collapsed at her Philadelphia wedding in 1995. A London architect, she had suffered a decade of mysterious symptoms: tingling fingers, swollen ankles, a belly distended by her enlarged liver. The doctors she first consulted suggested she had chronic fatigue syndrome or that she’d been partying and drinking too hard.But her new brother-in-law, a cardiologist, felt that something else must be going on. A fresh series of doctor’s visits led, finall ...read more