Quest for a Peaceful Death
A cancer doctor studies the connection between spirituality and end-of-life care. ...read more
Category: Discover Magazine
The Beetle, the Bird and the Tamarisk Tree
Ecologists seek balance as one non-native species eradicates another. ...read more
Antibiotics: Stay the Course?
Researchers debate whether we should finish our antibiotic prescription. ...read more
The Secret History of the Vikings
New DNA-driven research reveals untold stories—and stirs controversy. ...read more
A Professor’s DIY Spacesuit
Cameron Smith will put his suit — and his life — on the line at 50,000 feet. ...read more
No Easy Fix
A 40-year-old woman transforms her life after weight-loss surgery, only to see the pounds return and her life spiral downward. ...read more
Taking a Dim View
Astronomers learned to see beyond the Milky Way's glare into a hidden realm of faint galaxies. ...read more
The American South's Deadly Diet
To test his diet theory, Goldberger supplied what he called “a diet such as that enjoyed by well-to-do people” — meat, milk and vegetables — to two Mississippi orphanages and an asylum. Pellagra rates there plummeted. His next quest: to induce pellagra in healthy subjects. In 1915, with pardons in hand from Mississippi’s progressive governor, Goldberger recruited 12 healthy volunteers at the Rankin State Prison Farm to eat the three Ms diet. Within the six-month tri ...read more
Mass Extinctions Might Come From Below
New research ties mass extinctions to the rocks beneath our feet. ...read more
Man’s Chronic Pain Disappears After Vigorous, Cold-Water Swim
Those polar plunge nuts—you know, the people who strip to their skivvies in February and jump into freezing water—might be on to something. According to doctors from the United Kingdom, a 28-year-old man who had been complaining of persistent, post-operative pain was cured after jumping into incredibly cold water for a vigorous 60-second, intense swim. Roughly two months prior to his swim, the man had undergone an endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy procedure to treat his severe facia ...read more